how much was the naomi yacht

Everything The Wolf Of Wall Street Doesn't Tell You About The True Story

Martin Scorsese's film "The Wolf of Wall Street" is an over-the-top celebration of greed and excess, inspired by the memoir of the notorious stockbroker Jordan Belfort, who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film. It tell of the rise of Jordan Belfort from a low-level assistant at L. F. Rothschild to a Long Island penny stock pusher, as well as Belfort's dramatic fall from filthy rich CEO of Stratton Oakmont to a stint in federal prison for stock fraud and money laundering.

Despite being ostensibly based on a true story, many question the veracity of the film because of how absolutely outlandishness of Belfort's claims, and how outrageous the antics at Stratton Oakmont are. Scorsese obviously recognized Belfort is an unreliable narrator with a penchant for exaggeration. In the film, Belfort breaks the fourth wall, addressing the camera and the audience directly. This was a strategic choice by the screenwriter and director. Screenwriter Terence Winter told Esquire , "Jordan is talking directly to you. You are being sold the Jordan Belfort story by Jordan Belfort, and he is a very unreliable narrator. That's very much by design."

Despite how unlikely this story is, most of what transpires in the film actually happened. Winter added, "I assumed he must've been embellishing. But then I did some research, and I talked to the FBI agent who arrested him, who had been tracking Jordan for ten years. And he told me, 'It's all true. Every single thing in his memoir, every insane coincidence and over-the-top perk, it all happened.'" 

That said, this film is Belfort's truth, not necessarily the definitive truth. Keep reading if you want to learn everything "The Wolf of Wall Street" doesn't tell you about the true story of Jordan Belfort's meteoric rise and fall.

Belfort's wives' names were changed for the film

Although their real-life counterparts are obvious, the names of Jordan Belfort's ex-wives were changed in the film, giving the filmmaker creative license with the characters. Belfort's first-wife in the film is Teresa Petrillo (Cristin Milioti), but her real-life counterpart is Denise Lombardo. Denise met Belfort in high school, and the childhood sweethearts married in 1985 after Denise graduated from college. Belfort founded Stratton Oakmont while married to Denise, and they divorced after she found out about his affair in 1991 (per The U.S. Sun ). After their divorce, Denise led a low-profile life, staying out of the public eye.

Belfort's second-wife in the film is Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie). Naomi's real-life counterpart is Nadine Macaluso. Like Naomi, Nadine was a model and met Belfort at a party before they married in 1991. Nadine and Belfort had two children together and separated in 1998 as depicted in the film (per the U.S. Sun). Nadine got a Ph.D, becoming a marriage and family therapist. She lives in California with her second husband (per Daily Mail TV ).

Margot Robbie , who played Naomi in the film, met Nadine while preparing for her role. Robbie told IndieWire meeting Nadine helped her understand her character's motivations, saying, "I could do or say any horrible thing and know that my character's motivation was out of protection for her child. Whether or not the audience sees my side of events is another matter, but just to know my motivation can give me an authentic performance." She added how strong Nadine is, saying, "She's has to be, to have put up with Jordan and his shenanigans."

The original crew Belfort recruited from friends are composite characters

Although Belfort recruited the original crew for his Long Island brokerage firm from a group of friends; Alden "Sea Otter" Kupferberg (Henry Zebrowski), Robbie "Pinhead" Feinberg (Brian Sacca), Chester Ming (Kenneth Choi), and Nicky "Rugrat" Koskoff (PJ Byrne) are composite characters with fictitious names. These characters are an amalgamation of numerous people who worked at Stratton Oakmont and do not represent actual people.

This didn't stop Andrew Greene, a board member of Stratton Oakmont, from filing a defamation suit against the film's production company. He was offended by the depiction of "Rugrat" in the film, saying the character damaged his reputation. He called the character a "criminal, drug user, degenerate, depraved and devoid of any morals or ethics" (per The Guardian ).

In 2018, Greene lost his suit . In 2020, an appellate court threw the suit out, stating that the filmmakers, by creating composite characters and fictitious names, "took appropriate steps to ensure that no one would be defamed by the Film," (per the Hollywood Reporter ). The filmmaker included the hijinks of the employees at Stratton Oakmont in the film to illustrate the raucous corporate culture of the brokerage firm, rather than defame former employees.

Donnie Azoff doesn't exist, his real-life counterpart is Danny Porush

Jonah Hill 's character Donnie Azoff in "The Wolf of Wall Street" doesn't exist. He is a composite character created to avoid defaming anyone while making the film. To anyone who is familiar with Jordan Belfort and Stratton Oakmont's story, it's obvious Danny Porush is Azoff's real-life counterpart. Porush disputes the veracity of both Belfort's memoir and the film, telling Mother Jones , "The book ... is a distant relative of the truth, and the film is a distant relative of the book." Porush admits to swallowing the goldfish, but under different circumstances than depicted in the film.

As reported by Mother Jones, Porush was Belfort's friend and business partner between 1988 and 1996. Like Belfort, he cooperated with authorities, ultimately serving 39 months in prison for his securities and financial crimes at Stratton Oakmont. Porush disputes the throwing of dwarves, insists there were never animals in Stratton Oakmont — other than the goldfish he ate — but admits to the wild parties and taking part in the depravity and excesses encouraged at the brokerage firm, saying "Stratton was like a fraternity."

Porush told Mother Jones, "My main complaint [regarding the memoir] besides his inaccuracy was his using my real name," something that was remedied when the filmmakers created the composite character of Donnie Azoff. Ultimately, Porush doesn't seem to hold a grudge despite his grievances with the inaccuracies saying, "Hey, it's Hollywood ... I know they want to make a movie that sells. And Jordan wrote whatever he could to make the book sell."

Danny Porush's wife introduced Jordan Belfort to her husband

In "The Wolf of Wall Street," Donnie Azoff (Danny Porush's fictional counterpart) approaches Belfort at a restaurant about what he does for a living, after seeing Belfort's Jaguar in the parking lot. In reality, Belfort met his future business partner, Danny Porush, through Danny's wife Nancy.

Porush and Nancy lived in the same building in Queens where Belfort lived with his first wife Denise, as Nancy told Doree Lewak with The New York Post in 2013 shortly before "The Wolf of Wall Street" came out. Nancy explained how she took the same bus into the city for work as Belfort, saying, "the commute to the city each day was hard because I became pregnant right away. There was a nice boy from our building on the same bus who always gave up his seat for me. His name was Jordan Belfort, and he worked in finance ... I pushed Danny to talk to Jordan ... After just one conversation, Danny came back and announced he was taking the Series 7 exam to get his stockbroker's license."

In the New York Post article, Nancy detailed how her husband changed once he began working with Belfort and making serious cash, saying, "Up until then, Danny never seemed to care about money ... I saw him morph from a nice wholesome guy into showy narcissist whom I hardly recognized anymore." After being arrested for securities fraud, Porush left Nancy for another woman. They are now divorced, and he lives in Florida with his second wife. We can't help wondering if Nancy ever regrets introducing her ex-husband to Belfort.

Belfort's destroyed yacht once belonged to Coco Chanel

Jordan Belfort bought a yacht and named it after his second wife. In the film, the boat is named Naomi after the character played by Margot Robbie, but in real life the boat was called the Nadine . True to the film, Belfort insisted his boat's captain take the yacht into choppy waters, where the boat happened upon powerful but unpredictable mistrals, leading to the Nadine sinking into the Mediterranean Sea in an event known as Mayday In The Med . Belfort, his guests and crew, were rescued by the Italian coast guard.

What the film doesn't tell you is that Belfort's yacht had an interesting past. Belfort's vintage yacht once belonged to none other than the famous French fashion designer Coco Chanel. Chanel is known for her outspoken nature and is associated with quite a few fiercely female quotes. Chanel is quoted as saying , "As soon as you set foot on a yacht, you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom." Rather than avoid luxury yachts all together, Chanel made the boss move of buying her own in 1961, naming her the Matilda (per Boss Hunting ).

As bizarre as this interlude of the film was, it actually happened, with one major difference. In an interview with The Room Live , Belfort explained how the group waiting to be rescued had to push the helicopter off of the boat to make room for a rescue team to lower down onto the yacht. In the film, the waves knock the helicopter off of the yacht. Belfort also explains that although his private jet also crashed, it was 10 days after the yacht sunk, not at the same time, as it was depicted in the film for dramatic effect.

Steve Madden spent time in prison for stock fraud

Although they don't talk about it in the movie, Steve Madden also went to prison for stock fraud and money laundering along with Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush. The New York Times reported in 2002 that Madden "was arrested in 2000 as a result of an investigation of a scheme to manipulate 23 initial public stock offerings underwritten by the companies Stratton Oakmont and Monroe Parker Securities ... It included the initial public stock offering of his own company in 1993."

True to the film, Danny Porush, Azoff's real-life counterpart, really was childhood friends with Steve Madden. Like Belfort and Porush, Madden loved debauchery and Quaaludes, so much so he didn't finish college because of how much he was partying. Although Madden wrote about his wild days in his memoir, his time partying with the Stratton Oakmont "fraternity" was not included in the film. Stratton Oakmont took Madden's company public, making him instantly rich ( per The New York Post ).

As reported by the New York Post, Madden wrote about this period of his life in his memoir "The Cobbler: How I Disrupted an Industry, Fell from Grace & Came Back Stronger Than Ever." In his book, Madden wrote, "Jordan was like no one else I have ever met before or since. He became one of the most influential people in my life ... I was pumping and dumping [stocks] right alongside them." Madden wound up serving 31 months for his financial crimes and his involvement with Stratton Oakmont's schemes. Unlike Porush and Belfort, Madden could continue working at his company after being released from prison.

Belfort was ordered to pay restitution to his victims

When Belfort was convicted of money laundering and stock fraud in 2003 for Stratton Oakmont's "pump and dump" schemes, he was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay over $110.4 million in restitution (per Crime Museum ). Belfort only served 22 months for his crimes and a judge ordered him to pay half of his income once he was released from prison.

In 2013, just after the film was released, CNN reported Belfort had only contributed a little over $11 million to the fund for victims, much obtained from confiscated possessions. At the time the film came out, Belfort allegedly stated he would hand over all of his royalties from the film and the book. But in 2018, Fortune Magazine reported government officials claimed Belfort still owed $97 million, meaning that over the previous 5 years, Belfort only contributed an additional $2 million dollars to the victims' fund. $2 million dollars is more than most of us will ever see, but Belfort is still making good money as a motivational speaker.

As reported by Fortune Magazine, there is a disagreement between Belfort's attorneys and prosecutors over what income can be garnished for restitution. Belfort reportedly earned around $9 million dollars between 2013 and 2015, but neglected to pay half of those earnings to the victims' fund. Although Belfort claims he will feel better after he has paid the money back, he doesn't seem to be fulfilling his end of the court order. Belfort obviously still enjoys a life of luxury and it is hard to reconcile his claims of being reformed with his reluctance to pay the restitution to his victims. In her New York Post article Nancy Porush reminded us, "Greed is not good — it's ugly."

Tommy Chong was Belfort's cellmate in prison

"The Wolf of Wall Street" ends with Jordan Belfort in a cushy white-collar prison with tennis courts, but the film didn't tell us who Belfort's cellmate was. Belfort and Tommy Chong of the comedy duo "Cheech & Chong" were cellmates before Chong was released. In 2014, Belfort spoke to Stephen Galloway with The Hollywood Reporter about his time in prison. He explained, "[Chong] was in the process of writing his book. We used to tell each other stories at night, and I had him rolling hysterically on the floor. The third night he goes, 'You've got to write a book.' So I started writing, and I knew it was bad. It was terrible. I was about to call it quits and then I went into the prison library and stumbled upon 'The Bonfire of the Vanities' by Tom Wolfe, and I was like, 'That's how I want to write!'"

In 2014 Chong spoke with Adrian Lee at Maclean's about how he met Belfort in prison and giving Belfort feed back on his pages, saying "After a while he showed me what he had written, and it was the only time I had critiqued someone really heavy — usually when someone writes something, you say, 'Oh yeah, that's great, keep going.' But I knew instinctively he had a lot more to offer than what he showed me ... I told him ... 'No, you've got to write those stories you've been telling me at night. Your real life is much more exciting than any kind of imaginary story you could come up with.'"

Stratton Oakmont was never on Wall Street

Although the memoir and film are titled "The Wolf of Wall Street," Jordan Belfort only worked on Wall Street for several months in 1987 at L. F. Rothschild. Black Monday put an end to his days at a Manhattan based brokerage firm. As we see in the film, it was on Long Island that Belfort got a job at the Investor's Center selling penny stocks from the pink sheets and found his calling: his get-rich-quick scheme, selling nearly worthless stocks for a 50 percent commission to people who couldn't afford to lose the money (per NY Times ).

Belfort soon went out on his own, founding Stratton Oakmont with Danny Porush, where they began targeting rich investors using a persuasive script and "pump and dump" tactics — making Belfort, Porush and their brokers rich, while leaving their clients broke. As reported by the Washington Post in 1996, Stratton Oakmont was disciplined for securities violations as early as 1989, and continued to be disciplined almost annually.

Jimmy So with The Daily Beast, maintains, "The problem with 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is that the self-fashioned wolf was nowhere near the real Wall Street." The memoir and film made the brokerage firm seem like a much bigger deal than they really were, despite the financial ruin they left in their wake. Stratton Oakmont's offices were on Long Island, not Wall Street.

Jordan Belfort was never called 'The Wolf of Wall Street'

Scorsese's film makes it seem like Forbes gave Jordan Belfort the nickname, "The Wolf of Wall Street" when they published a takedown about Stratton Oakmont's questionable business practices. Forbes wrote an article about Stratton Oakmont's dirty deeds in 1991, but the article did not call Belfort "the wolf of wall street." In 2013, Forbes revisited Roula Khalaf's original article, where she called Belfort a "twisted Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers." 

Danny Porush, Belfort's former partner and one-time friend, told Mother Jones  that nobody at the firm ever used the "wolf" moniker. As reported by CNN , Belfort came up with the nickname himself for his memoir. As Porush told Mother Jones, Belfort's "greatest gift was always that of a self-promoter." But as Joe Nocera with the NY Times said, "who would ever buy a ticket to a movie called 'The Wolf of Long Island'?"

Belfort had a head-on collision while driving under the influence of Quaaludes

When the real Jordan Belfort crashed his car while on Quaaludes, he was in a Mercedes Benz rather than a Lamborghini, and someone was actually injured. Belfort had a head-on collision while driving home from the country club where he used the pay phone, sending the woman he collided with to the hospital (per The Daily Beast ). None of Belfort's crimes are victimless.

This type of discrepancy is central to the complaints about both Belfort's memoir and the film. Although Belfort says he regrets his crimes, he is too busy boasting about the parties, the riches, the drugs, and the sex to sound like he regrets anything except getting caught. Belfort's memoir and the film it inspired might seem like a celebration of greed and excess, but they are also a depiction of the ostentatious behavior that eventually drew the attention of the authorities.

Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" might not tell you everything about the true story, but what it does is reveal how audiences love watching someone else's destructive behavior. We get all the thrills and none of the consequences. As screenwriter Terence Winter told Esquire, "I'd much rather watch somebody who isn't responsible, who makes all the wrong decisions and hangs out with the wrong people. That's more satisfying. We may live like saints, but when it comes to our fantasy life, everybody's got a little larceny in their soul."

• San Lorenzo
• Yacht Rental in Dubai Marina
• Yacht Party Dubai
• Overnight Experience
• Formula 1 Abu Dhabi
• Corporate Events
• Fifa World Cup 2022
• Anniversary Celebrations

Connect with a yacht expert & get per personalised Deals

Jordan Belfort Yacht: The True Story and The Wolf of Wall Street Version

The true Jordan Belfort yacht story is as strange and unbelievable as the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street depicts it to be. There are several insider stories behind the sinking of the mighty yacht that are not widely known but are quite interesting and different from the reel version in several ways.

What happened to the Jordan Belfort yacht Nadine?

As the movie, The Wolf of Wall Street shows, the superyacht Nadine sank close to the coast of Sardinia in 1997 while battling what many calls “the storm of the century”. Jordan Belfort narrates the event in detail in the memoir describing his life in the 90s, which is what the Martin Scorsese movie is about.

Before getting into the details of the sinking, it is worth noting that the 37m yacht had a long and interesting history. She carried renowned celebrities like Coco Chanel before reaching Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie) and was one of the largest yachts in the East Coast’s waters.

While the yacht was initially manufactured for a French native and given the name Matilda, he backed out of the deal. This led Coco Chanel to buy the beautiful yacht with the low superstructure that Dutch yachts are famous for.

You can learn more about our yacht charter services in Dubai

The yacht took on different names as it passed through famous hands, even those of the murder trial acquitted Melvin Lane Powers. Belfort named the yacht after his wife and renovated it with the capacity to carry a helicopter, 6 Jetskis, 4 motorbikes, and much more. Under Belfort’s ownership, the yacht witnessed a series of wild parties that were like unlimited glamour and fun in a package until disaster struck unexpectedly.

Did the yacht scene in The Wolf of Wall Street actually happen?

The Jordan Belfort yacht sinking scene in The Wolf of Wall Street was heavily inspired by a real-life event, though the movie did take some creative liberties. For one, the yacht was called Naomi in the reel version since the name of Belfort’s wife (played by Margot Robbie ) was changed in the movie. In reality, the yacht was named Nadine.

The movie further depicts Belfort’s helicopter getting thrown off the yacht by strong waves. In reality, the yacht’s crew went up to the deck and pushed off the helicopter so that Italian navy seals would have a space to land. The yacht’s itinerary was altered a bit by the movie’s director Martin Scorsese to add to the drama, though the power of the storm was scarily accurate.

Belfort admitted that the yacht’s captain Mark Elliot explicitly warned them not to sail to Sardinia on that fateful night. But according to the movie, there was a business opportunity in the city that Belfort could not bear to miss out on despite his wife’s protests.

Some sources claim that in reality, the passengers were simply eager to hit the golf course at Sardinia the next morning. They refused to pay heed to the captain’s warning and asked him to go through the storm, which eventually led to the famous Jordan Belfort yacht sinking incident. Therefore, unfortunately, if someone wants to have a yacht rental in Dubai or any other destination, they have missed their chance with this yacht.

Take a look on our Yacht Dubai Party

Interesting insights on the sinking as portrayed in the movie

The movie captures the fear and stress that each passenger felt when the yacht got caught up in the 70-knot storm. There is some hilarity when Belfort starts yelling for his drugs to avoid the horror of dying sober.

Several rescue attempts were made, but due to rising risks, each of them was called off. By some twist of luck, the yacht’s engine room remained mostly undamaged for a while, because of which they were able to make their way through the sea.

In the end, everyone survived the incident without any major injuries. At dawn, the Nadine made its way 1000m under the water only 20 miles away from Sardinia’s coast. Now, the movie’s audience gets to watch the Jordan Belfort yacht story unfold on the screen with a pinch of humor.

The Nadine’s captain Mark Elliot’s heroic actions did not go unnoticed. He was praised for leading all the passengers to safety, though he was able to get out of the yacht only 10 minutes before it sank. The captain also admitted that the insurance was granted immediately considering the ferocity of the storm. As for the yacht, many still wonder about the highly expensive equipment that had to be thrown into the water and is probably rusting away at the bottom of the sea.

The best features of the Jordan Belfort yacht Nadine

The 167 ft Nadine, as its former passengers claim, was a beautiful yacht. When owned by Coco Chanel under the name Matilda, the yacht had five staterooms, large dining areas, and a helipad. The interiors were furnished with dark teak paneling. Each new owner customized the yacht’s name and interiors based on their tastes.

Belfort decorated the Nadine lavishly with a variety of mirrors and set a vintage deco theme. He renovated the upper deck to fit a crane that was able to stow his Turbine Seawind seaplane. The yacht carried the best dive gear available in the market plus a variety of Belfort’s ‘toys’ such as his motorbikes and jetskis.

Which model was portrayed as the Jordan Belfort yacht Nadine in the movie?

Martin Scorsese got the yacht Lady M to represent Nadine onscreen. While Nadine actually had a luxuriously vintage charm to it, Lady M is a modern vessel with contemporary features. Lady M was manufactured in 2022 by Intermarine Savannah, while Nadine was built in 1961 by Witsen & Wis. The 147 ft Lady M is currently worth $12 million and is similar to Benetti yachts in its glamorous design.

Jordan Belfort’s life today

The entrepreneur and speaker Jordan Belfort’s shenanigans are well-known thanks to his detailed memoir and the hit movie based on some parts of his life. He spent 2 years in prison and now, at 59 years of age, has a practically negative net worth. Yet, his extraordinary motivational speaking skills continue to attract and inspire people even today.

It is easy for anyone watching the movie to wonder if many of the incidents are exaggerated. But considering Belfort’s eccentric life, even the Nadine sinking incident remains another regular anecdote shared in the movie.

PER HOUR Per Day

Browse our Yachts

Join our Newsletter

Subscribe to B.H. Magazine

Share the article, recommended.

Your One-Stop-Shop Father’s Day Gift Guide For 2024

‘Friends of Laphroaig’ Is Your Ticket To Islay’s Most Exclusive Drams

The 18 Best Watches Under $5,000 You Can Buy In 2024

WIN: Nail Father’s Day With $2,999 Of Kit From The M.J. Bale Spring 2024 Collection

New iPhone 16 Leaks Rumour New Colours, A Replaceable Battery, And More

Related articles.

Uber Boat Is Launching Just In Time For Your Euro Summer Antics

The Candela C-8 Travels Above Water To Completely Reimagine Boating

Royal Huisman’s Project 406 Is The World’s Largest Purpose-Built Fishing Boat

Ferrari Is Officially Entering The Yacht Game

Steven Spielberg Takes Delivery On His Cinematic $250 Million Superyacht

The 33-Metre Sanlorenzo SP110 ‘Steel It’ Motor Yacht Is A Jet-Powered Masterpiece

Conor McGregor Enjoyed The Monaco Grand Prix From His $5.5 Million Lamborghini Yacht

BMW Debuts ‘The Icon’ Boat With Soundscape Designed By Hans Zimmer

Step Inside The 75m Kenshō: 2023’s Motor Yacht Of The Year

Russian Superyacht’s Crew Spends Past Year Playing ‘Call Of Duty’ & Chilling By Pool

• lifestyle home
• resort & spas
• travel home
• jewelry & watches
• womens style
• fashion home
• CITY GUIDES
• BEST OF LUXE
• LUXE INSIDER
• YACHT SHOWROOM

Meet the Real Wolf of Wall Street Superyacht Built for Coco Chanel

The yachting disaster is one of the most dramatic scenes in Martin Scorsese’s blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street , and like many of the tales in the Leonardo DiCaprio flick, it’s based on a true story. In real life, predatory tycoon Jordan Belfort bought a yacht in 1993 called Big Eagle and renamed her Nadine , after his English-born second wife. The vessel had been built in 1961 by Witsen & Vis in Holland for fashion icon Coco Chanel, but had undergone many transformations by the time Belfort got his mitts on it. Originally 121 feet long, in the 1970s she was extended by nearly 15 feet, and in 1988 she was cut in half and had another 29-foot section grafted on, finally totaling 167 feet.

The luxury yacht used in Scorsese’s film actually bears little resemblance to the  Nadine , being a far more modern vessel. The director hired the 148-foot  Lady M , built by Intermarine Savannah in 2002 and refit in 2011, for filming. It features luxury accommodations for 10 guests, and a marble and granite interior with gold accents.

In Coco Chanel’s day the yacht was mainly used to cruise from Monaco to Deauville for the summer horse racing season. The real  Nadine  sank in 1997 during a storm off the east coast of Sardinia while crossing from Porto Cervo to Capri, much as the movie depicts. Belfort has said that his insistence on sailing in a storm caused the yacht to capsize. Luckily, everyone on board at the time was rescued by the Italian coast guard. 

Jared Paul Stern

Jared Paul Stern, JustLuxe's Editor-at-Large, is the Executive Editor of Maxim magazine and has written for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, the New York Times' T magazine, GQ, WWD, Vogue, New York magazine, Details, Hamptons magazine, Playboy, BlackBook, the New York Post, Man of the World, and Bergdorf Goodman magazine among others. The founding editor of the Page Six magazine, he has al... (Read More)

Related Articles

Four Seasons Yachts Unveils 2026 Mediterranean Voyages

The Custom Line Navetta 38 Is A New Bespoke Luxury Monohull

The Cat 133 Is A Smaller Version Of Tecnomar’s ‘This Is It’

Burgess Sets Sail To “Incentivize” Yacht Enthusiasts At The Miami International Boat Show

Around the web.

JustLuxe.com and LivingLuxe are entities and marks owned by Luxemont LLC. 2004-2024 All rights reserved. Privacy | Terms

• Best of Luxe
• City Guides
• Destinations
• Custom Content

• 12 Mighty Orphans
• 12 Years a Slave
• 15:17 to Paris, The
• 300: Rise of an Empire
• 80 for Brady
• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• A Journal for Jordan
• A Million Miles Away
• A Small Light
• Against the Ice
• All Eyez on Me
• All My Life
• American Gangster
• American Hustle
• American Made
• American Sniper
• American Underdog
• Amityville Horror (1979)
• Amityville Horror (2005)
• Annabelle: Creation
• Antwone Fisher
• Arthur the King
• Bad Education
• Battle of the Sexes
• Beanie Bubble, The
• Beautiful Boy
• Beauty and the Beast
• Being the Ricardos
• Best of Enemies, The
• Big Lebowski
• Big Short, The
• Big Sick, The
• Bikeriders, The
• BlacKkKlansman
• Bleed for This
• Blind Side, The
• Bling Ring, The
• Blue Miracle
• Boardwalk Empire
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• Boston Strangler
• Boys Don't Cry
• Boys in the Boat, The
• Breakthrough
• Brian Banks
• Bridge of Spies
• Burial, The
• Butler, The
• Bye Bye Man, The
• Calendar Girls
• Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Captain Phillips
• Case for Christ, The
• Catch Me If You Can
• Charlie Wilson's War
• Chasing Mavericks
• Cocaine Bear
• Concrete Cowboy
• Conjuring 2, The
• Conjuring, The
• Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, The
• Courier, The
• Crowded Room, The
• Current War, The
• Danish Girl, The
• Danny Collins
• Darkest Hour
• Dear Edward
• Death of Stalin, The
• Deepwater Horizon
• Deliver Us From Evil
• Devil Wears Prada, The
• Disappointments Room, The
• Disaster Artist, The
• Dolemite Is My Name
• Donnie Brasco
• Downton Abbey
• Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
• Dream Horse
• Dropout, The
• Eddie the Eagle
• Emancipation
• End of the Tour, The
• Erin Brockovich
• Exorcism of Emily Rose, The
• Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
• Eyes of Tammy Faye, The
• Fabelmans, The
• Farewell, The
• Fault in Our Stars, The
• Favourite, The
• Fighter, The
• Fighting with My Family
• Finding Neverland
• Finest Hours, The
• Five Days at Memorial
• Flamin' Hot
• Florence Foster Jenkins
• Ford v Ferrari
• Founder, The
• Free State of Jones
• Freedom Writers
• Gigi and Nate
• Girl from Plainville, The
• Glass Castle, The
• Goldbergs, The
• Good Nurse, The
• Good on Paper
• Goodbye Christopher Robin
• Gran Turismo
• Greatest Beer Run Ever, The
• Greatest Showman, The
• Gridiron Gang
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hands of Stone
• Haunting in Connecticut, The
• Heaven is for Real
• Hidden Figures
• Hillbilly Elegy
• Hollywoodland
• House of Gucci
• Hurricane, The
• I Am the Night
• I Can Only Imagine
• I Saw the Light
• I Still Believe
• I Wanna Dance with Somebody
• Imitation Game, The
• Infiltrator, The
• Inventing Anna
• Irishman, The
• Iron Claw, The
• Jerry and Marge Go Large
• Jersey Boys
• Jesus Revolution
• Jimi: All Is by My Side
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• Kill the Messenger
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• King Arthur
• King Richard
• Lady in the Lake
• Last Duel, The
• Last Full Measure, The
• League of Their Own, A
• Lone Survivor
• Lost City of Z, The
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Maggie Moore(s)
• Man Who Invented Christmas, The
• Masters of the Air
• Mauritanian, The
• McFarland, USA
• Megan Leavey
• Men of Honor
• Military Wives
• Million Dollar Arm
• Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, The
• Miracles from Heaven
• Molly's Game
• Monuments Men, The
• Mothman Prophecies, The
• Mrs. America
• Munich: The Edge of War
• My All American
• Next Goal Wins
• Not Without My Daughter
• Old Man & the Gun, The
• On a Wing and a Prayer
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• One and Only Ivan, The
• Only the Brave
• Operation Finale
• Operation Mincemeat
• Oppenheimer
• Ordinary Angels
• Outlaw King
• Outpost, The
• Pain & Gain
• Pain Hustlers
• Passion of the Christ, The
• Patch Adams
• Patriots Day
• Pawn Sacrifice
• Penguin Bloom
• People v. O.J. Simpson, The
• Pianist, The
• Pope's Exorcist, The
• Prayer Before Dawn, A
• Promise, The
• Public Enemies
• Pursuit of Happyness, The
• Queen of Katwe
• Quiet Ones, The
• Railway Man, The
• Remember the Titans
• Rescued by Ruby
• Revenant, The
• Richard Jewell
• Right Stuff, The
• Rookie, The
• Saving Mr. Banks
• Saving Private Ryan
• Schindler's List
• Serpent, The
• Slender Man
• Social Network, The
• Society of the Snow
• Soul Surfer
• Sound of Freedom
• Staircase, The
• Survivor, The
• Tender Bar, The
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The
• Texas Rising
• Theory of Everything, The
• Thing About Pam, The
• Thirteen Lives
• To Write Love on Her Arms
• Top Gun: Maverick
• Trees of Peace
• Trial of the Chicago 7, The
• True Spirit
• United Kingdom, A
• United States vs. Billie Holiday, The
• Unsung Hero
• Upside, The
• Victoria and Abdul
• Walk the Line
• Watcher, The
• We Own This City
• We Were the Lucky Ones
• Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
• Welcome to Marwen
• When the Game Stands Tall
• When They See Us
• White Boy Rick
• White House Plumbers
• Wicked Little Letters
• Wolf of Wall Street, The
• Woman in Gold
• Woman King, The
• Young Woman and the Sea
• Zookeeper's Wife, The

The Wolf of Wall Street: History vs. Hollywood

Did Jordan Belfort really meet his future business partner in a restaurant?

What was the name of Belfort's brokerage house?

The Wolf of Wall Street true story confirms that, like in the movie, Stratton Oakmont was the name of the real Jordan Belfort's Long Island, New York brokerage house. Belfort and co-founder Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill in the movie) chose the name because it sounded prestigious ( NYTimes.com ). The firm would later be accused of manipulating the IPOs of at least 34 companies, including Steve Madden Ltd. (their biggest deal), Dualstar Technologies, Paramount Financial, D.V.I. Financial, M. H. Meyerson & Co., Czech Industries, M.V.S.I. Technology, Questron Technologies, and Etel Communications.

What exactly did Jordan Belfort do that was illegal?

Belfort's Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm ran a classic "pump and dump" operation. Belfort and several of his executives would buy up a particular company's stock and then have an army of brokers (following a script he had prepared) sell it to unsuspecting investors. This would cause the stock to rise, pretty much guaranteeing Belfort and his associates a substantial profit. Soon, the stock would fall back to reality, with the investors bearing a significant loss. -NYTimes.com

How many employees worked for Jordan Belfort's brokerage firm?

At its peak in the 1990s, Stratton Oakmont, Belfort's firm that he co-founded with Danny Porush, employed more than 1,000 brokers. -TheDailyBeast.com

Danny Porush says the movie's dwarf-tossing scene (above) never happened. Even Belfort's book only discusses it as a possibility. Did Jordan Belfort really host an in-office dwarf-tossing competition?

No. "We never abused [or threw] the midgets in the office; we were friendly to them," Danny Porush (the real Donnie Azoff) says. "There was no physical abuse." Porush does admit that the firm hired little people to attend at least one party. Jordan Belfort's memoir The Wolf of Wall Street only discusses the tossing of little people as a possibility, not something that actually happened. -MotherJones.com

During what years did the events in the movie take place?

The events in The Wolf of Wall Street movie took place during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush founded the brokerage firm of Stratton Oakmont in the late 1980s. The securities fraud and money laundering charges brought against the firm involved companies that Stratton Oakmont helped raise money for in public stock offerings from 1990 through 1997. In 1996, Stratton Oakmont was banned from the brokerage industry, which eventually forced the company to close its doors. -NYTimes.com

Was Jordan Belfort really known as the "wolf" of Wall Street?

No, at least not according to the former co-founder and president of the Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm, Danny Porush (portrayed by Jonah Hill in the movie). The real Porush says that he is not aware of anyone at the firm calling Jordan the "wolf." Porush says that it's just one of a number of exaggerations and inventions in both Belfort's book and the movie. -MotherJones.com

Is Matthew McConaughey's character, Mark Hanna, based on a real person?

Yes. In exploring The Wolf of Wall Street true story, we learned that Jordan Belfort claims to have met Matthew McConaughey's character's real-life counterpart, Mark Hanna, in 1987 when he was working at the old-money trading firm of L.F. Rothschild. His new acquaintance was an uproarious senior broker at the firm and introduced Belfort to the excess and debauchery that Belfort would later make a daily staple at Stratton Oakmont. Like in the movie, the real Mark Hanna behind McConaughey's character told Belfort that the key to success was masturbation, cocaine and hookers, in addition to making your customers reinvest their winnings so you can collect the commissions. -TheDailyBeast.com

Did Jordan Belfort really abuse cocaine and other drugs?

Yes. In The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is shown snorting cocaine off a prostitute's backside and nearly crashing his private helicopter while high on a cocktail of prescription drugs, including Quaaludes, morphine and Xanax. In researching The Wolf of Wall Street true story, it quickly became clear that Belfort used drugs heavily in real life too. In his memoir, he states that at times he had enough "running through my circulatory system to sedate Guatemala."

Jordan Belfort did give speeches like DiCaprio in the movie (left). Right: The real Belfort speaks at a 1994 Stratton Oakmont Christmas party (right). Did Belfort really stand in front of his employees and give riling speeches with a microphone?

Yes. Belfort was known to stir his troops into action by belting out words of motivation through a microphone. However, his speeches were often filled with more self-adulation than DiCaprio's speeches in the movie.

Did a female employee really let them shave her head for $10,000 to pay for breast implants?

The real Jordan Belfort claims this is true in his memoir. The female employee let them shave off her blonde hair for $10,000, which she used to pay for D-cup breast implants. Co-founder Danny Porush also says that the shaving took place, "...the worst we ever did was shave somebody's head and then pay 'em ten grand for it," says Porush. -MotherJones.com

Was Jordan Belfort's Quaalude dealer in the movie, Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), based on a real person?

Yes. The character in the movie, Brad Bodnick, who has a goatee and is portrayed by The Walking Dead 's Jon Bernthal, is based on Jordan Belfort's real-life Quaalude supplier, Todd Garret. In his memoir, the real Jordan Belfort claims that Garret sold him approximately 10,000 Quaaludes.

Was there ever a chimpanzee in the office?

No. According to co-founder Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill in the movie), the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio's character pals around with a chimp is pure monkey business. "There was never a chimpanzee in the office," says Porush. "There were no animals in the office...I would also never abuse an animal in any way" (though he does admit to eating the goldfish, see below). -MotherJones.com

Did he really almost crash his helicopter in his yard?

Did Danny Porush really marry his own first cousin?

Yes. According to Jordan Belfort's memoir, the real Donnie Azoff (whose actual name is Danny Porush) did marry his first cousin Nancy "because she was a real piece of ass." After twelve years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1998 after Danny told Nancy that he was in love with another woman ( NYPost.com ). Danny and his ex-wife share three children together.

Did Belfort and his colleagues really have drug-addled nights and sexcapades with prostitutes on a near daily basis?

Though the movie and Belfort's memoir might seem like gross exaggerations of the truth, depicting heavy drug use and sexcapades in the office during trading hours, they're not exaggerations at all says the F.B.I. agent who finally took Belfort into custody, "I tracked this guy for ten years, and everything he wrote is true." Kyle Chandler portrays the agent in the Martin Scorsese movie. -NYTimes.com

Was Belfort really arrested for crashing his Lamborghini while high on expired Quaaludes?

Yes, but according to Belfort the car wasn't a Lamborghini like in the movie, it was a Mercedes. He was so high in a drug daze that he couldn't remember causing several different accidents as he tried to make his way home. In real life, one of the accidents was a head-on collision that actually sent a woman to the hospital. -TheDailyBeast.com

The real Donnie Azoff, Daniel Porush, says that he really did swallow a goldfish like Jonah Hill (pictured). Did Danny Porush really swallow a goldfish?

Yes. According to the real Donnie Azoff, whose actual name is Danny Porush, the scene where Jonah Hill's character eats a goldfish is based on a true story. "I said to one of the brokers, 'If you don't do more business, I'm gonna eat your goldfish!'" Porush recalls. "So I did." -MotherJones.com

Did they really tape money to a woman's body?

In one scene of The Wolf of Wall Street movie, bricks of cash are taped to a Swiss woman's body. "[I] never taped money to boobs," the real Danny Porush says (played by Jonah Hill in the movie). According to Jordan Belfort's memoir, the event did happen but his partner Porush wasn't there. -MotherJones.com

Was footwear mogul Steve Madden really involved in Belfort's scheme?

Yes. As shown in The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Steve Madden had been a childhood friend of Belfort's partner Danny Porush (renamed Donnie Azoff in the movie and portrayed by actor Jonah Hill). Their fondness for drugs and alcohol reunited the two of them. During the initial public offering of his footwear company, Steve Madden Ltd., Madden acquired a large number of shares of his company, which were actually being controlled by Belfort and his firm, Stratton Oakmont. Once shares became available to the public, Stratton Oakmont got down to the business of selling them to unsuspecting suckers. Billing Madden's company as the hottest issue on Wall Street, Belfort's brokers in turn drove up the price. Eventually, Steve Madden was to sell off his shares when the hype was at its peak, just before the stock began its inevitable decline. Similar to what is seen in the movie, Belfort still maintains that Steve Madden tried to steal his Steve Madden shares from him. However, Jordan Belfort did make approximately $23 million in two hours as part of the deal with Steve Madden, who would later be charged as an accomplice to Belfort's scheme. -NYTimes.com For his part, Steve Madden was sentenced to 41 months in prison and was forced to resign as CEO of Steve Madden Ltd. He also resigned from the company's board of directors. However, he did not leave the company entirely. He kept his foot (or shoe) in the door by giving himself the title of creative consultant, for which he was well-compensated even while he was in prison. -Slate.com

Did Jordan Belfort really name his yacht after his wife?

Did Belfort's yacht really sink in a Mediterranean storm?

Yes. In real life, Belfort's 167-foot yacht, which was originally owned by Coco Chanel, sunk off the coast of Italy when Belfort, who was high on drugs at the time, insisted that the captain take the boat through a storm ( TheDailyBeast.com ). Listen to Belfort tell the story during The Room Live 's Jordan Belfort interview . As he states in the interview, his helicopter didn't fall off the boat during the storm like in the movie. Instead, they had to push the helicopter off of the top deck of the boat to make room for the rescue chopper to drop down an Italian Navy commando.

How long did FBI agent Gregory Coleman spend tracking Jordan Belfort and his firm?

FBI agent Gregory Coleman, renamed Patrick Denham for the film and portrayed by actor Kyle Chandler, made tracking Belfort and his firm, Stratton Oakmont, a top priority for six years. In an interview ( watch here ), Coleman says that the factors that drew his attention to the firm were "the flashiness, the brashness of their activities, the blatantness of the way they were soliciting people and cold calling people, and the number of victims that were complaining on a daily basis." -CNBC

Did Jordan really strike his wife?

Yes. The Wolf of Wall Street movie shows Jordan (Leonardo DiCaprio) hitting his wife (Margot Robbie) with his hand and fist. According to his memoir, he actually kicked his wife Nadine down the stairs while he was holding his daughter. She landed on her right side with "tremendous force."

Did Belfort really endanger his 3-year-old daughter's life by crashing his car through the garage door?

Yes. In real life, he put his daughter Chandler in the front seat of the car without a seat belt on, before crashing it through the garage door and then driving full speed into a six-foot-high limestone pillar at the edge of the driveway. Like in the movie, he was high at the time.

Tommy Chong was Jordan Belfort's cellmate in prison and encouraged him to write the book. What was Jordan Belfort's punishment?

When he was finally arrested in 1998 for money laundering and securities fraud, Jordan Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison. This was after agreeing to wear a wire and provide the FBI with information to help prosecute various friends and associates. In the end, the true story reveals that he served only 22 months in a California federal prison. His cellmate in prison was Tommy Chong of "Cheech and Chong" fame, who was serving a nine month sentence for selling bongs. -TheDailyBeast.com

What inspired Jordan Belfort to write his memoir?

It wasn't so much a what as it was a who. Tommy Chong (one half of "Cheech and Chong") was Jordan Belfort's cellmate in prison. After laughing at some of Belfort's stories from his days running the firm, Chong encouraged him to write a book. -TheDailyBeast.com

Why is Jordan Belfort's memoir filled with so many exclamations?

Jordan Belfort attempted to model his writing after Hunter S. Thompson ( Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ), who was known for using plenty of exclamation points.

What happened to Belfort's partner, Danny Porush, portrayed by Jonah Hill in the movie?

Danny Porush, renamed Donnie Azoff for the movie and played by actor Jonah Hill, served 39 months in prison for his part in the corrupt dealings of Stratton Oakmont, the firm that he co-founded with Jordan Belfort. Porush currently runs a medical supply business in Florida, where he lives with his second wife Lisa in a $4 million mansion. A 2008 Forbes article pointed out his company's fraudulent tactics, which included trying to persuade people to order diabetic supplies and getting them to provide information about their physicians that could be used to bill Medicare. A number of complaints surfaced accusing Porush's company of sending unsolicited packages that were accompanied by unexpected Medicare charges. Back in 2001, Porush was arrested in connection to a fraud scheme surrounding Noble & Perrault Collectibles, a company that sold commemorative coins over the phone. Victims saw their credit cards charged repeatedly, at times for thousands of dollars, while often never receiving any merchandise for purchases that were largely unauthorized to begin with. -Sun Sentinel Enjoying a well-to-do life in Florida, Daniel Porush and his wife drive matching Rolls-Royce Corniche convertibles. With regard to The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Porush said, "I really have no comment other than to say I would never try to profit from a crime I'm so remorseful for." -NYPost.com

I heard that Jordan Belfort is a motivational speaker, is that true?

How much did Jordan Belfort earn from his books and the movie?

Catching the Wolf of Wall Street includes more of Belfort's outrageous stories that were not included in his first book. As we investigated The Wolf of Wall Street true story, we discovered that Jordan's books, The Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street , netted him a $1 million advance from Random House. He also earned $1 million for the film rights to his story ( TheDailyBeast.com ). In a response to criticism over these profits and future profits from the movie, Jordan Belfort said the following via his Facebook page, "I am not turning over 50% of the profits of the books and the movie, which was what the government had wanted me to do. Instead, I insisted on turning over 100% of the profits of both books and the movie, which is to say, I am not making a single dime on any of this." According to Jordan, the money is being used to pay back the millions still owed to those who were scammed by his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont.

Does Jordan Belfort have a cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street movie?

Yes, the real Jordan Belfort appears at the end of the movie as the person who introduces Leonardo DiCaprio's character before he takes the stage at his Straight Line seminar.

Have any other movies been based on Jordan Belfort's story?

Yes, but only loosely. The brokerage firm in the movie Boiler Room , released in 2000, was inspired by the illegal practices of Jordan Belfort's Stratton Oakmont firm. In the movie, actor Ben Affleck portrays Jim Young, the Belfort-esque co-founder of the firm, who, like Jordan Belfort, trains his brokers in the "pump and dump" scheme. -NYTimes.com

Watch The Wolf of Wall Street movie trailer. Also, view Jordan Belfort interviews and home video footage of him speaking at a Stratton Oakmont party in the 1990s.

• Jordan Belfort's Website
• Danny Porush's Website (played by Jonah Hill)
• Mark Hanna's Website (played by Matthew McConaughey)
• The Wolf of Wall Street Official Paramount Movie Site

• Login or Register

Jordan Belfort Yacht: The True Story and The Wolf of Wall Street Version

luxuo guide

Share This Article

The true Jordan Belfort yacht story is as strange and unbelievable as the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street depicts it to be. There are several insider stories behind the sinking of the mighty yacht that are not widely known but are quite interesting and different from the reel version in several ways.

Nadine yacht model

What happened to the Jordan Belfort yacht Nadine? As the movie, The Wolf of Wall Street shows, the superyacht Nadine sank close to the coast of Sardinia in 1997 while battling what many calls “the storm of the century”. Jordan Belfort narrates the event in detail in the memoir describing his life in the 90s, which is what the Martin Scorsese movie is about.

Jordan belfort yacht sailing

Did the yacht scene in The Wolf of Wall Street actually happen? The Jordan Belfort yacht sinking scene in The Wolf of Wall Street was heavily inspired by a real-life event, though the movie did take some creative liberties. For one, the yacht was called Naomi in the reel version since the name of Belfort’s wife (played by Margot Robbie) was changed in the movie. In reality, the yacht was named Nadine.

Interesting insights on the sinking as portrayed in the movie

The movie captured each passenger’s fear and stress when the yacht got caught up in the 70-knot storm. There is some hilarity when Belfort starts yelling for his drugs to avoid the horror of dying sober. Several rescue attempts were made, but each was called off due to rising risks. By some twist of luck, the yacht’s engine room remained undamaged primarily for a while, because of which they were able to make their way through the sea.

The best features of the Jordan Belfort yacht Nadine

The 167 ft Nadine, as its former passengers claim, was beautiful. When owned by Coco Chanel under the name Matilda, the yacht had five staterooms, large dining areas, and a helipad. The interiors were furnished with dark teak paneling. Each new owner customized the yacht’s name and interiors based on their tastes.

Which model was portrayed as the Jordan Belfort yacht Nadine in the movie?

Martin Scorsese got the yacht Lady M to represent Nadine onscreen. While Nadine had a luxuriously vintage charm, Lady M is a modern vessel with contemporary features. Lady M was manufactured in 2022 by Intermarine Savannah, while Nadine was built in 1961 by Witsen & Wis. The 147 ft Lady M is currently worth $12 million and is similar to Benetti yachts in its glamorous design.

Jordan Belfort’s life today

The entrepreneur and speaker Jordan Belfort’s shenanigans are well-known thanks to his detailed memoir and the hit movie based on some parts of his life. He spent 2 years in prison and now has practically negative net worth at 59 years of age. Yet, his extraordinary motivational speaking skills continue to attract and inspire people even today. It is easy for anyone watching the movie to wonder if many of the incidents are exaggerated. But considering Belfort’s eccentric life, even the Nadine sinking incident remains another regular anecdote shared in the movie.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You May Also Like

The Net Worth of Hollywood’s Comedy god, Seth MacFarlane

From Janitor to Flavour Pioneer: “Discovering Richard Montanez’s Net Worth Story”

© 2024 Truth. All Rights Reserved.

Screen Rant

How accurate the wolf of wall street is to the true story.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

10 Scorsese Trademarks In The Wolf Of Wall Street

What happened to the real jordan belfort after the wolf of wall street, ripley easter egg in alien: romulus confirmed (& it changes her story before aliens).

• The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, a con artist who became famous for his fraudulent actions.
• The movie features memorable moments from Belfort's memoir, such as smuggling money into Swiss banks and sinking a yacht.
• However, several real-life figures have disputed the accuracy of the events depicted in the movie, suggesting that Belfort may have exaggerated or fabricated certain elements to suit his own narrative.

Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the true story of the infamous rise and fall of American stockbroker and criminal Jordan Belfort. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Belfort in the movie, exploring his outrageous lifestyle, the various figures in his life, and the crimes that led to his downfall. The dramatized version of events depicted in the movie rings mostly true to the 2007 memoir of the same name. However, there are a lot of criticisms of how Belfort depicts himself and the truth, including from people featured in The Wolf of Wall Street.

The real Jordan Belfort of The Wolf of Wall Street story has been called a manipulative conman by many, so it's plausible that his memories and anecdotes of the events depicted in the movie and book are flawed and exaggerated to suit his allegedly inflated self-image. A number of real-life sources have spoken out about the inaccurate depiction of events in Belfort's story, hinting that Belfort's fraudulent sensibilities might have fooled Hollywood as they did on Wall Street.

From voiceover narration to dark humor, The Wolf of Wall Street exhibits many of the stylistic trademarks of its director Martin Scorsese.

The Wolf Of Wall Street Is Accurate To Jordan Belfort's Memoir

Various successes and failures depicted in the movie came from belfort's own admission.

There are several key details in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street that have been confirmed to be true based on Belfort's representation of himself and his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont in his memoir. According to the memoir, Belfort actually had his in-laws smuggle money into Switzerland banks, and Stratton Oakmont really helped make the luxury shoe line Steve Madden go public. The depiction of Matthew McConaughey's The Wolf of Wall Street character Mark Hanna is also based on Belfort's description, including Hanna's crude philosophy that the key to success was masturbation, cocaine, and sex workers.

Other details in the movie that were accurate to Belfort's memoir include: Donnie Azoff (inspired by the real-life Danny Porush, played by Jonah Hill in the movie) did marry his cousin before later divorcing her, Belfort sunk a yacht in Italy that was once owned by Coco Chanel, and he did crash his helicopter trying to land while he was high. Most notably, Belfort truly did serve a reduced prison sentence after informing on his friends . He did not try to save Porush (Azoff) from incriminating himself, as is displayed in the film. He informed on Porush in real life.

Wolf Of Wall Street's Accuracy Has Been Disputed By Key Figures

The depiction of belfort's crimes has become a controversial topic for the movie.

The Wolf of Wall Street has been criticized for how much it downplays the victims of Belfort's crimes, and it largely focuses on him ripping off the wealthy. According to the New York Times , Belfort targeted people from all types of financial backgrounds to buy his worthless stocks.

One California man used his home equity line of credit to invest with Belfort and has been impacted financially ever since (via New York Times ). The depiction of Belfort in Scorsese's movie as being some type of voice of an underprivileged class who was righteous in turning the system on its head and against itself has been debated since the film's 2013 release.

The real-life Donnie and Naomi also dispute a lot of what happens in both Jordan's memoir and Scorsese's movie. Nadine Macaluso, who is represented by the character Naomi, played by Margot Robbie in The Wolf of Wall Street , claimed that the movie was mostly accurate through Jordan's perspective, but not through an objective lens or with consideration to Nadine's point of view concerning their marriage. Nadine went on to get a Ph.D. and became an expert in relational trauma ( via The Independent ).

Danny Porush told Bustle that most of the film is completely fictitious, claiming that nobody in real life ever called Belfort the "Wolf" nor was there any throwing of little persons or chimpanzees that took place in the office.

As crazy as it seems, The Wolf of Wall Street was based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, who went on to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Why Wolf Of Wall Street's Accuracy (Or Otherwise) Is Part Of Its Legacy

Does the movie glorify jordan belfort.

The glorification of the debauchery surrounding Belfort's lifestyle and business practices is suitable to the mystique around whether or not the film depicts real events. This disparity in what is actually true in the movie and memoir versus what other real-life parties have to say about fabrications is part of its reckless and dysfunctional appeal.

Even Scorsese himself came under fire for celebrating the corrupt actions of the bonafide con artist in his film, which is meant to be seen as an overarching satire of capitalism rather than a stamp of approval for Belfort . Regardless of its degree of accuracy, The Wolf of Wall Street is a wildly entertaining exercise on limitless greed.

How Jordan Belfort's Life Has Been Changed By The Movie's Legacy

Belfort has become more famous thanks to scorsese's movie.

While Jordan Belfort and his past crimes helped him make a name for himself after his time in prison, Martin Scorsese’s movie has further raised the man's profile. In the years following the release of The Wolf of Wall Street , Belfort has become more well-known as a pop culture figure and he continues to parlay the success of the movie into his own personal success .

Jordan Belfort’s net worth in 2024 might be significantly less than what he was making at the peak of his criminal activity, but he is still amassing a fortune thanks largely to his career attending speaking engagements. Much like with the movie itself, it has been debated whether Belfort’s speeches were taking responsibility for his crimes or celebrating the debaucherous lifestyle he participated in. Since the release of the movie, Belfort has released two books, 2017’s Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success and 2023’s The Wolf of Investing.

In 2020, Belfort sued producers of The Wolf of Wall Street for fraud, asking for $300 million in compensation. Belfort maintained that the producers of the company Red Granite were involved in a multi-million-dollar embezzlement scheme and used stolen money to buy the movie rights to his story. As of the filing of the lawsuit in 2020, there has been no news on the case.

Source: The New York Times , Time , The Independent , Bustle

The Wolf of Wall Street

Not available

Directed by Martin Scorcese, The Wolf of Wall Street tells the true story of stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), based on his memoir of the same name. It chronicles the rise of Belfort and the subsequent corruption of his firm as he engages in a wide assortment of criminal acts while amassing a staggering fortune. Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, and Kyle Chandler also star alongside DiCaprio.

• TV & Film
• Say Maaate to a Mate
• First Impressions - The Game
• Daily Ladness
• Citizen Reef

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories , we're happy to send you some reminders

Click ' OK ' then ' Allow ' to enable notifications

Jordan Belfort's real ex-wife reveals what Margot Robbie scene Wolf of Wall Street actually got right

It was quite the dramatic moment....

Daisy Phillipson

The Wolf of Wall Street's ex-wife has revealed the Margot Robbie scene that the film got right about their life. Take a look:

Dr Nadine Caridi, currently known as Nadine Macaluso, is the ex-wife of Jordan Belfort and was depicted as Naomi Lapaglia - aka 'The Duchess' - by Robbie in Martin Scorcese's hit movie.

Meanwhile, her former husband is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, with the plot following Belfort's rise and fall in a career defined by  drugs, women, and white collar crime .

Now, we know certain aspects of The Wolf of Wall Street aren't true to life, but that hasn't stopped people from making all kinds of assumptions about the pair.

In a bid to get her side of the story out there, Nadine has shared a number of TikTok videos in which she discusses the accuracy of the film.

Earlier this month, she explained that 'if you look at it through Jordan's lens it's really accurate' .

"I think that if you look at it through my lens it wasn’t, and that makes sense because that was actually how our marriage was," she said.

“However, I went to therapy, I became a therapist, actually got my PhD, and became an expert in relational trauma."

And this is true - Caridi went from her life with Belfort to living in California with what she says was no support from her ex-husband.

She then enrolled at the Pacifica Graduate Institute and earned her Masters in counselling as well as a PhD in Somatic and Depth psychology.

While the film might not be accurate to her side of the story, there is one scene in particular that she says got it right.

She added: "So many people when I go out, and we talk about 'what do you do, what do you do?' And I talk about the fact that I'm a therapist, and then it, you know comes up."

When she tells them it's The Wolf of Wall Street , she says: "everybody's eyes go POP. Yeah, that was me... Margot Robbie played me. And so many people ask me 'was it really true?'"

"A lot of it wasn't exactly true but the boat scene was totally true," she explained, before showing real life footage of the moment they were saved by the Italian Navy.

"It was horrific, horrifying, we were in a squall for 12 to 18 hours and we lived, thank god, for my kids."

If you remember the scene in question, Naomi, Jordan and his pals are caught in a ferocious storm while aboard a massive yacht and very nearly met their death.

Though it may seem dramatic, it turns out it was very much based on facts.

Topics:  TV and Film , Celebrity , Money

Daisy graduated from Kingston University with a degree in Magazine Journalism, writing a thesis on the move from print to digital publishing. Continuing this theme, she has written for a range of online publications including Digital Spy and Little White Lies, with a particular passion for TV and film. Contact her on [email protected]

@ DaisyWebb77

Choose your content:

Lily Allen releases statement after being slammed for getting rid of her dog for eating her passport

The singer had returned the dog to a shelter after it chewed up her passport.

What we know so far about Oasis reunion with 'Wembley and Glastonbury gigs set for 2025'

If the rumours are true, the reunion would be a biblical one.

Fans still can't believe Macaulay Culkin is in a relationship with another kids TV legend

He turns 44 tomorrow.

Craig Cash fought back tears recalling night Caroline Aherne rang him to 'say goodbye' after taking overdose

They were very close both in front of the camera and away from the lens.

• Margot Robbie insisted on doing iconic Wolf of Wall Street scene naked to make it more realistic
• Real footage from Wolf of Wall Street party shows how accurate Margot Robbie detail is
• Margot Robbie speaks out on ‘disgusting’ Saltburn bathtub scene
• Margot Robbie issued warning after extremely painful sex scene with Leonardo DiCaprio

The global authority in superyachting

• NEWSLETTERS
• Yachts Home

The Superyacht Directory

• Yacht Reports
• Brokerage News
• The largest yachts in the world
• The Register
• Yacht Advice
• Yacht Design
• 12m to 24m yachts
• Monaco Yacht Show
• Builder Directory
• Designer Directory
• Interior Design Directory
• Naval Architect Directory
• Yachts for sale home
• Motor yachts
• Sailing yachts
• Explorer yachts
• Classic yachts
• Sale Broker Directory
• Charter Home
• Yachts for Charter
• Charter Destinations
• Charter Broker Directory
• Destinations Home
• Mediterranean
• South Pacific
• Rest of the World
• Boat Life Home
• Owners' Experiences
• Conservation and Philanthropy
• Interiors Suppliers
• Owners' Club
• Captains' Club
• BOAT Showcase
• Boat Presents
• Events Home
• World Superyacht Awards
• Superyacht Design Festival
• Design and Innovation Awards
• Young Designer of the Year Award
• Artistry and Craft Awards
• Explorer Yachts Summit
• Ocean Talks
• The Ocean Awards
• BOAT Connect
• Between the bays
• Golf Invitational
• BOATPro Home
• Superyacht Insight
• Global Order Book
• Premium Content
• Product Features
• Testimonials
• Pricing Plan
• Tenders & Equipment

The Superyacht Directory is the world’s largest database of private luxury yachts, with over 12,000 megayachts listed. It’s the most authoritative place to find everything you need to know about superyachts – including new builds, historic vessels and the most famous boats of all time.

You can filter your Superyacht Directory search results by a number of specifications including speed, length and year of build, or select the builder, exterior designer or interior designer to narrow your search. With the Superyacht Directory, you can be as precise as you like, with options to filter by engine power, draught or displacement, propulsion system or hull material and more. You can use the Superyacht Directory to search by yacht type, breaking down your results into motor yachts, sailing yachts, explorer yachts or classic yachts.

Yacht search

Popular yachts, the fastest yachts in the world, the longest superyachts in the world, from our partners, sponsored listings.

2023   Privilege Yard    51ft  /  15.5m

Unavailable

NAOMI private yacht

The luxury sailing yacht NAOMI is a private yacht and is not available to charter.

NAOMI was built by Privilege Yard and delivered to her owner in 2023.

NAOMI can accommodate 6 guests in 3 cabins consisting of a primary suite with a king size bed and en-suite bathroom facilities located forward, a cabin with a double bed and en-suite bathroom facilities and a cabin with a double bed and en-suite bathroom facilities.

Amenities on board include Air Conditioning, BBQ, Light fishing gear, Ice maker, Indoor audio system, Outdoor audio system, Sun loungers, TV saloon, Water maker and Wi-Fi.

An extensive list of further amenities and water toys can be seen under the features and amenities section.

You can view alternative similar sailing yachts for charter , or alternatively contact your Yacht Charter Broker for information about renting an alternative luxury charter yacht.

• Windward Islands
• Leeward Islands

West Mediterranean

• Corsica & Sardinia
• Sicily & Aeolian Islands
• Amalfi Coast
• French Riviera
• South of France
• Air Conditioning
• Light fishing gear
• Indoor audio system
• Outdoor audio system
• Sun loungers
• Water maker
• Paddleboard
• Water skis - adult
• Underwater scooter
• 40hp engine 3.3m rib

Destinations

Frequently Asked Questions

How much to charter naomi.

NAOMI has a weekly charter price starting at €16,500 and an estimated daily charter price of €2,750.

How many guests on board NAOMI?

NAOMI can accommodate 6 sleeping guests on board in 3 cabins, with the ability to cruise with up to 6 guests and entertain groups up to 6 guests while at anchor or moored at a marina.

Legal Disclaimer

Sailing Yacht NAOMI is displayed on this page for informational purposes and may not necessarily be available for charter. The yacht details are displayed in good faith and whilst believed to be correct are not guaranteed, please check with your charter broker. Charter Index does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information or images displayed as they may not be current. All yacht details and charter pricing are subject to change without prior notice and are without warranty.

U.S. Customs & Border Protection

The yachting industry has no global listing service to which all charter yachts must subscribe to, making it impossible to ascertain a truly up-to-date view of the market. Charter Index is a news and information service and not always informed when yachts leave the charter market, or when they are recently sold and renamed, it is not always clear if they are still for charter. Whilst we endeavour to maintain accurate information, the existence of a listing on Charter Index should in no way supersede official documentation supplied by the representatives of a yacht.

Specification

Popular related yachts

trending now in World News

Exiled billionaire social media app founder arrested while...

Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire over Lebanon over terrorist...

North Korea table-tennis champs face punishment for 'grinning' in...

Window cleaner claims he discovered 400-year-old Shakespeare...

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate’s fleet of luxury vehicles...

Houthis burn Greek oil tanker in Red Sea, mock US by posting...

Judge hands transgender woman win against female-only app in...

German police say 26-year-old man has turned himself in, claiming...

All about the $40m bayesian yacht that capsized, leaving 6 dead and 1 still missing.

The massive superyacht Bayesian that sank off the coast of Italy on Monday won numerous awards for its sleek interior design — and was sold to its original owner for nearly $40 million.

The luxury sailing ship was carrying 22 people when it capsized and sank during a fierce storm early Monday.

The bodies of five of six missing passengers, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch , 69, have been recovered. His daughter, 18-year-old Hannah, is the only one of six known killed in the tragedy yet to be found, a source close to the rescue operation told Reuters.

The ship’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, has also been confirmed dead.

Divers continued searching the wreckage of the 184-foot-long, British-flagged vessel, previously called Salute, on Wednesday after discovering four of the bodies.

When it was built in 2008, the Bayesian had the tallest aluminum mast in the world, standing at 237 feet, earning it the award for best exterior styling at the World Superyacht Awards in 2009, the Telegraph reported.

The sprawling superyacht’s interior, decorated with sleek, minimalist furnishings created by Remi Tessier, has also won numerous awards.

The ship, which accommodated 12 guests, had a master bedroom and three double and two twin bedrooms.

It also featured beige sofas, dark wood furnishings, and a teak deck equipped with a large canvas awning to keep guests cool, according to the outlet.

Some of the ship’s styling, including thin brown pillars and miniature terra cotta sculptures, was inspired by Japanese culture.

What to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily:

• A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing seven passengers.
• British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was identified as one of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. His teenage daughter, Hannah, was the final one to be recovered.
• Lynch — known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” — had invited guests from Clifford Chance, a legal firm that represented him, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage,  according to the Telegraph . 
• Security camera footage shot from 650 feet from where the  Bayesian sank Monday  shows it disappearing.
• A rare and unexpected “black swan” weather event may have led to the  Bayesian’s speedy demise , maritime experts say.

The extravagant ship won best interior at the International Superyacht Society Awards in 2008 and was also voted one of the best large sailing yachts at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards, according to the outlet.

The yacht’s original owner, John Groenewoud, a Dutch real estate developer, reportedly bought the ship for £30 million ($39 million) when it was built. In 2014, he sold the ship with an asking price of £27 million ($35 million).

Start and end your day informed with our newsletters

Morning Report and Evening Update: Your source for today's top stories

Thanks for signing up!

Please provide a valid email address.

By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

Never miss a story.

The Bayesian is currently owned by Revtom, a company that listed Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, as its legal owner.

It was named after the Bayesian statistical model that helps financial investors calculate risk — the subject of Lynch’s PhD that later helped him build his empire.

The vessel, operated by yachting company Camper & Nicholsons, had twin 965hp MTU engines, which gave it a range of 3,600 nautical miles at 13 to 15 knots (14 to 17 mph).

RSB Rigging carried out rig service works on the ship with Astilleros de Mallorca, a shipyard facility in Palma, in November 2016.

The Bayesian returned in September 2020 for scheduled service works, including having its mast removed and reinstalled.

Steve Branagh, managing director of RSB Rigging, told the Telegraph: “At this time, our deepest sympathies go out to the friends and families of all those affected by this dreadful tragedy.”

Advertisement

The 5 tragic minutes that sank a superyacht

PORTICELLO, Italy — Survivors of a storm that sank a superyacht off Sicily recounted their ordeal to one of the doctors who rushed to their aid, with some saying it took mere minutes for the 180-foot ship to go down. 

Dr. Fabio Genco, head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, told NBC News on the phone Thursday that he arrived in the seaside village of Porticello before dawn Monday, about an hour after the $40 million Bayesian sank in the violent and sudden storm.   

Of the 22 people onboard, 15 survived despite storm conditions and darkness, climbing onto a lifeboat before being rescued by a nearby sailboat. The crew members have made no public statements so far, though some have been interviewed by investigators.

“They told me that it was all dark, that the yacht hoisted itself up and then went down,” Genco said, recounting what the survivors told him. “All the objects were falling on them. That’s why I immediately made sure, by asking them questions, if they had any internal injuries,” he said. 

It appears they had just minutes to abandon the sinking ship, Genco said. 

“They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there,” he said, “And that the whole thing seems to have lasted from 3 to 5 minutes.”

Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, the Bayesian's shipbuilder, told Sky News that there were no flaws with the design or construction of the yacht. He said their structure and keel made boats like that “unsinkable bodies.”

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he disavowed responsibility, blaming instead the actions of the crew. “Mistakes were made,” he said. 

Genco said one of his colleagues who arrived at the scene before him initially thought that only three people survived, but the coast guard reported there were other survivors and more emergency services were called in. 

When Genco arrived, he found scenes of panic and despair. 

“Unfortunately, we are used to such panic scenes because we are used to the shipwrecks that happen on Lampedusa ,” Genco said, referring to the island southwest of Sicily, where the wreckage of boats carrying migrants on the sea journey from North Africa to Italy are often found . 

Six of the passengers were declared missing Monday, and by Thursday, the bodies of five had been recovered from the wreck , some 160 feet underwater.

Among those who survived is Angela Bacares, wife of the British tech mogul Mike Lynch , whose body was recovered Thursday. 

Another survivor has been identified as Charlotte Emsley, 35. She told the Italian news agency ANSA that she had momentarily lost hold of her year-old daughter, Sofia, in the water but managed to retrieve her and hold her over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were pulled into safety.

Dr. Domenico Cipolla at the Di Cristina Children’s Hospital in Palermo is also part of a team of medical professionals treating the shipwreck survivors. He told the BBC on Wednesday that Emsley and her daughter, as well as the father of the child, who Cipolla said also survived, are continuing to receive psychological help. 

“Psychological support was constant and is constant even today, because basically it is the wounds of the soul that are the most in need of healing in these cases,” Cipolla said.

Genco also told NBC News that he was especially concerned about the child. “She did not understand anything. She was soaking wet and cold,” he said. 

Karsten Borner, the Dutch captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, a yacht that was anchored near the Bayesian, said by phone Wednesday that he saw a thunderstorm come in at around 4 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) Monday, followed by what looked like a waterspout, a type of tornado that forms over water. 

The International Centre for Waterspout Research noted on X that there was a “waterspout outbreak” off Italy on Monday, the day the Bayesian sank. 

“I turned on the engine and made maneuvers so that we wouldn’t collide with the Bayesian, which was anchored about 100 meters from us,” Borner said. “Then all of a sudden it disappeared. Then the wind calmed down, we looked around and saw a red flare.”

Borner said he got into his boat’s tender and saw a life raft with 15 people on it. Members of the crew were administering first aid. 

“I don’t know why it sank so quickly, but it may have something to do with the mast which was incredibly long,” he said. Questions have been raised about whether the mast was to blame for the accident as tall masts, even with the sails down, have more surface area exposed to the wind, which can contribute to tipping a vessel in a storm.

The CCTV footage that emerged Tuesday showed the yacht’s 250-foot mast, believed to be one of the tallest aluminum sailing masts in the world, lashed by the storm as it appears to tilt to one side before disappearing.

Claudia Rizzo is an Italy based journalist.

Claudio Lavanga is Rome-based foreign correspondent for NBC News.

Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.

Morgan Stanley Chief Jonathan Bloomer Also On Sunken Bayesian Yacht With Michael Lynch

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

The chairman of Morgan Stanley International was reportedly among the six missing people—including UK tech mogul Michael Lynch— after the 184-foot luxury sailing yacht Bayesian sank in rough seas near Sicily early Monday morning, according to new reports.

Italian emergency services headed out to sea towards the area off the Sicilian coast on Tuesday, ... [+] Aug. 20, 2024.

Lynch , a British tech entrepreneur and one-time billionaire, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch are confirmed to be among those still missing after the ship sank (his wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued).

Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of the Morgan Stanley International bank and insurance company Hiscox, is also reportedly among the missing along with his wife, Judy.

Authorities on Monday told the BBC the missing people are presumed to still be inside the boat, and rescue operations resumed Tuesday morning.

The vessel had 22 people on board — 10 crew and 12 passengers — including people from the United States, Britain and Canada, when it overturned at around 5 a.m. Monday, according to the Italian coast guard.

Fifteen people were rescued from the vessel (including a 1-year-old girl), one person was found dead and six, including two Americans , remain missing, according to multiple reports.

Local media reported the person who died was a member of the crew, thought to be the yacht’s chef .

Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here : joinsubtext.com/forbes.

Who Are The Missing People Aboard The Bayesian Yacht?

Lynch, 59, and his daughter were the first to be reported as among the missing. Lynch's lawyer Chris Morvillo, a former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has also not been found, nor has his wife and jewelry designer Neda Morvillo. Bloomer, 70, a close friend of Lynch's, is also missing along with his wife, Judy.

Key Background

The Bayesian was anchored near the port of Porticello overnight Sunday when a harsh storm hit the coast that included a " waterspout ," a tornado-like swirling column of air and water. The ship tipped over and quickly was drug underwater by its massive mast —it had the tallest aluminum mast in the world at 246 feet. Of the 15 people rescued in the aftermath, eight were treated at a local hospital.

Lynch was acquitted in a fraud trial in June after he was accused by Hewlett-Packard of artificially inflating the value of Autonomy before HP bought it for more than $11 billion in 2011. HP wrote off $8.8 million of Autonomy's value within a year of buying the company. Today, The Times estimates Lynch has a net worth of £500 million. He "had a lot of pride" in his yacht, a member of his staff told the U.K. paper, and business filings show the boat is legally owned by his wife, Bacares.

Surprising Fact: Lynch's Co-Defendant Stephen Chamberlain Died The Same Weekend

Stephen Chamberlain, who was acquitted in the same trial as Lynch in June, died hours after news broke of Lynch's disappearance. Chamberlain was hit by a car while jogging in England on Saturday morning and was put on life support before his death was announced late Monday, the Guardian reported . Lynch and Chamberlain were both indicted for conspiracy and wire fraud in the sale of Autonomy to HP before being acquitted.

What To Watch For

An ongoing search operation includes divers attempting to search the vessel, now sitting 160 feet below sea level, as well as rescue boats and helicopters, according to CNN .

$215,000. That's the cost to charter the Bayesian, a single-mast sailing vessel, for one week .

Crucial Quote

“She told me that while they were sleeping, at a certain point the yacht overturned due to the tornado, and they found themselves in the water,” Dr. Domenico Cipolla, head of the emergency room at the pediatric hospital in Palermo, Italy, told The Times . “Some of them immediately managed to get onto the lifeboat. And some, evidently, didn’t make it.”

Further Reading

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.

Mike Lynch won a dramatic 12-year legal battle over his tech company. Weeks later, he and his top lawyer are dead.

• Mike Lynch won an unexpected jury acquittal after a dramatic 12-year legal saga.
• HP accused him of cooking the books of his company Autonomy to make it seem worth billions more.
• He finally won — and then he, his lawyer, and his codefendant all died within days.

In 2011, Mike Lynch was the toast of the tech world.

Hailed as Britain's Bill Gates, Lynch sold Autonomy, his groundbreaking data-management company, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.

Shareholders and business commentators were puzzled about what HP, a hardware company, would do with Autonomy, a software company — and why the latter was worth $11 billion. HP's executives said at the time that Autonomy had the potential to transform HP and usher the Silicon Valley titan into a new generation.

None of that happened. A year after the acquisition, HP wrote down $8.8 billion of the purchase value and accused Lynch of lying about Autonomy's finances.

The claim led to a vicious decadelong series of legal disputes.

Another Autonomy executive, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted of fraud in 2018 and sentenced to five years in prison. Federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain, the company's former vice president of finance.

Lynch's court battles concluded with a three-month criminal trial in San Francisco. After just two days of deliberation, jurors found Lynch and Chamberlain not guilty on all counts.

"The truth has finally prevailed," his lawyer Chris Morvillo said.

Within months, Lynch, Chamberlain, and Morvillo were all dead.

A takeover doomed from the start

Lynch, who studied neural networks for his Ph.D. at Cambridge University, spun off Autonomy from a previous company, Cambridge Neurodynamics, in 1996.

Using sophisticated algorithms, Autonomy allowed users to organize and search through large amounts of unstructured data. It was a bright spot in Britain's tech industry and was listed on the country's stock-market index.

Autonomy's clients included Oracle, Adobe, Cisco, AT&T, and HP itself. But HP's purchase of Autonomy was controversial.

The hardware company's CEO, Léo Apotheker , who had been in the position for less than a year, tried to shift the company's direction. HP had struggled to sell printers and servers as part of its traditional hardware business. Apotheker wanted to spin off HP's personal-computing division and make a big bet on moving the company into software, which had higher margins.

Analysts hated the idea. Shareholders sued. HP's value dropped by more than half. The company's board fired Apotheker within weeks of the decision to buy Autonomy, before the deal even closed.

Related stories

His successor, Meg Whitman, fired Lynch and wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8 billion, which indicated HP paid nearly four times what it should have. The New York Times columnist James B. Stewart floated the case that it was the worst acquisition in corporate history — even worse than AOL's ill-fated purchase of Time Warner.

In a stunning move, HP accused Lynch of fraud the following year. The company alleged he and Hussain, a former CFO, inflated Autonomy's sales figures. The FBI and the UK's Serious Fraud Office both opened investigations.

Lynch fervently denied accusations of wrongdoing. He pointed out that Autonomy was audited by Deloitte, which hadn't found issues. Lynch said HP stifled Autonomy with mismanagement and bureaucracy that pushed out employees and stymied sales.

The culture at HP, he said, was poisonous.

"It was like boarding a plane, realizing the engine is on fire, and then going up to the cockpit only to find that the pilots are having a fight," he told The Telegraph at the time .

According to The New York Times, lawyers representing shareholders in the lawsuit against HP obtained a copy of the company's own KPMG-prepared due-diligence report. The report said that Autonomy wasn't transparent enough with its finances, but Apotheker moved forward with the takeover anyway, deciding that Autonomy's potential was worth it.

A legal morass

The UK's Serious Fraud Office announced in January 2015 that it closed its investigation into Autonomy, finding insufficient evidence for legal action, though it referred some issues to the US Justice Department.

In the subsequent months, HP and Lynch sued each other in the UK. As those cases wound their way through the British court system, US prosecutors continued investigating HP's purchase of Autonomy. In 2016, they brought fraud charges against Hussain, who was found guilty in a 2018 jury trial. British regulators formally barred him from the financial industry earlier this year after he completed a five-year sentence in the US.

HP unloaded Autonomy altogether, selling parts of it in 2016 and 2017.

In November 2018, Justice Department prosecutors went directly after Lynch and Chamberlain.

Their indictment accused Lynch and Chamberlain of falsifying financial documents, lying to auditors and regulators, and suppressing the voices of people who criticized Autonomy's financial practices.

Lynch was no longer looking at civil fights over money. He was facing the prospect of up to 20 years in prison.

For years, Lynch fought extradition to the US. Powerful in British political circles — he had advised David Cameron when Cameron was prime minister and served on the boards of the BBC and the British Museum — he and his lawyers argued that his legal issues should play out in the UK, not the US. American criminal laws were unfairly stacked against him, his lawyers said.

HP's lawsuit against Lynch — still churning in the background — finally went to trial in 2019. Apotheker testified he would have abandoned the Autonomy acquisition if he had a better understanding of its finances. Lynch argued that the whole morass was orchestrated by Whitman, Apotheker's successor, who harbored political ambitions (she ran for governor in California and is currently the US ambassador to Kenya) and wanted to shift the blame for Autonomy's failures to someone else.

Robert Hildyard, the judge who oversaw the case, ruled mostly in HP's favor. In a 2022 decision that ran over 1,700 pages, he wrote that HP overpaid for Autonomy because of deceit from Lynch and Hussain. Hildyard hadn't yet decided how much they would owe in damages, but he wrote it would be "substantially less" than the $5 billion HP asked for.

When he wasn't fighting legal battles, Lynch continued to be an entrepreneur. He founded a venture-capital firm, Invoke Capital, and invested in and helped run the cybersecurity firm Darktrace, which,  Politico reported, has deep ties  to Britain's intelligence agencies.

Financial disclosures Lynch filed last year as part of his criminal case indicated he was worth about $450 million.

The criminal trial

The UK finally extradited Lynch to the US in May 2023 , where he prepared for his trial — alongside Chamberlain as a codefendant — while under house arrest in San Francisco.

Lynch had a top-shelf legal team, but after the British court loss and Hussain's conviction, the chances of an acquittal seemed bleak.

Lynch testified at the end of his three-month trial, which began in March, telling jurors he wasn't involved in day-to-day financial oversight of the company. Misunderstandings, he said, could be chalked up to the differences between British and American accounting practices.

"A lot of what we've been looking at is like peering through the door of a kitchen and seeing the sausage-making machine, and that's how it really works," he told jurors, according to The Times of London . "If you take the microscope into even the most spotless kitchen, you'd find bacteria. If it wasn't there, that'd be something very abnormal. I don't think Autonomy was any different."

Jurors believed him. In June, they declared Lynch not guilty of the 15 charges against him, clearing Chamberlain as well.

Morvillo, one of Lynch's lawyers in the trial — as well as in the preceding decade of legal disputes — praised the jury, saying it had rejected "the government's profound overreach in this case."

"This verdict closes the book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP's well-documented ineptitude on Dr. Lynch," Morvillo said in a joint statement with his attorney colleague Brian Heberlig. "Thankfully, the truth has finally prevailed."

In an interview with The Times of London after the trial , Lynch reflected on how, with a great burden lifted off him at the age of 59, he could remake his life.

He mourned the deaths of his brother and mother, who both died ahead of the criminal trial. He mused about using his fortune to start a British version of the Innocence Project, which prevents wrongful convictions in the US.

"Now you have a second life," he told The Times. "The question is, what do you want to do with it?"

But first, a celebration. Lynch; his wife, Angela Bacares; one of his two daughters; Morvillo and his wife, Neda; and several others went on a superyacht, the Bayesian , which was anchored outside Sicily and owned by Bacares.

Chamberlain moved back to the UK. While running near his home, a driver hit him with a car . He died in a hospital on Saturday.

On Monday, a sudden storm struck the Bayesian. The yacht capsized.

Of its 22 passengers, 15, including Bacares, were rescued.

But rescuers have pulled five bodies from the wreckage, including Morvillo's and Lynch's . A sixth remains trapped inside the boat. Lynch's daughter Hannah remains missing.

Correction: August 22, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misnamed Lynch's lawyer. His name was Chris Morvillo, not Charles Morvillo.

• Main content

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

Advertisement

Supported by

Who Was on the Sunken Yacht? Tech Mogul Mike Lynch, His Family and Friends.

Mr. Lynch, the former chief executive of the software firm Autonomy, who was acquitted on fraud charges in June, was with friends and family when the yacht went down in a severe storm.

• Share full article

By Michael J. de la Merced

Michael de la Merced reported on Mike Lynch’s career and legal battles over the course of 13 years across two continents.

A cruise on the Mediterranean Sea aboard a superyacht was supposed to be a celebratory event for the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch , who was acquitted in June of fraud charges tied to the sale of his company, Autonomy, to the tech giant Hewlett-Packard.

Instead, it turned into a disaster after the yacht, a 180-foot boat called the Bayesian, sank off the coast of Sicily in a violent storm. Of the 22 people aboard, 15 were rescued and seven others died . Search operations ended on Friday after the final body was recovered from the site of the sunken yacht .

Here’s what we know about the passengers.

Mike Lynch and his family

Mr. Lynch, 59, is a British software entrepreneur who had once been described as his country’s Bill Gates. He founded the software firm Autonomy, which analyzed clients’ unorganized data, and turned it into one of the most prominent British technology companies of its time. He became a widely known corporate leader, who advised David Cameron, the British prime minister at the time, and joined the board of the BBC.

In 2011, Mr. Lynch sold Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion, which was far above its market value, earning him hundreds of millions. But HP investors almost immediately soured on the transaction, and the American tech giant quickly fired its chief executive — and then Mr. Lynch.

HP later accused Mr. Lynch of misleading it about the state of Autonomy’s business, setting off a decade-long legal ordeal for the British executive, who denied the accusations. U.S. prosecutors charged him and other executives with fraud, and Autonomy’s chief financial officer was convicted in 2018.

Despite appeals to the British government, Mr. Lynch was extradited to the United States last year and was confined to a townhouse in San Francisco ahead of his criminal trial, which began in March. Facing the possibility of decades in prison if convicted, Mr. Lynch and another colleague were instead acquitted of all charges.

An official in Palermo, Sicily’s capital, said on Thursday that Mr. Lynch’s body had been recovered. His wife, Angela Bacares, 57, accompanied him on the yacht, and she was rescued on Monday when it sank. She was a consistent presence at his trial in the United States. Records show that she controlled Revtom, the company listed as the owner of the Bayesian.

The body of Hannah Lynch , Mr. Lynch and Ms. Bacares’s 18-year-old daughter, was thought to be recovered on Friday.

The other guests

Jonathan Bloomer, 70, chair of Morgan Stanley’s international arm and the chairman of Hiscox, an insurance provider that trades on the London Stock Exchange, was on the yacht when it sank, along with his wife, Judy Bloomer, 71. Their bodies are thought to be among those recovered, but Italian authorities have not identified them.

Christopher J. Morvillo, 59, a New York-based partner at the international law firm Clifford Chance, was also on the yacht. A former federal prosecutor who comes from a family of prominent lawyers, Mr. Morvillo represented Mr. Lynch during his criminal trial in San Francisco. His wife, Neda, 57, was with him on the yacht. Their bodies are also assumed to be among those recovered.

“We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” a representative of Clifford Chance said in a statement.

Surviving passengers rescued from the yacht include Charlotte Golunski, a partner at Mr. Lynch’s venture firm, Invoke Capital; Ms. Golunski’s husband, James Emslie; and their one-year-old daughter Sophie. Also rescued were Ayla Ronald, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, and her partner, Matthew Fletcher.

The yacht had a crew of 10, and nine were rescued. The body of the chef, Recaldo Thomas, was recovered from the water, the Sicilian Civil Protection Department said.

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting, and Kitty Bennett and Susan Campbell Beachy contributed research.

Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006. More about Michael J. de la Merced