Danny Porush was referred to as a Wolf in the 2013 movie, “The Wolf of Wall Street”, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Real-life Porush indeed was a member of the “Wolf Pack”, the band of fraudulent stock dealers who in the mid- ‘90s cheated Wall Street investors en masse and effectively stole 200 000 000 USD from them.
White-collar Criminality and Big Money
White-collar crime is nonviolent or non directly violent crime committed by businessmen/women or government professionals, to make money at the unfair expense of others. Typical white-collar crimes are, for example, fraud, wage theft, Ponzi schemes (paying out earlier investors with the money of new investors), bribery, insider trading, labor racketeering (using a business as legal cover for illegal acts). embezzlement (using rightful assets for unagreed purposes), cybercrime, identity theft, copyright infringement, money laundering, forgery, etc
Pump and Dump (P&D) Income
The Wolf Pack of which Danny Porush was one of the main driving forces, operated a Pump and Dump Scheme. A P&D is a fraudulent activity in which one buys cheap stock and then inflates it’s price by spreading false and misleading information in order to re-sell the cheaply purchased stock at a profit.
Once the sellers have sold their overpriced shares the price will sink and the buyers of the stock lose their money.
When a simple man steals a car and gets busted for it he’l get prosecuted and punished without much issue. When a rich man, however, steals money through complex legal constructions he gets away with it most of the time. Danny Porush indeed got punished and did 39 months of jailtime.
After this setback he started a business in medi-services and engaged with medi-care contracts. Again he was accused of financial wrongdoings but the judge eventually dismissed the case for lack of proof.
Actual Net Worth: How Can Danny Still Be Rich Today?
After two fraud accusations, doing jail time and having had to pay so many fines, how can he still have so much money? Well, his medical business flourished and in any case, white collar criminals stash their profits away behind complex systems of companies, banks, privacy protection, money laundering etc, which makes it sheer impossible for law enforcement to find all the stolen cash. In this way even after a total bankruptcy, these stealthy businessmen can still retain significant savings.
High Level Financial Criminality Is the Weak Leg of Democratic Society.
In third world countries the capability to exploit others is derived from one’s relationships with more powerful people, because the law is secondary to their will. They can override the law to punish fraudulent businessmen, if they don’t like their face. But, in such a system of governance, of course, the leaders themselves may be frauds, with no possible recourse against them.
Within democratic rule of law, however, because of how it safeguards the rights of the individual, it is easier for any one person to exploit financial systems, simply due to the complexities in the law.
It’s safe to say Danny was smart and, regardless of his crimes and setbacks, still enjoys being rich up to the present day. According to third sources his value is $10 million in 2022.