馃攳
The Real 'Wolf of Wall Street'? - YouTube
Channel: VICE
[6]
I had more clients that I could ever
[11]
wish for
[13]
I made friends with a lot of my clients
[15]
which were amazing creative partnerships
[20]
obviously we made millions and lost
[22]
millions and at the height of the
[25]
madness there were certainly lots of sex
[28]
with partners and a lot of drugs and
[33]
when I went to jail it all went away
[36]
what I can say is that I flew too close
[39]
to the Sun I guess everyone knows from
[43]
Icarus what happens when you do that you
[45]
lose it all and you fall back to earth
[48]
and now I'm trying to bring it all back
[51]
you
[62]
the oscar-nominated movie wolf of
[65]
wallstreet was famously based on the
[67]
story of Jordan Belfort a crooked
[69]
investment banker who made his money
[70]
selling worthless stocks at a high price
[72]
but according to some the original
[75]
inspiration behind Leonardo DiCaprio's
[77]
arranged the world of unfathomable
[79]
excess twinned with 1990s tailoring
[81]
apparently didn't come from Bell for
[83]
himself but from a man named Dana jikido
[88]
people close to Dana including Emily
[91]
white a former friend who wrote a
[92]
critical book about him and Dana himself
[94]
say Leo became interested in the idea of
[96]
making this film because he had lived it
[98]
with Dana Steves to newest Dana's friend
[102]
and Leo's former bodyguard says their
[104]
social scene was mirrored in the film
[106]
what did it look like when you walked
[108]
into Dana's apartment on one of the
[109]
biggest party nights so thanks to see
[111]
there was sex whose escorts basically
[115]
like the wolf of Wall Street Danny G of
[120]
Quetta was managing my savings and he
[123]
took half my account and put it in his
[126]
own account he somehow wanted to make
[128]
sure they knew they were making money so
[130]
he would take the poor person's money
[131]
and give it to the richer person and he
[133]
was living an extremely lavish lifestyle
[135]
which he either paid himself very very
[137]
well or some of that money got spent
[140]
Dena was the money manager to a-listers
[143]
in the 90s an apparently Leo's best
[145]
friend during the pinnacle of his fame
[147]
until he misappropriated nearly ten
[149]
million dollars
[153]
back in 1988 Dana used a $200,000 loan
[157]
from his mom to start a company called
[159]
Cassandra group he had already worked as
[161]
an account executive and used this
[163]
credential to convince his friends to
[165]
invest money with him tell me how you
[167]
first of all came up with the name
[168]
Cassandra well Cassandra was a Greek
[171]
mythological figure right Gianna and she
[174]
was never believed so she knew the
[177]
future but was never believed and in
[179]
investment circles a Cassandra is a
[181]
contrarian so Lissa foreshadowing yeah
[185]
so so I like the fact that Cassandra was
[188]
a foreshadowing of doom which is not
[190]
great but I also like the fact that she
[191]
she was a powerful figure who was never
[193]
believed so I thought that was
[194]
interesting and in investment circles
[197]
like Cassandra is as someone who was
[200]
actually the prophet of doom a
[203]
prophetess Atun so pretty kind what do
[206]
you make of that I mean it's I know it's
[207]
gonna go weird yeah it's it's a strange
[209]
thing that I picked that name and maybe
[211]
it was was it foreshadowing anything no
[213]
I think I'd liked it cuz it was said of
[215]
edgy and made sense for an advisor who
[217]
was working with artists Dana snagged an
[221]
up-and-coming client early Sub Pop
[223]
Records they were at that time
[226]
the sort of the premiere a list in the
[228]
indie music world they had Nirvana they
[230]
had Soundgarden Bruce Pavan and John
[233]
Portman created this scene and you know
[235]
in Seattle almost got a whole cloth
[238]
which was called grunge so having worked
[240]
with that and then at a very young age
[243]
selling 49% of Sub Pop at a forty
[247]
million dollar valuation we got twenty
[248]
million dollars for 49% of the company
[250]
this big deal
[252]
it was after Kurt Cobain's death so it
[255]
gave the Cassandra Group a lot of cachet
[257]
at the time in the music world this was
[259]
a massive deal and put dana on the map
[261]
as a young guy who can make artists big
[264]
money
[264]
soon after the a-listers were flocking
[268]
dana says leo would apparently spend
[270]
months living at his apartment
[272]
they even had matching cockatoos and
[274]
their parties were legendary two three
[278]
four five six seven eight to see where
[280]
the plants are yeah so that's what that
[282]
was my trading floor for Cassandra Gert
[284]
okay and so that was the trading floor
[286]
and then you live in that house the
[289]
penthouse where the light is on with the
[291]
five archers yeah this is the Prince
[293]
Street side and then when we go to
[294]
Broadway you can see those sides a giant
[296]
owl it's about 8,000 square feet and
[299]
then the room was mine as well
[301]
massive and who used to crash with you
[303]
at your place well as it's been told you
[306]
know Leonardo Toby Maguire
[308]
Matt Damon Ben Affleck Robert Downey jr.
[312]
stayed Smashing Pumpkins Cameron Alanis
[316]
Kate Moss q-tip Janet Jackson everyone
[322]
knows the story of I guess in Gilbert
[325]
Grape you know Leo climbs the water
[328]
tower
[329]
so they him and Toby did that on my roof
[333]
and we filmed it and then we almost got
[334]
thrown out of the apartment yeah well on
[337]
this shoot Dana offered to show us the
[338]
mountains of photos he had from the good
[340]
old days hanging out with his celebrity
[342]
friends I'm just gonna go through some
[345]
of these photos and think about where
[347]
they were this is Toby Maguire at a club
[350]
and this is right before Wonderboys that
[353]
he shot was from the set of the beach
[355]
where danny boyle directed amazing film
[359]
which could have been more amazing i
[360]
think if it was edited differently this
[362]
is me after doing like as many cocktails
[364]
as I could and taking lots of opiates
[367]
here it is a unhappy fish caught on the
[371]
side of the beach with stripes that we
[374]
were all think it was pretty cool you
[376]
can see my bird Angel really smart
[379]
animals it's like you know you put
[381]
cocaine in a little and in a nozzle here
[383]
and the parrot will say you know coke
[385]
and get the cocaine versus water angel
[388]
by the way for everyone's worried is
[390]
living in the Pennsylvania woods very
[392]
happy she's very happy his Jay Ferguson
[394]
on Naomi Campbell in Leonardo I'm at a
[397]
party in my house
[399]
a lot of these are from a party that we
[401]
had basically while Titanic was showing
[405]
at the Academy Awards we wanted to like
[407]
piss off the director deliberately so we
[410]
had a big party at the exact same time
[413]
that Titanic was running at the CAD
[415]
awards and it was a lot of fun as you
[417]
can see here's a remarkable meeting
[420]
where Bob Dylan played for the Pope and
[422]
Bologna the Pope was a little bit
[424]
intimidating because I thought he was
[426]
also frail and he was dying's Kevin
[428]
Connolly Leonardo DiCaprio and Jay
[431]
Ferguson and I were all in these really
[434]
heavy ritz-carlton bathrobes so walking
[438]
around naked except for the bathrobes
[441]
you could eat wherever you wanted you
[443]
could fly wherever you wanted it was a
[444]
sense of unbelievable freedom that and I
[447]
think a lot of us felt that it's a
[449]
really sexy feeling thing today I
[451]
can do anything I want I can go wherever
[453]
I want and that's gonna be okay and no
[456]
one's gonna say no and I think that was
[458]
yeah that's a good question
[474]
definitely the sex and the drugs and the
[477]
orgies were part of my life not because
[479]
it was instrumental in running a
[481]
merchant bank or an investment bank but
[483]
because it was just part of the culture
[485]
of the entertainment community right so
[487]
it was about access but it was also like
[489]
we talked about power and how that
[492]
convened and in Hollywood where it's all
[494]
artifice and mystical all right in
[498]
fantasy I think those things get
[500]
elevated so so the sacks the drugs all
[503]
of that is part and parcel to that
[505]
lifestyle which is about creating a
[507]
solid Cystic world in some senses or a
[510]
world in which pleasure and civic
[513]
lifestyle is accepted and it's actually
[517]
sometimes reveled in or even admired and
[521]
I think in the sense of Scorsese's with
[523]
Wall Street like you was saying that's
[525]
what you found compelling which is that
[527]
you're interested in the financial crime
[529]
you're interested in the excesses that
[532]
that crime created right and that was
[535]
what propelled that so yes I think my
[539]
lifestyle drugs and sex definitely not
[542]
the financial stuff has nothing to do my
[544]
life in 2000 Dana was convicted of fraud
[547]
under the Investment Advisers act after
[549]
his clients lost a total of nearly 10
[551]
million dollars he was sentenced to up
[553]
to 57 months in federal prison what do
[557]
you think you did wrong well I know what
[559]
I did wrong and I admitted it in court I
[561]
mean what we what I did that was wrong
[563]
was that violation of the advisors Act
[565]
we had a discreet fund called chase
[568]
Cassandra Entertainment Partners which
[570]
was doing private equity deals and for
[574]
15 years primarily what I did with my
[577]
clients was invest in blue chip stocks
[579]
and we made money we lost money but then
[582]
I started to get involved in a lot of
[584]
private placement deals and which were
[588]
like very very small sums of money I had
[593]
trusted these people to invest the money
[595]
for my clients I gave a lot of these
[597]
people my clients money
[598]
and moved it into them and then it
[601]
wasn't coming back so I had to move it
[603]
back into the accounts and that looked
[605]
like I was stealing money and that's why
[606]
people say well it was a Ponzi scheme
[608]
because he had money coming in to buy
[609]
this investment money going out to buy
[611]
the investment that's actually what
[612]
happened at the time to be clear
[615]
Dana would take one asset to fill the
[617]
emptiness of another once it was lost
[619]
despite Dana's casual explanation this
[621]
is a major criminal offense did you at
[631]
any point try to cover it up tell your
[635]
clients listen we are making money it's
[637]
just not in your account yet now I never
[640]
tried to cover it up I didn't I didn't
[642]
know what was going on myself so I tried
[644]
to figure out what was actually going on
[647]
before I told my clients anything I
[649]
realized that some of those deals had
[651]
gone south I told my clients look I
[654]
don't think you're gonna get your money
[655]
out still Dana would tap into his
[657]
clients accounts and make checks out to
[658]
himself he was also able to cash checks
[661]
made out to his clients he continued to
[663]
tell us that he still didn't believe he
[665]
did anything wrong
[666]
aside from making bad investments I
[669]
thought I was gifted with the ability to
[672]
bring these fields together and I could
[674]
empower the artist by demystifying the
[678]
cap of the markets for them and helping
[680]
them and the horrible thing about being
[681]
painted the brushes of you know as a
[683]
thief is that I'm not a thief and that
[685]
the very people that I was trying to
[687]
help you know um I was basically the
[691]
press said I was actually trying to rip
[692]
them off it's a horrible thing do you
[694]
think that there's ever say an action
[696]
taken in in when you were getting into
[699]
trouble where you looked at it you said
[701]
that's not wrong and someone else looked
[703]
at the exact same action and said that's
[705]
pretty wrong actually what I did is I
[708]
looked at stuff and said this is really
[709]
wrong and when I talked to the my
[712]
partners at the bank they said oh don't
[714]
don't worry about it
[715]
and they you know signed every check
[718]
with me so is really problematic but not
[721]
problematic enough for him to stop doing
[723]
it until the SEC got involved but Dana
[726]
had a clear obsession with his celebrity
[727]
friends losing their money meant losing
[730]
their friendship do you think that
[732]
because you form those personal
[733]
relationships with your clients you felt
[736]
so strongly about not screwing up their
[739]
investments that you then made bad
[741]
decisions because you didn't want to
[743]
tell them that maybe they had been
[744]
losing money no I did tell I had lots of
[747]
hard conversations with people about
[748]
losing money I think the really
[749]
difficult thing is I care less about
[751]
money than I care about the like getting
[753]
patted on the back from the client gives
[754]
me a good kiss says thanks good job and
[756]
then I know that I no one else had that
[758]
ability or very few people have that
[760]
ability to realize that dream and to
[763]
make that dream a reality that really
[765]
turns me on when news of his financial
[768]
scams went public all of his celebrity
[770]
friends were advised to leave him the
[772]
one friend that didn't leave him paid
[774]
the price
[775]
earlier this year there was a criminal
[777]
complaint about me saying that Stevie is
[779]
a victim in a case and of course he's
[782]
not a victim no no every on but again I
[784]
think that was the first rift I had with
[786]
Dana yeah because I had called his
[788]
attorney I didn't know anything about
[789]
what was happening and his attorney was
[791]
was being difficult with me and led me
[794]
to believe that possibly he did steal my
[796]
identity my I think I called a non
[798]
pathological liar but thanks although I
[801]
was you know what do you do when you led
[803]
to believe that your body stole you know
[806]
took your credit cards and was wacked up
[808]
take I you know at the end of the date
[809]
he did not it didn't happen that way it
[811]
was purely based on miscommunication
[814]
between his attorney night Dana was
[817]
recently accused of charging over
[818]
$10,000 on Steve's credit card Dana told
[821]
us he turned himself in to avoid the bad
[823]
press of a trial the settlement details
[826]
are confidential
[833]
if the elevator guy comes down I'll take
[835]
you up and maybe we'll bust some people
[838]
that don't want to see me just to see if
[840]
it's fun
[841]
Dana tried to show us one of his old
[843]
hangouts cos on my man's hair
[851]
I'm trying to finish this movie cool
[854]
is that right get out here to join in I
[858]
think so why not
[860]
but he got rejected at the door thanks
[864]
back uh he's been the doorman here for
[868]
since it opened and um this is Mercer
[872]
we're great ASSA hotel and um
[878]
yeah private and special and secretive
[885]
as you can see
[898]
do you find that it's difficult for
[900]
artists to trust you I think if you
[902]
write a lot of the stuff about me you
[903]
would find it difficult
[904]
yeah but I think once they meet me and
[906]
they realize what I'm like and what I'm
[908]
about it's not that difficult do you
[910]
feel like any clients still hold a
[912]
grudge against you I don't think there
[915]
are a lot of people in the world that
[915]
hate danger Ducato I think a lot of
[917]
people in the world that don't know what
[919]
happened and so that I was painting with
[921]
this brush if they think maybe he was a
[922]
thief or maybe hit his head end of the
[923]
cookie jar it's not that at all but we
[926]
second give me the opportunity to
[927]
actually tell you what happened which is
[929]
really lovely thank you
[935]
incredible in that hatton this is where
[938]
I try to create value to people I did it
[941]
with Cassandra now I'm doing with D two
[943]
consultants but I'll always create value
[946]
for those matter the wall street punk
[949]
rocker is occupying Fifth Avenue so look
[952]
at most people don't live in a world of
[957]
extraordinary privilege and what happens
[959]
to young middle-class people that become
[962]
celebrities and I'm probably one of the
[963]
few people in the world that his
[964]
experiences over and over again with
[966]
young clients who literally were broke
[969]
and became extraordinarily wealthy just
[971]
forget about the economics not only
[974]
wealth but extraordinary worldwide fame
[977]
that Fame and that wealth gives you
[979]
access to power sex money access
[985]
privilege and also people start to
[990]
believe well maybe you know maybe I'm
[992]
not like everybody else and humility
[994]
becomes extraction it's hard to be
[998]
humble when you could sleep with anyone
[1001]
in the room you know or and you can buy
[1003]
anything in the room right so you know
[1005]
it's the the idea that it's the abscess
[1008]
if you know the absence of humility
[1019]
you
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage