Insider shares story behind “The Wolf of Wall Street”: “My lifestyle was insane”

A former companion on the scandal-ridden stock-trading agency that impressed the blockbuster film “The Wolf of Wall Street” is talking out as a brand new documentary in regards to the agency premieres on Paramount+.

“My lifestyle was insane,” Howie Gelfand, who rose to change into a companion at Stratton Oakmont, mentioned in an interview on “CBS Mornings.”

The three-part docuseries “The Real Wolf of Wall Street” offers an inside have a look at the agency run by Jordan Belfort, who was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio within the characteristic movie. 

Gelfand joined Stratton Oakmont when he was 19. He advised “CBS Mornings” that inside a yr of beginning he was making over $100,000 a month — excess of the $35,000 a yr that he had been incomes.

Eventually, he was making over $1.5 million a yr. When he came upon that what the agency was doing was unlawful, he thought it was simply enterprise as ordinary for Wall Street.

But Gelfand realized that his fast-paced life-style got here with a value.

“I was the most miserable millionaire — 325 pounds, drugs, booze,” Gelfand mentioned. “I couldn’t figure enough ways to subconsciously kill myself because what I was doing was horrible, so I had to anesthetize myself every day to do what I was doing.”

The docuseries consists of new revelations from over 15,000 inner FBI and authorities paperwork obtained by investigative reporter and government producer Jason Leopold utilizing the Freedom of Information Act. 

“The Real Wolf of Wall Street” is streaming now on Paramount+, a division of Paramount, the dad or mum firm of CBS News.