Ex-stock broker Jordan Belfort claims bosses at Red Granite Productions, the company behind the movie, lied about being 'legitimately funded' when he sold the rights to his life story.
- January 25, 2020
AceShowbiz - Jordan Belfort, the ex-stock broker whose life inspired "The Wolf of Wall Street", is suing the film's producers for $300 million (£229 million).
Belfort, who was played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film, which made $392 million (£300 million) in cinemas worldwide, claims bosses at Red Granite Productions, the company behind the movie, lied about being "legitimately funded" when he sold the rights to his life story.
Red Granite's co-founder Riza Aziz was arrested on suspicion of money laundering last year (19), following an investigation into a corruption scandal in Malaysia. Aziz is the stepson of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is accused of embezzling $700 million (£534 million) from the government-run development agency 1MDB - which helped fund the film.
According to the BBC, Belfort alleges Aziz, "concealed these criminal acts and funding sources from him," and that he was "blindsided" over the true source of the money behind the movie.
The Martin Scorsese film followed Belfort's rise and fall as a wild-living stockbroker in New York in the 1980s, depicting crimes for which he ended up spending 22 months in prison. He now wants the rights deal made void as he would never have made the deal had he known where the money was from.
Red Granite's lawyer Matthew Schwartz attacked Belfort in a statement, which reads: "Jordan Belfort's lawsuit is nothing more than a desperate and supremely ironic attempt to get out from under an agreement that for the first time in his life made him rich and famous through lawful and legitimate means."
