Real Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, sues filmmakers for $300m.
The filmmakers of 2013 hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street have been slapped with a $300m (£229m) by Jordan Belfort, the former stock broker whose story inspired the movie.
The movie, which featured Leonardo DiCaprio, on its release received an Oscar-nomination and a box office success.
He claims Red Granite Productions lied about being “legitimately funded” when he sold the rights to his story.
Responding to the suit, the company’s lawyer described Belfort’s lawsuit as “desperate and supremely ironic”.
A statement issued by the company lawyer’s Matthew Schwartz, “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.”
Red Granite Productions co-founder Riza Aziz was arrested on suspicion of money laundering last year.
Belfort, 57, claims Aziz “concealed these criminal acts and funding sources from him” and that he was “blindsided” over the true source of the company’s funding.
The film, which is Martin Scorsese’s biggest film success to date, was based on Belfort’s book, which described his wild rise as a young New York stockbroker in the late 80s, and his subsequent fall, through a haze of drugs, women, corruption and fraud.
Belfort, who spent 22 months in prison for crimes depicted in the 2013 movie, now wants to make his rights deal void, claiming he never would have made it had he known where the money was coming from.
DiCaprio’s portrayal of Belfort earned him a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.
