Insider at “The Wolf of Wall Street” firm opens up: “My lifestyle was insane”
The former partner of the scandal-ridden stock exchange firm that inspired the blockbuster movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” speaks out as a new documentary about the company premieres in 2017. Paramount+.
“My lifestyle was crazy,” Howie Gelfand, who rose to become a partner at Stratton Oakmont, said in an interview on “CBS Mornings.”
Three-part documentary series “The Real Wolf of Wall StreetOffers an inside look at the company run by Jordan BelfortHe is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the feature film.
Gelfand attended Stratton Oakmont when he was 19 years old. He told “CBS Mornings” that within a year of starting the business he was making more than $100,000 a month; this was much more than the $35,000 he earned a year.
He was eventually making over $1.5 million a year. When he learned that what the firm was doing was illegal, he thought it was business as usual for Wall Street.
But Gelfand learned that his fast-paced lifestyle came with a price.
“I was the most miserable millionaire – 325 pounds, drugs and booze,” Gelfand said. “I couldn’t subconsciously find ways to kill myself because what I did was horrible, so I had to numb myself every day to be able to do what I did.”
The docuseries features new revelations from more than 15,000 internal FBI and government documents obtained by investigative reporter and executive producer Jason Leopold using the Freedom of Information Act.
“The Real Wolf of Wall Street” currently airing It’s on Paramount+, a division of CBS News’ parent company Paramount.
