So I sat down in front of my laptop and wrote what I thought to be the perfect opening sentence. It was how I felt while I was in jail all those months, and it was how I felt my first day on Wall Street. In point of fact, it was how I felt at that very moment, staring at the blank computer screen.

“You're lower than pond scum,”I wrote.

1*Name has been changed

2*Name has been changed

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Once again, I'd like to thank my literary agent, Joel Gotler, for all his support. He's been many things to me over the years, but most of all, he's been a friend.

I'd also like to thank my editor, Danielle Perez, for all her wonderful insight. I've learned more about writing from Danielle than from all my English teachers combined—from kindergarten through college.

And, of course, I'd like to thank my publisher, Irwyn Applebaum, who helped me in so many ways that I can't even count them all, and also many thanks to Barb Burg, Theresa Zoro, and Chris Artis in Bantam Dell's publicity department.

Many thanks to Alexandra Milchan, for working so hard on the movie side of things, and, of course, to Scott Lambert as well, who's been both a friend and an adviser to me. Scotty and Alexandra are married—and what a couple they are! Going out for dinner with them is like watching two gunfighters throwing down, albeit with BlackBerrys instead of guns.

I'd also like to thank Terry Winter, who read the unpublished manuscript and signed on to adapt the book for the movies before there was any buzz on it at all. He's an absolutely brilliant writer. I felt very comfortable with him adapting the book—figuring that anyone who could make Tony Soprano seem sympathetic was the right guy for me.

And I'd also like to thank my parents, Max and Leah, for always being there for me; my two wonderful children, Chandler and Carter, who've chosen to respect their dad for the way he lives his life now, not in the past; my ex-wife Nadine (aka the Duchess) for being such a wonderful, caring mother; and to the newest addition in my life, little Bowen Boulliane, who brightens up my life with all his Bowenisms.

And many thanks to my good friends Bo Dietl, Kris Mesner, Michael Peragine, Paul Scialla, John Flynn, Todd Kissel, Bob and Toni Shottenhammer, Renne and Anne Sandera, Johnny Marine, Marc Glazier, John Macaluso, Javier Perez (the world's best soccer coach), all the boys at Starbucks—Mitch, Dr. Al, Tre, Jim T.—and to Petros at Petros Restaurant in Manhattan Beach, for all the times I've tied up his tables, writing this book, and to Milo at Shade Hotel, for the same reason. And, of course, to all my fans who bought Wolf I,especially the ones who wrote me letters of encouragement. They were so important to me.

And, lastly, I'd like to thank the most positive influence in my life, George Benedict, who, by sheer example, proved to me that a leopard can definitely change his spots. There is no person in my life who has ever been kinder and more supportive of me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JORDAN BELFORT lives in Los Angeles. He served twenty-two months in prison and spent one month in rehab.

CATCHING THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

A Bantam Book / March 2009

Published by Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

All rights reserved Copyright © 2009 by Jordan Belfort

Bantam Books is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.,

and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Belfort, Jordan.

Catching the Wolf of Wall Street / by Jordan Belfort.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-553-90601-1

1. Belfort, Jordan. 2. Securities fraud. 3. Stockbrokers—United States—Biography.

4. Wall Street (New York, N.Y) I. Title.

HV6766.B45A3 2009

332.6′2092—dc22

[B] 2008047665

www.bantamdell.com

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