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Cape Town - Jordan Belfort, the former stockbroker, whose life inspired The Wolf of Wall Street, is suing the filmmakers for over R4.7 billion ($300 million) according to IndieWire. Jordan was played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film, which was Oscar-nominated and a box office success.
The author – who plead guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation – alleges that Red Granite Productions lied about being "legitimately funded" when he sold the rights to his story.
The company's lawyer described Belfort's lawsuit as "desperate and supremely ironic".
The film production company's co-founder, Riza Aziz, was arrested on suspicion of money laundering last year according to the BBC.
Off the back of those suspicions, Jordan now wants to make his contract with the production company void, claiming he never would have made it had he known where the money was coming from.
However, Red Granite's lawyer Matthew Schwartz said in a statement: "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."
Why is the motivational suing for that amount of money? Well, $300 million is the amount which the film made at the box office.
Compiled by Alex Isaacs. (Sources: BBC, IndieWire, Channel24)
