Jordan Belfort insists he’s a changed man.
The old Belfort was a notorious stock swindler who squandered profits from a “pump and dump” scheme on cocaine, prostitutes and other excesses. His story became the basis for two memoirs and “The Wolf of Wall Street,” an upcoming movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The new Belfort is a business consultant who says he’d never lie and frets over suggestions that he is avoiding payments on $110 million in restitution by hiding profits from the book and movie deals.
“It’s very strange being accused of something I wouldn’t have done in a million years,” said Belfort, 51. “It’s so not where my head is at.”
In early October, prosecutors asked a federal Brooklyn judge to find him in default, saying he paid only $11.6 million of the $110 million he owes for a securities-fraud and money-laundering conviction.
They have since withdrawn the request in order to pursue a settlement, but not before a wave of bad press hit Belfort.
“In some weird way, it probably helps the movie,” he said in a phone interview. “It doesn’t help me.”
The Martin Scorsese film, set for a Christmas Day release, chronicles Belfort’s antics as chair of Stratton Oakmont Inc., the firm he started in a former Long Island auto shop.
“Leo’s amazing, a brilliant actor,” he said. “I spent hundreds of hours with him.”
Stratton made a fortune peddling penny stocks at inflated prices. After artificially pumping the value, Belfort and others would dump their own shares.
With his ill-gotten gains, Belfort bought a 166-foot yacht — which sank — and a $175,000 sports car.
He says it wasn’t worth it.
“Fraud is not something you want to be good at,” he said. “I was always taking great efforts to cover my tracks. It was unbelievably exhausting . . . I think that’s why I lived so recklessly. You’re doing things that you know can’t go on indefinitely.”
He pleaded guilty in 1999 and became a government witness against people accused of cooking the firm’s books and stashing money.
In 2003, after a broken marriage and a bout with drug addiction, Belfort was sentenced to 3½ years’ prison and ordered to give half of his future earnings to the government. Book sales resulted in payments of $700,000 from 2007 to 2009, court papers say.
But after completing probation in 2010, prosecutors say, his payments slowed to a trickle, even after he made $940,500 off the film rights and earned fees as a motivational speaker and consultant.
His lawyers argue his obligation to pay ended with his probation. Still, he says he has offered to give all his book and movie profits, only to be met with silence.
“I don’t want to make any money from the books or the movie,” Belfort said. “I don’t think they could fathom that.”
The case returns to court this month.
“I just want to finally close out that chapter of my life,” he said