My friend Michael took me to a press screening for the new Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Wolf of Wall Street last night. It was a really good movie-- so good in fact that when a song I published came on-- "Never Say Never" by RomeoVoid; thank you, Robbie Robertson-- that wasn't even the highlight of the film for me! The movie is based on the real life story of Wall Street fraud and depravity-- the Stratton Oakmont predatory brokerage firm and its founder and CEO, Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio). The Stratton Oakmont scandal had already inspired one film in 2000, Boiler Room starring Ben Affleck, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi and Nia Long, but The Wolf Of Wall Street is more literal-- and more likely to be a mainstream smash hit.Belfort was a drug-addicted swindler in the '90s who got busted by the FBI and was sentenced to 3 years (and served less than two) in prison after he agreed to wear a wire and turn in his colleagues. He was supposed to pay back around $110 million to just over 1,500 clients he swindled-- which he hasn't done. The actual Belfort, now an author-- yes, he wrote The Wolf of Wall Street-- and a motivational speaker, actually appeared in the film, albeit briefly, introducing DiCaprio at a motivational workshop in New Zealand after he got out of the easiest prison sentence ever at a Club Fed.Belfort started his crime spree in the heart of Steve Israel's district-- and was bribing (and not the legalistic kind of bribing) crooked Republican Senator Alfonse D'Amato. Aside from substantial contributions to D'Amato's election campaigns, Belfort gave a hefty $100,000 to the RNC (January 29, 1992) which the RNC has never given up-- even after Belfort was behind bars. They spent that $100,000 as part of the 1994 Republican Revolution that brought the Gingrich gang to power--including slimy characters like John Ensign (NV), Bob Ney (OH), Bob Barr (GA), Dave Weldon (FL), Joe Scarborough (FL), Brian Bilbray (CA), Enid Greene (UT), Charlie Bass (NH), J.D. Hayworth (AZ), Jerry Weller (IL), Sue Myrick (NC), Mark Sanford (SC), and Steve Stockman (TX), each of whom subsequently went on to his or her own repulsive scandal, although only one, Ney, actually served prison time so far.The movie itself didn't address Belfort's politics or his relationship with crooked politicians like D'Amato or why exactly he gave the RNC $100,000 at a time when he was being investigated by the FBI for systematically swindling hundreds of clients out of millions of dollars. The movie, however, is a powerful statement about why characters like Belfort who absolutely dominate Wall Street and are completely typical of the kind of characters who are attracted to that environment and thrive there, need to be regulated-- and why corrupt conservatives (watch this video of bribe-taking New Jersey Congressman and Wall Street whore Scott Garrett fighting against regulation this week on Fox) oppose regulation.This is as good a place as any to mention which half dozen Members of the House-- each of whom is notoriously corrupt and should be serving time in prison instead of in DC-- have taken the biggest legalistic bribes from the securities and investment industry so far this year:
• John Boehner (R-OH)- $441,355• Eric Cantor (R-VA)- $346,950• Tom Cotton (R-AR)- $162,350• Scott Garrett (R-NJ)- $140,750• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)- $138,700• Paul Ryan (R-WI)- $135,018
