Title: Why did Jordan Belfort go to jail? - Quora
Headings: 
Why did Jordan Belfort go to jail?
Content: Belfort ser
Continue Reading
TL;DR: Jordan Belfort went to jail for securities fraud and money laundering. Belfort founded Stratton Oakmont which marketed penny stocks and defrauded investors with the pump and dump schemes. The firm was always under legal/regulatory suspicion, and its notoriety inspired the movie Boiler Room, as well as the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. The National Association of Securities Dealers/Financial Industry Regulatory Authority started disciplinary actions against Stratton Oakmont in 1989 and it was shutdown in 1996. Belfort was then indicted for securities fraud and money laundering. Belfort served 22 months of a four-year sentence as part of a plea deal with the FBI for the pump-and-dump scams that cost his investors $200M. Belfort is supposed to pay back $110M in restitution, which he has not paid. At a motivational talk that he delivered in May 2014, Belfort said: I got greedy... Greed is not good. Ambition is good, passion is good.