FILM BLUFFS: Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush (from left, with then-wives Nadine and Nancy) are back on top. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film “The Wolf of Wall Street.” (PaulPrincePhoto.com)
FILM BLUFFS: Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush (bottom, from left, with then-wives Nadine and Nancy) are back on top. Leonardo DiCaprio (top) plays Jordan in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film “The Wolf of Wall Street.” (
)
The disgraced “Wolves of Wall Street” have landed on their feet.
The top two convicted scammers in Long Island’s infamous $200 million “pump and dump’’ stock fraud in the 1990s — about to be immortalized in a Hollywood film by Martin Scorsese — are back in the chips again.
“These wolves had no conscience,’’ said one source close to the case. “They stole people’s money, and they destroyed their families. It was all about power and money and greed.’’
The two men — Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush — helped orchestrate a scheme at the Stratton Oakmont firm in Lake Success. Some of the scammers’ ill-gotten gains were spent on cocaine, hookers and kinky sex before the FBI ended the party.
After Belfort got out of jail, he wrote a 2008 book about shearing suckers called “The Wolf of Wall Street” and sold the rights to Tinseltown. Leonardo DiCaprio will star as Belfort in the flick due out late this year.
Belfort, 50, now lives in California and makes his money legally. He gives motivational speeches on subjects such as “wealth creation” — a subject he was very familiar with until 1996, when the feds shut down the firm he ran with Porush.
“It’s easier to get rich quick when you don’t follow the rules,’’ said Belfort, reached by The Post in Australia, where he was involved in corporate-training seminars.
Belfort insisted he’s “not making a dime’’ from the movie, saying all of his profits from the book and film will go to paying back the investors he cheated.
“I’m not getting anything,” he said. “I’m a wolf who became a more benevolent character. I refuse to glorify my past.”
He said he and DiCaprio became close while the star studied him for his role.
“Leo has watched me rebuild my life,” Belfort said. “I have tremendous respect for him — he’s a really great guy.”
Porush, 56, is also back in the high life, sources said. He runs a medical-supply business in Florida, which has employed several other former workers from the infamous Stratton Oakmont firm, a source said.
Porush and his second wife, Lisa, live in a $4 million mansion and drive matching Rolls-Royce Corniche convertibles.
He is portrayed in the film by actor Jonah Hill, although Porush’s name has been changed to “Donny Azoff.”
“I really have no comment other than to say I would never try to profit from a crime I’m so remorseful for,” Porush told The Post from his office in Boca Raton, Fla.
Meanwhile, Long Island lawyer Stephanie Ovadia, whose clients include Lindsay Lohan, says she is working with several “she-wolves’’ — ex-wives of the stock scammers — on a book of their own.