Danny Porush

Last updated

Danny Porush
BornFebruary 1957 (1957-02) (age 67)
Lawrence, New York, U.S.
Occupations
  • Businessman
  • stockbroker
Criminal statusReleased in 2004 after 39 months
Spouse
Nancy Porush
​
​
(m. 1986;div. 2000)​
Lisa Krause
​
(m. 2000)​
Children4
Conviction(s)
Criminal penalty39 months in federal prison, $200 million in restitution

Daniel Mark Porush [1] (born February 1957) is an American businessman, former stock broker and convicted criminal who helped run a pump and dump stock fraud scheme in the 1990s at the Stratton Oakmont brokerage in collaboration with Jordan Belfort. In 1999, he was convicted of securities fraud and money laundering, for which he served 39 months in prison. [2] After prison, Porush became involved with a Florida-based medical supply company, Med-Care, which was the subject of federal investigations. In the biographical 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, which focuses on the story of Belfort and Stratton Oakmont, Jonah Hill portrays Donnie Azoff, a character loosely based on Porush. Porush has called the portrayal inaccurate and threatened to sue the filmmakers to prevent him from being depicted. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Danny Porush, the son of a doctor, was raised in a Jewish family in Lawrence, Nassau County, New York. [4] [5] [6] He graduated from Lawrence Woodmere Academy. [4] He attended Dickinson College and Boston University but did not graduate. [4] [7] According to New York magazine, Porush then "bounced from job to job, working for, and starting up, a variety of small businesses." [7]

Career

Stratton Oakmont

In the late 1980s, Porush helped Jordan Belfort found Stratton Oakmont, a Long Island, New York "over-the-counter" (OTC) brokerage house of which Belfort was chairman and Porush was president. [8] Stratton Oakmont specialized in selling "penny stocks" and underwriting initial public offerings for small companies, including for Steve Madden (a childhood friend of Porush), [5] Master Glazier's Karate International Inc., Dualstar Technologies, [9] Select Media Communications, [9] United Leisure Corporation [9] and Questron Technology. [10] In 1994, Porush took over as chairman and CEO of Stratton after Belfort was barred from the industry. [11]

Beginning in 1989, Stratton Oakmont became the subject of numerous disciplinary actions by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). [11] [12] It was determined that Stratton Oakmont was involved in pump and dump stock fraud that involved artificially inflating the price of stocks through false and misleading positive statements in order to sell cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operators of the scheme "dumped" their overvalued shares, the price fell and investors lost their money. [13] In December 1996, the NASD permanently expelled Stratton Oakmont and barred Porush as well, fining him $250,000. [11] The NASD rejected Porush's claim that he was only "a figurehead", citing him as the salesperson with the largest individual allocation. [11] In its decision to bar Porush and his head trader, Steven P. Sanders, the NASD wrote that "[they] continue to deny responsibility and exhibit no remorse for [their] misconduct, and, but for the bar, would continue to pose an ongoing risk to the investing public." [11]

Following a federal indictment, Porush and Belfort pleaded guilty to 10 counts of securities fraud and money laundering in 1999. [14] In an exchange for reduced sentences, they cooperated with federal investigations of their colleagues. [14] Porush was "convicted of insider trading, perjury, conspiracy and money laundering and ordered to pay $200 million in restitution." [15] He was sentenced to four years in prison and Belfort to two years. Porush was released on probation in 2004 after serving 39 months. [2] [16]

In 2013, the story of Stratton Oakmont as told by Belfort in his 2007 memoir was made into Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street . In the film, Jonah Hill portrays the character Donnie Azoff, loosely based on Porush. Porush has said that many of the movie's scenes are fictional. [3] The character's name was changed during movie development after Porush threatened to sue Paramount Pictures if he was depicted. [17]

Medical supplies

After his release from prison in 2004, Porush became involved with a Boca Raton, Florida-based medical supply and medical equipment company that, according to Forbes magazine, has operated under the names Med-Care Diabetic & Medical Supplies, Christian Diabetics and the Christian Healthcare Network. [2] Med-Care was the subject of a congressional hearing on Medicare fraud in April 2013. [18] [19] In May 2014, Porush's involvement with Med-Care was cited as reason for a portion of the federal Stop Scams Act of 2014, which would require Medicare providers to disclose their ownership interests. [19] [20] According to Med-Care's attorney, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had been informed and had previously reviewed, and approved, Porush's role with the company. [19]

In 2014, Porush and five other Med-Care company personnel were named in a whistleblower lawsuit alleging fraudulent Medicare claims. [18] The case was initially dismissed in federal court for lack of specific proof. [21] But the lawsuit was refiled and accepted in federal court when the initial whistleblower was joined by two more former Med-Care employees alleging the company of defrauding the federal government. [22] The lawsuit alleged that telemarketers, under Porush's guidance, made unsolicited calls to citizens and used high-pressure sales tactics to push them to accept medical supplies they might not have wanted. [15] On January 14, 2015, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, Florida fraud department, and local police raided Med-Care Diabetic & Medical Supplies' Boca Raton offices and removed files. [23] [24] On January 16, 2015, Med-Care's attorneys filed a motion in court to disqualify the whilstleblowers' attorneys for professional conflict of interest. [15]

Personal life

In 1986, Porush married his cousin Nancy; [25] they divorced in 2000. Porush is now married to Lisa Krause. [26]

In 2006, Porush's first wife sued him for failure to pay child support. [2] He said he owned no assets and that everything belonged to his second wife. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pump and dump</span> Form of securities fraud

Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements (pump), in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price (dump). Once the operators of the scheme "dump" (sell) their overvalued shares, the price falls and investors lose their money. This is most common with small-cap cryptocurrencies and very small corporations/companies, i.e. "microcaps".

Humana Inc. is a for-profit American health insurance company based in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2023, the company ranked 42 on the Fortune 500 list, which made it the highest ranked company based in Kentucky. It is the fourth largest health insurance provider in the U.S.

Penny stocks are common shares of small public companies that trade for less than one dollar per share. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) uses the term "Penny stock" to refer to a security, a financial instrument which represents a given financial value, issued by small public companies that trade at less than $5 per share. Penny stocks are priced over-the-counter, rather than on the trading floor. The term "penny stock" refers to shares that, prior to the SEC's classification, traded for "pennies on the dollar". In 1934, when the United States government passed the Securities Exchange Act to regulate any and all transactions of securities between parties which are "not the original issuer", the SEC at the time disclosed that equity securities which trade for less than $5 per share could not be listed on any national stock exchange or index.

In business, a boiler room is an outbound call center selling questionable investments by telephone. It usually refers to a room where salespeople work using unfair, dishonest sales tactics, sometimes selling penny stocks or private placements or committing outright stock fraud. A common boiler room tactic is the use of falsified and bolstered information in combination with verified company-released information. The term is pejorative: it is often used to imply high-pressure sales tactics and, sometimes, poor working conditions.

Steven Madden is an American fashion designer and businessman. He is the founder and former chief executive officer of Steve Madden, Ltd., a publicly traded company. He was forced to resign as an executive following a conviction for financial crimes.

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational health insurance and services company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Selling insurance products under UnitedHealthcare, and health care services and care delivery aided by technology and data under Optum, it is the world's eleventh-largest company by revenue and the largest health care company by revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenet Healthcare</span> American healthcare company

Tenet Healthcare Corporation is a for-profit multinational healthcare services company based in Dallas, Texas, United States. Through its brands, subsidiaries, joint ventures, and partnerships, including United Surgical Partners International (USPI), the company operates 65 hospitals and over 450 healthcare facilities. Tenet also operates Conifer Health Solutions, which provides healthcare support services to health systems and other clients.

Community Health Systems (CHS) is a Fortune 500 company based in Franklin, Tennessee. It was the largest provider of general hospital healthcare services in the United States in terms of number of acute care facilities. In 2014, CHS had around 200 hospitals, but the number had declined to around 85 in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratton Oakmont</span> Defunct American brokerage house (1989–1996)

Stratton Oakmont, Inc. was a Long Island, New York, over-the-counter brokerage house founded in 1989 by Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush. It defrauded many shareholders, leading to the arrest and incarceration of several executives and the closing of the firm in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Elgindy</span>

Anthony Elgindy, was an American stock broker, and financial commentator who founded Pacific Equity Investigations. Elgindy gained a reputation for his "investigations" of companies. Towards the end of his life, Elgindy was convicted of insider trading and served seven years in federal prison.

In the United States, Medicare fraud is the claiming of Medicare health care reimbursement to which the claimant is not entitled. There are many different types of Medicare fraud, all of which have the same goal: to collect money from the Medicare program illegitimately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microcap stock fraud</span> Form of securities fraud

Microcap stock fraud is a form of securities fraud involving stocks of "microcap" companies, generally defined in the United States as those with a market capitalization of under $250 million. Its prevalence has been estimated to run into the billions of dollars a year. Many microcap stocks are penny stocks, which the SEC defines as a security that trades at less than $5 per share, is not listed on a national exchange, and fails to meet other specific criteria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan Belfort</span> American former stockbroker (born 1962)

Jordan Ross Belfort is an American former stockbroker, financial criminal, and businessman who pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running a boiler room as part of a penny-stock scam in 1999. Belfort spent 22 months in prison as part of an agreement under which, becoming an informant for the FBI and wearing a wire, he gave testimony against numerous partners and subordinates in his fraud scheme. He published the memoir The Wolf of Wall Street in 2007, which was adapted into Martin Scorsese's film of the same name released in 2013, in which he was played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

L.F. Rothschild was a merchant and investment banking firm based in the United States and founded in 1899. The firm collapsed following the 1987 stock market crash.

Ira Lee Sorkin is an American attorney. He is best known for representing Bernard Madoff, the American businessman who pleaded guilty to perpetrating the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elevance Health</span> American healthcare company

Elevance Health, Inc. is an American health insurance provider. Prior to June 2022, Elevance Health was named Anthem, Inc. The company's services include medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans through affiliated companies such as Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Anthem Blue Cross in California, Wellpoint, and Carelon. It is the largest for-profit managed health care company in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. As of 2022, the company had 46.8 million members within its affiliated companies' health plans.

<i>The Wolf of Wall Street</i> (2013 film) 2013 film by Martin Scorsese

The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American biographical black comedy film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter, based on Jordan Belfort's 2007 memoir of the same name. It recounts Belfort's career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm, Stratton Oakmont, engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street, leading to his downfall. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend, Donnie Azoff, Margot Robbie as his second wife, Naomi Lapaglia, Matthew McConaughey as his mentor and former boss Mark Hanna, and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham. It is DiCaprio's fifth collaboration with Scorsese.

<i>The Wolf of Wall Street</i> (book) 2007 memoir by Jordan Belfort

The Wolf of Wall Street is a memoir by former stockbroker and trader Jordan Belfort, first published in September 2007 by Bantam Books, then adapted into a 2013 film of the same name. Belfort's autobiographical account was continued by Catching the Wolf of Wall Street, published in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DaVita</span> American dialysis provider

DaVita Inc. provides kidney dialysis services through a network of 2,816 outpatient dialysis centers in the United States, serving 204,200 patients, and 321 outpatient dialysis centers in 10 other countries serving 3,200 patients. The company primarily treats end-stage renal disease (ESRD), which requires patients to undergo dialysis 3 times per week for the rest of their lives unless they receive a donor kidney. The company has a 37% market share in the U.S. dialysis market. It is organized in Delaware and based in Denver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadine Macaluso</span> American psychologist (born 1967)

Nadine Macaluso, formerly Belfort, is a British-born American psychologist, author, internet personality, and former model. She was the second wife of the stockbroker and financial criminal Jordan Belfort, to whom she was married from 1991 to 2005. Throughout her marriage, she was referred to in the press as the "Duchess of Bay Ridge".

References

  1. ↑ Sharon R. King, "Two Former Stratton Officials Indicted on Fraud Charges", The New York Times, September 4, 1998
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Maiello, Michael; Stewart, Emily (August 21, 2008). "Blood Money". Forbes . Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Suebsaeng, Asawin (December 10, 2013). "Dwarf-Tossing, 3-Way With Teen Employee Never Happened, Says Real "Wolf of Wall Street" Exec". Mother Jones. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Harrigan, Susan (2002). "Castles Made of Sand". In Andrew Leckey (ed.). The Best Business Stories of the Year: 2002 Edition. Vintage Books. pp. 227–257. ISBN   0-375-72501-6.
  5. 1 2 Pfefferman, Naomi (January 6, 2014). "Jonah Hill's not-so-nice Jewish guy". Jewish Journal. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  6. ↑ Goldberg, Jennifer (February 2014). "Oscars are light on Jewish nominees". Jewish News. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Johanna Berkman (February 26, 2001). "Steve Madden: Crisis of the Sole". New York . Retrieved January 14, 2015. After five years at Boston University, he left without getting a degree and bounced from job to job, working for, and starting up, a variety of small businesses, including an ambulance company called SureRide Ambulette.
  8. ↑ Wyatt, Edward (September 24, 1999). "Stratton Oakmont Executives Admit Stock Manipulation". The New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 "Order Making Findings and Imposing Remedial Sanctions". Administrative Proceeding File 3-9491. Securities and Exchange Commission. August 18, 1998. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Questron Technology Inc". SEC Info. SEC database. November 15, 1995. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Condon, Nancy A. (December 5, 1996). "NASD Regulation Expels Stratton Oakmont; Principals Also Barred". Press Release. Financial Industry Regulation Authority. Archived from the original on October 4, 2014. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  12. ↑ Eaton, Leslie (December 6, 1996). "The N.A.S.D. expels Stratton Oakmont, ordering repayment". The New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Pump and Dump Schemes". Fast Answers. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 12, 2001. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  14. 1 2 Wyatt, Edward (September 24, 1999). "Stratton Oakmont Executives Admit Stock Manipulation". The New York Times . Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  15. 1 2 3 Green, Laura (January 18, 2015). "Former employees say Med-Care defrauded government". The Palm Beach Post. Washington. Retrieved December 22, 2017. It said the company cold-called seniors and other consumers, pushing them to accept medical equipment they may not have wanted or needed... The complaint alleges telemarketers were guided by Danny Porush, "who is an expert in running high-pressure telemarketing operations."
  16. ↑ Baynes, Terry; Michael Pell (February 21, 2014). "Health fraud lawsuit echoes 'Wolf of Wall Street'". Reuters. New York. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  17. ↑ Nehme, Farran Smith (December 21, 2013). "Good Film, Extremely Bad Wolf". Barron's .
  18. 1 2 Baynes, Terry (February 21, 2014). "Health fraud lawsuit echoes 'Wolf of Wall Street'". Reuters. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  19. 1 2 3 Green, Laura (May 25, 2014). "Legislation aims to curb Medicare scams". West Palm Beach Post. Washington. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  20. ↑ "All-out press to combat Medicare fraud". Media Release. United States Senator Bill Nelson. May 13, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  21. ↑ Green, Laura (June 26, 2014). "Judge throws out fraud claim against Med-care". West Palm Beach Post. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  22. ↑ Green, Laura (January 14, 2015). "Boca Raton firm with link to 'Wolf of Wall Street' raided by feds". The Palm Beach Post. Washington. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  23. ↑ Aruna Viswanatha and Zachary Fagenson (January 14, 2015). "FBI raids Florida firm with 'Wolf of Wall Street' link: witnesses". Reuters . Retrieved January 14, 2015.
  24. ↑ Bess Levin (January 14, 2015). "Guy Whose Life of Crime Was Memorialized in Leonardo DiCaprio Flick Not Yet Done With Life of Crime". Dealbreaker.com. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
  25. ↑ Dockterman, Elianna (December 26, 2013). "The Wolf of Wall Street: The True Story". Time .
  26. ↑ "How the Wolf of Wall Street's partner in crime lives". NewsComAu.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.