All language subtitles for The.Real.Wolf.of.Wall.Street.Ep02.More Money More Problems.WEB-DL

Getting to Jordan's
bachelor party--

I don't remember
what year it was.

It was probably '89, '90.

We all met at JFK,
25-30 people.

There used to be
old vending machines

where you could get soup.

And the head degenerate
explained to us

at 6:00 in the morning,
the warmth of the soup

helps the effect
of the quaalude.

We all start the first
round of quaaludes.

By the time we
get on the plane,

we're already feeling no pain.

At Stratton,
we live in our own world.

We call the shots.

Nothing affected us
from the outside.

During the flight,
there's a whole bunch of people

snorting coke on the plane.

The flight there
alone was a bacchanal.

This is a scene from
"The Wolf of Wall Street."

They get it right,
but they're a little premature

because there were
no prostitutes on the plane.

However, once we
got to Las Vegas,

there was an abundance of them.

There were girls
running around naked.

There were beautiful girls,

there were drop-dead
ugly girls,

guys who were having
sex on a table.

It was insanity.

I do remember
walking through the suite

and fucking at the same time.

You know, like passing lanes
on a highway.

In the middle
of the bachelor party,

there was one particular guy

and he had a great
quaalude slur.

I'm going
to get under this glass table,

put my mouth up to the table,
and one of you whores

are going to take a shit
on the table.

Thus, it will appear

as if they're
shitting in my mouth.

Within seven seconds,
there was a taker.

It was all about drugs,
hookers, and money.

We call the rules.

This is fucking Stratton.

Whoo!

Right.

Let me just find it.

Here it is.

Jordan, he's sitting on a
cooler and was slightly stoned.

Just watch and observe.

Oops.

He was on quaaludes trying
to get his sea feet back on

and we weren't even moving.

We were at the dock.

He loved being stoned.

So that's Jordan.

And that's the Duchess.

That's Nadine.

Hey.

Nadine was a beautiful girl,
good personality.

She was on commercials.

I lived on Long Island.
I took up horseback riding.

I think I'm Martha Stewart.

I take cooking classes
I take wine classes.

If I'm going to buy a bottle
of wine that's $2,000,

I want to know if
it's a grape or a place.

If I'm going to buy a chair,

I want to know if
it's Louis XIV or Louis XVI.

I think Jordan was
definitely living his dream,

and I was one
of his merry men.

Some crazy, wild times.

This is the video cruising
around Newport, Rhode Island.

We took the helicopter
off the yacht.

And these are all
the mansions in Newport.

In the early '90s,
Jordan started

living a lifestyle that
I didn't even know existed

other than to rock stars
and rappers

that made millions
and millions of dollars.

Hi!
Nice to meet you!

♪ Yow! ♪

Oh, my god.

There's no words
for what a big spender he was.

And yeah, it was fun.

But I didn't realize
it was a trap.

♪ Hey! ♪

Jordan's success
and his possessions

and everything drove everyone
at Stratton

to get motivated to make more.

That was another thing
to aspire to.

I immediately said
to myself, Howie,

if you don't
make $100,000 a month,

you need to take a rifle,

put it in your mouth,
and pull the trigger.

At the beginning
of Stratton,

we were really dealing
in penny stocks.

Then it was time
to raise the bar.

We started getting involved in
the initial public offering,

an IPO.

So that part of the movie
was accurate.

An IPO is an initial
public offering.

It's the first time a stock
is offered for sale

to the general population.

Bill Gates is about $200
million richer this morning.

Microsoft hit a new
record high on Wall Street.

Just think if you'd bought
Apple when it first started.

Just think if you had
bought Microsoft.

Young folks who are
in their 20s go, why not me?

People just wanted
to get in on IPOs

because it was a way
of just making a killing.

You could triple your money
in a day.

Jordan Belfort
became famous for IPOs

that just seemed
too good to be true,

but it was so complicated
that it was hard to make sense

of what these deals were
all about.

And what I wanted to do was to
kind of look under the hood.

So I just filed a Freedom
of Information Act request.

The records make it clear that
these Stratton Oakmont-related

IPOs were pump and dumps.

The pump and dump was
basically the company

buys inventory of a stock...

At a very low price...

manipulates it to
a much higher price.

Now we pick up a phone and
sell a security to investors.

That drove the stock up
even higher.

After manipulating
the stock...

Dump it on the market.
Sell, sell, sell.

Now we all dump the stock.

The firms profited.

The stock crashed.

And eventually,
most of the clients...

lost everything.

That was your classic
pump and dump.

So you've got a whole
bunch of young kids

who knew nothing
about the business

on the phone all day trying
to push a particular IPO.

There was a rumor
we were taking

grandmother's
Social Security money.

We want people who are rich.
That's the guy you want.

The narrative at the time

was that we only contact
high net worth individuals.

You had to at least
make $100,000 a year,

be worth at least
a half a million to a million,

and be in the stock market.

The "business model"

wasn't turning a virgin
into a hooker.

It was turning
someone that already fucks

into a real hooker.

I got a call
from Stratton Oakmont.

He had an IPO called
Computer Marketplace.

And he said, oh,
we got this big IPO coming out

and all our customers
are millionaires.

And you know, you stick
with us, you'll be fine.

And so I agreed to buy that.

Probably going to say
it was $30,000 range, I think.

And how did he make
Computer Marketplace sound?

Oh, it was
an amazing company.

You watch.

It's going to be worth
ten times what it is,

you know, today.

And they had all the
right things to say.

They were very professional,
you know?

They often paint the picture
that they're going after

you know,
wealthy business owners.

Does that describe yourself?

No, I was just--I owned
and operated a restaurant.

I worked hard and did OK,

but I wasn't in the league--
in that league, you know?

They knew all the right buttons
to push.

Ya know, before you knew it,
you're in.

Stratton Oakmont was about
kill, kill, Make the money.

There are no concerns
for investors at all.

Did you realize, like,
hey, this is absolute fraud?

Like, this is a
pump and dump scheme?

No. No, 'cause first of all,
I don't--

again, I'm 23 years old.

I don't understand anything
about the stock market.

I mean, I certainly
thought it was wild

how they could can
make so much money.

I was much more focused
on my relationship with him.

Was there a moment
when you realized,

we might be doing
something wrong here?

You don't think like that.

Well, you know,
I'm doing something wrong here.

I wanted to believe the lie,
be honest.

I was blinded by the lifestyle.

And, uh...

God took care of me
in his own way.

You got married--
you said 25? 26?

We got married,
I think I was 23.

So I met him at 22.
- Oh, it was fast.

Six months later,
we were engaged.

Six months later,
we were married.

The night before our wedding,
we got into a rip-roaring fight

because I'm pregnant, because I
got pregnant before my wedding,

and he's wasted the whole time.

And I'm furious.

And I'm like,
are you fucking kidding me?

I'm giving you
everything you want,

and this is how
you're behaving?

And then I had 250 people

coming to the
Malliouhana Hotel in Anguilla.

So I was like, OK.

Jordan flew me from
California to Anguilla,

puts me up in a gorgeous room.

For a guy who came from
a middle-class neighborhood,

it was pretty incredible, honestly.

Everybody was there.

Rob LoRusso, Howie Gelfand,
all the top brokers.

I mean, what can I say?
It was a fairy tale.

This is a scene from
"The Wolf of Wall Street."

- Kiss the bride.
- This is their wedding.

This is the lovely couple
dancing at their wedding,

which I really don't recall

because I think everyone
had been too fucked up already.

You know, I do a video
about this on TikTok.

Put on my dress.

I showed up
with a smile on my face.

Yet inside,
I was deeply, deeply sad.

You might even see that
in my eyes in the picture.

And I put myself into therapy.

I was smart enough
to know that.

And I think she helped me
really stay sane.

So you come back, now
you're married to this guy.

Like, you knew he worked
on Wall Street.

Yeah.

But I think
I only went to the office,

honestly, like,
one or two other times.

I'm sure I was kept away
from the office on purpose.

He's just
controlling everything.

Jordan realized that in
order to manipulate a stock,

you couldn't manipulate it
just by your one firm.

You had to be--the word that
I use is "cahoots."

You had to be in bed
with other firms.

And then in one of the big
seminal events of my life,

I was called into
Jordan's office along with

one of the junior partners.

And they asked us

if we would like to own
our own brokerage firm

in South Florida.

We could work closely,
or in cahoots,

with Stratton
and do deals together

to make a lot of money.

I was a single guy, so for me,

it wasn't a difficult decision
to move down there.

I didn't have a family
to consider,

so I said, yeah,
it sounds good to me.

Whoo!

And we opened
our own brokerage firm

called Biltmore
in South Florida.

We were doing IPOs

and we were training
our brokers the same way.

So as Stratton Oakmont's
ambitions grew,

they launch other firms.

Biltmore,

Monroe Parker.

And they appear to be
kind of independent,

but they're all connected
to Stratton Oakmont.

So what we would do
is we would fly into New York

on private jets.

We'd meet Danny and Jordan
for dinner.

We would discuss
an upcoming IPO.

We would lay out a strategy
of how to set the prices.

We would have two, three,
four different companies.

That was our cartel.

You're not allowed
to conspire to set a price,

but that's what we were doing.

That is all illegal.

On an IPO day,
the boardroom was insanity.

Things were being
thrown around.

People were screaming.

I made almost $800,000
in commissions

in, like, 15 minutes.

My income was $130,000
to $140,000 a month.

All of a sudden,

we were loaded
and powerful and famous.

IPOs were huge moneymakers,
not to be minimized.

It was like a dream.

It enabled me to
help my father,

enabled me to help my sister,

enabled me to break up
my girlfriend,

give her $5,000 a month
out of guilt.

I guess the nice
part about it,

you know, when my
parents were alive,

I spoiled them to death.

Not literally.

My father was my best friend.

I threw him a surprise 60th
at Caesars in Atlantic City.

I was able to
retire my father.

And I bought him a house
next to his best friend.

I gave my father
5,000 a month.

A lot of people got
$5,000 a month from me.

I was a hot bachelor.

I used to get cold calls
from mothers of Jewish girls

to set to date
their daughters.

Everyone's life around me

had kind of depended on me
pulling in this kind of money.

I became the chairman
of the Miami City Ballet.

And I was on the board of the
Museum of Contemporary Art.

And it was a very
exciting life.

Since we all knew
that what we were doing

was potentially illegal,
it was a closed society.

We socialized together.
We had a lot of fun together.

We went on vacations together.

We spent a lot of time
as friends, families.

He would take people on trips.

And a lot of our friends
were friends.

You know,
that was the fun part.

Like, we would all
hang out together

with our husbands
and our kids.

I had a child.

My daughter was born in 1994.

Jordan and Nadine
had Chandler.

I think she was born in '93.

So the kids played together.
The kids grew up together.

You know, great memories
were made on that boat.

Happy New Year's!

There were parties
with spouses.

Then there was the
other partying

where the wives
weren't present.

One time, Jordan said,
we're going on a road trip.

We're going to the yacht.
It was nine guys.

One of Jordan's mottos
were, just remember,

hookers are not cheating.

I was told that they were
going to bring in hookers.

Jordan flew in
13 hookers on this yacht,

and there were nine guys.

It was chaos.

The drugs were going around.

There was one scene
that I will never forget.

The captain said to me,
Ross, you gotta see this.

I look into Jordan's bedroom

and I see these
two beautiful women

with Jordan
in between them naked.

And you could see the drool

and you could see
the look on his face.

And these girls are trying
to get him aroused.

And we're dying of laughter.

So it got to the point where
we went down to Jordan's room

and Jordan's--

Tell them I have a big cock.

So I turn to these
beautiful naked girls.

By the way, girls,
Jordan really has a big cock.

A lot of these guys partied
with these hookers a lot.

Wherever there were just
the guys, there were girls.

They went out to dinner,
there were girls.

It was a very male,
testosterone-y environment.

It was a frat house.

The culture at
Stratton was very much

designed in the pursuit
of the pleasures of men.

Part of that was a healthy
little dose of sexism.

So Stratton Oakmont
is making tons of money

and living the lives
of millionaires.

But when investors
want to sell the stock,

Stratton Oakmont
often refuses,

knowing that this stock
is going to crash.

The broker hears from
the client, I want to sell.

I want to sell 10,000 shares
of ABC.

OK.

He writes out a sell ticket.

We just ripped up
the fucking piece of paper.

I mean, it doesn't get
much more illegal than that.

Do you know how
much you bought?

It was like $72,000, which
was a lot of money back then.

I'm just a blue-collar worker.

You know, that was all
the money I had at the time.

Couldn't get a hold of anybody
to sell everything.

And I says, oh, my god.
I says, this is bad.

Eh, we're not getting
the money back.

That's when
I decided I'd get the lawyer.

I went to the lawyer,

explained to him
what happened,

and I went to arbitration.

An arbitration is basically,

you're getting sued for
doing illegal activities

that cost our client
a lot of money.

I got so many arbitrations

that I can't tell you
how many I got.

At arbitration, they said,
oh, he's a multi-millionaire,

you know, and he makes all
this money a year and stuff.

And it wasn't accurate

because Stratton Oakmont had
altered the original document

when I opened the account.

They had inflated
my net worth.

They had inflated
my annual salary.

He sold Dr. Pepper and
he bought this SMT Healthcare?

I said, I didn't
authorize that.

You know, they had
forged paperwork and stuff.

We had three days
of arbitration.

We won the case.

When the
arbitration check came,

I went to the lawyer,
naturally,

tried to pay his fees,
his expenses.

I wound up getting

if I remember--
you know, it wasn't very much.

And you know,
I had three children

and college expenses,
et cetera.

We'd use it for
my family, for the future.

It's gone, you know?

Stratton Oakmont loses.

But at the end of the day,

the result of an arbitration
is you pay a fine.

Ultimately, this just becomes

the cost of doing business
for Stratton Oakmont.

And Jordan's attitude
was the cost, really,

it's just part of the business,
almost like a store has,

you know, 3% theft included
in their revenues.

I don't think he
was even concerned

with the audits and the
compliance part of it.

Because I remember he said,

the longer I keep it open,
the more I'm going to make,

so I'll just keep
paying my way through this.

He would get
a slap on the hand.

I think one of the fines
was $1 million.

$1 million was a lot of money,

but not when you're taking in
tens of millions of dollars.

I went to Las Vegas to do an
arbitration and it was great.

I don't remember
whether I won or lost,

but I spent two weeks
in Vegas.

I flew out my little
niece and nephew.

They were younger at the time.

And we had
the time of our lives.

And that was the ethos that
existed within our ecosystem.

If you got the power,
you can do

whatever the hell you want
to do and the laws don't apply.

Didn't take long
for arbitrations

to start coming in.

Typical firm would get
maybe a handful a year.

We were getting much more
than a handful.

That alerted
the authorities

it's time to really look into
what these guys are doing.

I happened to pick up
the newspaper

and I notice that
there's an article

about the SEC
investigating Stratton Oakmont.

Jordan called me right after
the article appeared

and said,
I need to talk to you.

I said, where the
fuck have you been?

Now you're under
full investigation.

Like in Scorsese's movie,
we set them up in a room.

I had it bugged

and the air conditioning
turned up so high

that it felt like Antarctica
in there.

The scene in the movie
with the temperature, um,

I didn't witness that,
but I believe that.

Jordan continuously
felt invincible.

I had to run reports

and I knew all these
investigations were going on.

And it was almost like

a "Catch Me If You Can"
environment.

We were, like, trying
to stay ahead all the time.

The SEC was kind of
really, you know,

ironical about the SEC
'cause they were not

the sharpest tools in the shed.

I never had much respect
for them at all.

The attitude was
screw the SEC.

Hire a lawyer and let them
take care of it, whatever.

Quite frankly,
without being pejorative,

it was totally slow-moving
and terribly ineffective.

Hi.

Whenever news came across,
it was quickly dispelled

as bullshit, it's bullshit,
it's bullshit.

We were convinced that
we were untouchable.

Few weeks ago,
I went with my son to polo

and there was a sweater
with a teddy bear.

And it was 250
and I fucking didn't buy it.

Back then,
I never looked at a price tag.

I just bought it.

At the time, side note,

I was dating the shot girl
from Scores,

a very, very high-end
strip bar.

Everyone I've gone out with
since the beginning of time

has just been one smoke show
after another.

So this is called
the Miracle Mile.

And why?

Because if you can afford
to shop here,

it's a fucking miracle.

It is every high-end brand.

Ralph Lauren,
Christian Dior, Gucci.

There's Tiffany.

Back then, I bought
500 bars of Tiffany soap

because I liked it.

Rolex, that was my go-to store

because I had
a addiction to watches.

I amassed $300,000 to $400,000

in watches.

I'd buy stuff that you
would never, ever buy.

I bought a $1,600
Gianni Versace soap tray.

I still have it and look
at it and go, what the fuck?

Who buys a $1,600 soap dish?

Took a limo everywhere.

People used to tease me,
what do you do,

take a limo to the mailbox,
you know?

They had a tailor
that would come

and do custom suits
for people.

We used to jump on
a helicopter to play golf,

come back the same day.

I was on probably
five or six yachts

before Jordan bought
the actual yacht, "Nadine."

Jordan had it lengthened
by 25 feet

so he could put a heliport
on top of it.

We went to Monte Carlo.

I had wired in money

and we were there
for maybe a couple hours

and I won almost $1 million.

It was youth wasted on the
young to the utmost degree.

If it weren't so illegal,
what we were all engaged in,

it would have been something
I'd probably still be doing.

The SEC, they moved
relatively slowly.

But eventually,
the SEC picks up the phone,

calls somebody
in the U.S. Attorney's Office,

and says,
have I got a case for you.

They said no white shirt
and all of my...

I appreciate that.

Business shirts
are white shirts.

That's what J. Edgar told us.
Gotta wear the white shirt.

My name is Gregory Coleman.

I'm played by Kyle Chandler

in the movie
"The Wolf of Wall Street."

And you got the
beautiful girls here!

It's wonderful.
- All right.

Get the fuck off my boat.

Belfort had the good luck
of setting up shop

when the FBI
really wasn't focusing

on securities fraud cases.

But all of that changed
in 1992.

The FBI sets up a group of
agents designed to investigate

Wall Street-related crimes.

Because of that, it moves it
from the civil realm

where you're just suing people
and getting money

and barring them
from the business

to the criminal realm,

because now he could go
to jail for it.

The time and tested plan
in other criminal enterprises

is to really work your way up
from the bottom.

Pick off a couple of
low-level brokers was my idea.

During my investigation,
there was a group of brokers

who paid other people

to take the test
to become a licensed broker.

Their fingerprints were
found on those forms

many years after
the test-taking occurred.

That meant that
from day one,

they were never
properly licensed

to sell securities
to the public.

The brokers admitted to having
other people take their tests

and that gave us leverage.

We were taking the brokers that
we've--what we call flipped,

that are cooperating with us.

We just set them up
as witnesses

and then had them
feed us information

on a regular basis
as to what was going on.

When the SEC sues you,
you can pay a fine.

But when the FBI get involved,

that's the guys
with the windbreakers

with the letters on the back

and the guys who
have the guns.

That's what you don't want.

So now there are
all kinds of signs

that there's stuff
going on that's not good.

You start hearing clicks
on your phone.

You try to open up a bank
account and the bank says,

no, I'm afraid
we can't open an account.

What the hell's up with that?

One day, Jordan said, Ross,
we're going to play golf.

Helicopter would fly over

and he would look
at the helicopter

and goes--
and he would say to me,

oh, they're definitely
watching me.

I think he was
getting nervous.

And I think that's when
he got bodyguards, too.

Let's turn to your friend,
Jordan Belfort.

First of all,
he's not my friend.

He's a little punk.

He knows I don't like him.

My name is Bo Dietl.

My real name is Richard Dietl,

but Bo, I adopted when
I was 12 years old.

I did security for Jordan
and his family.

Marty Scorsese called me up.

He goes, who are we going
to get to play you?

I said, Marty,
I'm playing myself.

The last time you took
these fucking pills,

you put your head
in the fucking macaroni.

I had to pick it up.

How did you first
meet Jordan Belfort?

Well, it was--
I got a call from Dick Grasso.

Dick Grasso, at that time,

was the head of the
New York Stock Exchange.

He says, there's this company
in Lake Success.

The owner is this guy,
Jordan Belfort.

And he's being shaken down
by gangsters,

organized crime guys.

And he needs your help, Bo.

So go over and see him and
tell you tell him I sent you.

The organized crime guys,

they knew what kind of money
Jordan was making.

Prior to me coming there,
they had probably said to him,

Jordan, if you need some cash
to buy you this stuff,

we can lend you some cash.

But, you know,
once you let them in,

you can't get rid of 'em.

I gave my card to Jordan.

I said, when they come back,
just tell them to contact me.

I'll keep them away from you.

And then I would
get the phone call,

and oh, what are you
doing over there, Bo?

You know,
my boss told me to call you.

So we had to sit down.

And I told the guys,
look, guys,

tell your boss to call his boss
and ask who I am, OK?

And I knew everybody.
I grew up with all of them.

And I had a respect factor.

I grew up in Ozone Park.

I grew up with John Gotti,
the Scopo brothers.

I met Fat Tony Salerno driving
Scopo up to the Colonial.

So I knew everybody.

They're my friends,
so that's simple.

Let's just go somewhere else.

You know,
this one, I'm protecting.

I'm going to make money
doing the security here legit.

And that's it.

And I'm not going to let you
shake this place down.

That was the end of that.

Jordan had a nice-sized
piece of property.

That is portrayed
in the movie.

We had security
at his home 24/7.

I had Rocco day, Rocco night.

We even had two guards
who worked in shifts.

Both named Rocco.

We had the security
in his offices,

the place of business.

But Jordan was paranoid.

He was seriously
a paranoid little punk.

They're coming, they're coming.

Oh, he's looking
over his shoulder.

He was a constantly high,
constantly high.

Jordan, he was the guy
to dangle the carrot

in front of people's faces.

People knew that
he made a lot of money,

he had a lot of money.

Everybody wanted
a piece of that.

And now,
they were indebted to him.

So he controlled
people that way.

It was all about him
making that money.

I am a good guy
and I was a good guy,

but I got involved
in a very bad thing.

Once I knew it was full-blown
illegal, I had a real dilemma.

And I think that's what really
accelerated my drug use.

So it got to the point where

I needed to be stoned
to do what I was doing.

I would be so stoned
at the end of a day

that there was
no getting me up.

They would roll me

out of my office

out the doors

into my car.

Every time I got into a car,
I was never sober.

I crashed 17 cars.

I actually got the opportunity
to crash a Bentley

into the brick wall of
one of the most

famous steakhouses
in Long Island.

Now, one may ask, Howie,
how did you do that?

Oh, because in
my stoned head,

I thought
they had a drive-thru.

I was drinking
and doing quaaludes.

And I had a Ferrari
and I smashed it up.

It wasn't all fun and games.

You know, young guys,

and they think that's the
funniest thing in the world.

It's amazing that I'm alive.

It ate away at my soul.

And I can remember when
I was on substances

writing all the time,

when will World War III
in my head stop?

I had the real Howie
on this shoulder

do the right thing,
you're a good guy.

And on this shoulder...

go rob more money.
You'll love it.

As we went further
in an investigation,

I met a low-level broker who
we had leverage on

to become
a cooperating witness.

So this particular doc,
I'll just read you a section.

It says...

This is coming from sources.

Now you have to
go out and confirm

what the sources are saying.

So for me, I go out
and knock on doors.

Eight out of ten would tell me
to get off their porch

and the other two would tell me

to get the fuck off
their porch.

But I was never
going to give up.

I envisioned the bad guys
in a suit of armor.

And I just needed to get
into the suit of armor

and infect them
and then they would die.

I was going to latch on
to a leg and never let go

no matter how much they kicked
me and tried to push me away.

While the FBI was
struggling to make headway

in its investigation,
the SEC come to realize

through their own probe
into Stratton Oakmont

that this is a company
built on fraud,

manipulation, deception.

It all revolves
around Jordan Belfort.

The SEC was convinced
he was a bad guy,

he shouldn't be
in the business,

so Jordan had decided
he wasn't going to fight them.

Jordan took a settlement.

Jordan took a bar from
the securities business.

You're out. Lifetime.
You're out.

I knew the day would
eventually come where

I'd have to be moving on.

There's a scene out of
"The Wolf of Wall Street,"

the SEC barring him
from the industry.

He makes this rah-rah speech
that he ain't leaving.

I'm not fucking leaving!

Well, this speech
never happened.

That scene was
complete bullshit.

He got thrown out.

The movie is inaccurate.

So he leaves,
he gets a small fine,

like $100,000, a slap
on the wrist, and he leaves.

He quietly sailed off
into the distance.

There was never
a farewell speech.

Never happened.

The truth of the matter is

Jordan left the firm
and Danny took over.

For Jordan,
this was yet another moment

where he was at a crossroads.

What was he going to do next?

Stratton Oakmont was directed
to change its ways,

become legit in order
to continue its business.

I get a phone call.

Jordan and I,
we hadn't spoken in a while.

I'm literally
buried in law school

and he is in this new life.

He just said, Andy,
I need to see you.

OK, I drop what I'm doing
and I go and see him.

'Cause he asked me to, period.
That's the relationship we had.

He was my best friend.

Jordan's probably closer to me
than my own brother.

So I arrive at the
Beverly Wilshire Hotel

and I go up to his room
and big, lush suite.

And I'm looking
around, like,

this is not the world
that I live in.

I'm coming from law school.

I'm expecting to take jobs
at a DA's office.

Jordan tells me what
he's dealing with.

He was having problems with
the regulators.

The SEC, NASD.

I don't remember if it was
during that conversation,

but he asked me to come.

My role was to implement

what was being required
from the SEC.

And he knew that my mother
was terminally ill.

So it was, like, providing me
an opportunity

to come back to New York
so I can have

those last, you know,
moments with my mom.

This is a very difficult
subject for me.

I mean, I had choices.

Build this career,
or, you know,

my mother would pass away and
then I'd have no time with her.

Having an opportunity
to be around my mom

for those last years
was important.

So I was going to find
a way to make it work.

My first arrival there,

and I'm working 16,
18-hour days

to make sure that
this firm survives.

Stratton Oakmont could
have been changed,

transactions could
have changed,

and still made the firm
a zillion dollars.

The SEC rule states I had
to record all the phone calls

going in and out of this firm.

If you were caught
doing a transaction

and I couldn't pull the tape
of that transaction,

you have violated
the SEC guidelines.

All of this system from '94,

it's working,
but in '95...

All of a sudden, it started
happening where there were

certain conversations
that were missing.

Think about what
you're dealing with.

You know, they came in
and they said,

every phone call's
going to be taped.

Ooh, wow.

So we had a phone system
for "taped calls"

and we then built a phone
system for not-taped calls.

You know, it didn't take
very much thinking on that one.

So it seems like
the SEC's directives

were not taken seriously
by Stratton Oakmont,

and it was just
business as usual.

To be honest,
I think that Danny was just

the front person of Stratton.

And Jordan is the
puppet master

and he's pulling strings
in the background

wheeling and dealing.

Jordan was active in
coordinating deals

with Biltmore after
he was suspended.

We would get together
at restaurants

and we would discuss trading

with other firms that
comprised our axis of evil.

Jordan was still
involved in IPOs

through Stratton's
sister firms,

Biltmore and Monroe Parker.

I have these FBI documents
that actually states

Jordan's making money
off of these IPOs,

but it seems to be
in violation

of the agreement he signed
with the SEC that barred him.

Mr. Belfort was involved
in all the deals.

The man behind the curtain was
always Jordan Belfort.

During this time, '94, '95,

we went on vacations to Newport

and Martha's Vineyard
and Nantucket.

We would spend time together.

When I was at
Stratton Oakmont,

my job was to handle all
of the federal regulators,

deal with the lawyers,
the independent auditor.

I knew what had to be done
and I did it.

He trusted me.

Why me?

'Cause he knew that
there was nobody

that was going to throw me
off-kilter.

And I dealt with
all the regulators

and attorneys straight up,

But that's the part where
this unravels.

One day, we're going through
piles and piles of documents.

Up comes a copy of a document

that had not yet seen
the light of day.

No one knew that
that document existed.

The document paid him
$1 million a month.

A month.

On his way out from
Stratton Oakmont,

Jordan negotiates
this exit agreement.

No one knew about
Jordan's exit agreement

except for Danny, Jordan,
and their accountant.

But now we know

over time, they agreed
to pay him $180 million.

The document as written

did not technically
violate his SEC agreement.

But the argument
that could be made

is that you really had
control of the firm

because all the money's
being paid out to you.

If all this money is
still flowing to Jordan,

one could argue that
he actually never left.

Now Jordan and I have
a private conversation.

There was a lot of yelling.

He didn't want
for the regulators

to have that document.

He just said, Andy,
you work for me.

You're going to do
everything to protect me.

'Cause as far as
he's concerned...

I'm supposed to fall
on my sword.

Isn't that what
best friends do?

He threw me over the side.

I was not going to do that
and put myself in a position

where the company could say
I did something wrong.

It took a part of me.

It took a part of who I am.

Because I no longer could feel
that I could trust.

It was very hard for me

between all of this,
and my mother's terminally ill.

So it was like, my life

came and blew up
in Stratton Oakmont.

That was it.
Our friendship was over.

After Jordan's finally
disbarred in 1994,

his whole attitude changed.

His power, his empowerment,
you saw, started to lessen

because he wasn't able
to give his morning meetings.

He wasn't a part of that whole
camaraderie that he created.

He was upset about that
'cause he loves to work.

You know, you have to remember

when you have that
sort of personality,

that grandiose personality,

nobody's going to tell him
what to do.

It has to put pressure
on a person.

Constantly running,
constantly plotting,

constantly tap-dancing
and keeping up this illusion.

It could not have been easy.

He was a multi-faceted
human being like we all are.

But I don't know what
their relationship was,

Nadine and Jordan, but I know
it was starting to deteriorate.

We didn't really fight
about women ever.

We fought about
his drug addiction.

But he has all the money
and he has all the power.

Even if I want to leave him,

I'm thinking, is he going to
try to take my kids from me?

I'm totally afraid of him.

Jordan had
a big vial of ludes.

And Nadine said to me, Ross,
I do not want him having these.

Take them.

Nadine was upset and worried

that Jordan was going to kill
himself on all these ludes

'cause he was taking them
very frequently.

Jordan was partying
in the Hamptons,

ripping apart furniture
looking for drugs.

He would fall asleep
in public routinely.

It was sad.
It was sad to watch.

His drug addiction
became out of control

to the point where
my friendship to him

was also being his bodyguard
and his babysitter.

He really didn't care.

He was in such a stupor

that he never realized that--
what was coming.

With this investigation, I
knew I was on the right trail.

I had all of this information,
but I can't prosecute a case.

I can only investigate it.

There did come a point
in time where

I just didn't think I was ever
going to get it prosecuted.

One of the big drawbacks was
a turnover of prosecutors.

We went through five.

After each prosecutor left,
I would start over

and I would bring in
the same witnesses again.

We'd go through
the same testimony again.

It really started
to concern me.

Even people at the FBI
were saying,

hey, Coleman, you gotta
make this case, right?

You gotta do something here.

There was a point in time
where I was pretty sure

the Bureau was going to
shut down the investigation.

But then at some point,
Joel Cohen joined the case.

Literally changed the case.

I'd just come back from
a year's assignment in Paris

and senior people
in the office said

there's a Stratton Oakmont
investigation

you probably know about.

It's been going on
for a couple years.

It's not making
a lot of headway.

Would you be interested
in taking this on?

In the mass of everything that
Greg had been gathering...

there were a lot of gems

and a lot of pathways
to be successful.

These guys are toast.

Inside Stratton Oakmont,

the brokers believe
they're invincible.

The Batline rang and said...

NASDAQ shut us down.

Everybody scattered
like roaches.

But Jordan is addicted
to the game.

He had $3 million
in his bedroom.

It's the American way.

And to me, that was like

basically saying
to the government, fuck you.

The FBI is conducting
an investigation.

Jordan started
to feel the heat.

The big breakthrough was
an ex-Hell's Angel.

He is a piece in the money
laundering chain.

Our goal was just to try to
see if we could flip Jordan.

And we tie it with the bow.
We have our indictment.

He's a rat piece of shit.