Part of the PR blitz for the Wolf of Wall Street involved features on the real-life Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort. And he was as quasi-chagrined as you’d expect about the whole coke and strippers and thieving years of his life, but one February interview, with the Hollywood Reporter, struck me as really weird: it started by saying Belfort “hardly lived the decadent life” of someone who spent the 90s crashing helicopters on quaaludes. But then it showed Belfort sitting in his really, really nice, $3 million home in Hermosa Beach, a place right on the boardwalk.
Overall it was a pretty decadent place to live while he claimed to be paying back the $110 million he still owed victims of Stratton Oakmont.
Right.
Anyway, it seemed in the interview that Belfort was taking his sweet time paying restitution, while also possibly neglecting some creditor payments. And the U.S. government agrees. From TMZ:
TMZ has obtained legal docs filed by Uncle Sam 2 weeks after the movie premiered. According to the docs — obtained by TMZ — the government zeroed in on 2 lavish homes they think he owns in a swanky L.A. beachside community.
The government is putting its paws on the Hermosa Beach homes because Belfort is on the hook for $110 MILLION.
The government placed liens on both properties in an effort to enforce the judgment on behalf of the investors he bilked.
The article goes on to say that Belfort has fooled brokers into thinking he’s broke, when, really, he’s making a killing off the speaking circuit. (Then again, this is TMZ is right…)
Anyway, the movie was great. But, yeah, Belfort is still kind of terrible.
[H/T: TMZ]