November 11, 1974
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
The Wolf of Wall Street true story confirms that, like in the movie, Stratton Oakmont was the name of the real Jordan Belfort's Long Island, New York brokerage house. Belfort and co-founder Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill in the movie) chose the name because it sounded prestigious ( NYTimes.com ). The firm would later be accused of manipulating the IPOs of at least 34 companies, including Steve Madden Ltd. (their biggest deal), Dualstar Technologies, Paramount Financial, D.V.I. Financial, M. H. Meyerson & Co., Czech Industries, M.V.S.I. Technology, Questron Technologies, and Etel Communications.
Belfort's Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm ran a classic "pump and dump" operation. Belfort and several of his executives would buy up a particular company's stock and then have an army of brokers (following a script he had prepared) sell it to unsuspecting investors. This would cause the stock to rise, pretty much guaranteeing Belfort and his associates a substantial profit. Soon, the stock would fall back to reality, with the investors bearing a significant loss. -NYTimes.com
At its peak in the 1990s, Stratton Oakmont, Belfort's firm that he co-founded with Danny Porush, employed more than 1,000 brokers. -TheDailyBeast.com
No. "We never abused [or threw] the midgets in the office; we were friendly to them," Danny Porush (the real Donnie Azoff) says. "There was no physical abuse." Porush does admit that the firm hired little people to attend at least one party. Jordan Belfort's memoir The Wolf of Wall Street only discusses the tossing of little people as a possibility, not something that actually happened. -MotherJones.com
The events in The Wolf of Wall Street movie took place during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush founded the brokerage firm of Stratton Oakmont in the late 1980s. The securities fraud and money laundering charges brought against the firm involved companies that Stratton Oakmont helped raise money for in public stock offerings from 1990 through 1997. In 1996, Stratton Oakmont was banned from the brokerage industry, which eventually forced the company to close its doors. -NYTimes.com
No, at least not according to the former co-founder and president of the Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm, Danny Porush (portrayed by Jonah Hill in the movie). The real Porush says that he is not aware of anyone at the firm calling Jordan the "wolf." Porush says that it's just one of a number of exaggerations and inventions in both Belfort's book and the movie. -MotherJones.com
Yes. In exploring The Wolf of Wall Street true story, we learned that Jordan Belfort claims to have met Matthew McConaughey's character's real-life counterpart, Mark Hanna, in 1987 when he was working at the old-money trading firm of L.F. Rothschild. His new acquaintance was an uproarious senior broker at the firm and introduced Belfort to the excess and debauchery that Belfort would later make a daily staple at Stratton Oakmont. Like in the movie, the real Mark Hanna behind McConaughey's character told Belfort that the key to success was masturbation, cocaine and hookers, in addition to making your customers reinvest their winnings so you can collect the commissions. -TheDailyBeast.com
Yes. In The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is shown snorting cocaine off a prostitute's backside and nearly crashing his private helicopter while high on a cocktail of prescription drugs, including Quaaludes, morphine and Xanax. In researching The Wolf of Wall Street true story, it quickly became clear that Belfort used drugs heavily in real life too. In his memoir, he states that at times he had enough "running through my circulatory system to sedate Guatemala."
Yes. Belfort was known to stir his troops into action by belting out words of motivation through a microphone. However, his speeches were often filled with more self-adulation than DiCaprio's speeches in the movie.
The real Jordan Belfort claims this is true in his memoir. The female employee let them shave off her blonde hair for $10,000, which she used to pay for D-cup breast implants. Co-founder Danny Porush also says that the shaving took place, "...the worst we ever did was shave somebody's head and then pay 'em ten grand for it," says Porush. -MotherJones.com
Yes. The character in the movie, Brad Bodnick, who has a goatee and is portrayed by The Walking Dead 's Jon Bernthal, is based on Jordan Belfort's real-life Quaalude supplier, Todd Garret. In his memoir, the real Jordan Belfort claims that Garret sold him approximately 10,000 Quaaludes.
No. According to co-founder Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill in the movie), the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio's character pals around with a chimp is pure monkey business. "There was never a chimpanzee in the office," says Porush. "There were no animals in the office...I would also never abuse an animal in any way" (though he does admit to eating the goldfish, see below). -MotherJones.com
Yes. According to Jordan Belfort's memoir, the real Donnie Azoff (whose actual name is Danny Porush) did marry his first cousin Nancy "because she was a real piece of ass." After twelve years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1998 after Danny told Nancy that he was in love with another woman ( NYPost.com ). Danny and his ex-wife share three children together.
Though the movie and Belfort's memoir might seem like gross exaggerations of the truth, depicting heavy drug use and sexcapades in the office during trading hours, they're not exaggerations at all says the F.B.I. agent who finally took Belfort into custody, "I tracked this guy for ten years, and everything he wrote is true." Kyle Chandler portrays the agent in the Martin Scorsese movie. -NYTimes.com
Yes, but according to Belfort the car wasn't a Lamborghini like in the movie, it was a Mercedes. He was so high in a drug daze that he couldn't remember causing several different accidents as he tried to make his way home. In real life, one of the accidents was a head-on collision that actually sent a woman to the hospital. -TheDailyBeast.com
Yes. According to the real Donnie Azoff, whose actual name is Danny Porush, the scene where Jonah Hill's character eats a goldfish is based on a true story. "I said to one of the brokers, 'If you don't do more business, I'm gonna eat your goldfish!'" Porush recalls. "So I did." -MotherJones.com
In one scene of The Wolf of Wall Street movie, bricks of cash are taped to a Swiss woman's body. "[I] never taped money to boobs," the real Danny Porush says (played by Jonah Hill in the movie). According to Jordan Belfort's memoir, the event did happen but his partner Porush wasn't there. -MotherJones.com
Yes. As shown in The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Steve Madden had been a childhood friend of Belfort's partner Danny Porush (renamed Donnie Azoff in the movie and portrayed by actor Jonah Hill). Their fondness for drugs and alcohol reunited the two of them. During the initial public offering of his footwear company, Steve Madden Ltd., Madden acquired a large number of shares of his company, which were actually being controlled by Belfort and his firm, Stratton Oakmont. Once shares became available to the public, Stratton Oakmont got down to the business of selling them to unsuspecting suckers. Billing Madden's company as the hottest issue on Wall Street, Belfort's brokers in turn drove up the price. Eventually, Steve Madden was to sell off his shares when the hype was at its peak, just before the stock began its inevitable decline. Similar to what is seen in the movie, Belfort still maintains that Steve Madden tried to steal his Steve Madden shares from him. However, Jordan Belfort did make approximately $23 million in two hours as part of the deal with Steve Madden, who would later be charged as an accomplice to Belfort's scheme. -NYTimes.com For his part, Steve Madden was sentenced to 41 months in prison and was forced to resign as CEO of Steve Madden Ltd. He also resigned from the company's board of directors. However, he did not leave the company entirely. He kept his foot (or shoe) in the door by giving himself the title of creative consultant, for which he was well-compensated even while he was in prison. -Slate.com
Yes. In real life, Belfort's 167-foot yacht, which was originally owned by Coco Chanel, sunk off the coast of Italy when Belfort, who was high on drugs at the time, insisted that the captain take the boat through a storm ( TheDailyBeast.com ). Listen to Belfort tell the story during The Room Live 's Jordan Belfort interview . As he states in the interview, his helicopter didn't fall off the boat during the storm like in the movie. Instead, they had to push the helicopter off of the top deck of the boat to make room for the rescue chopper to drop down an Italian Navy commando.
FBI agent Gregory Coleman, renamed Patrick Denham for the film and portrayed by actor Kyle Chandler, made tracking Belfort and his firm, Stratton Oakmont, a top priority for six years. In an interview ( watch here ), Coleman says that the factors that drew his attention to the firm were "the flashiness, the brashness of their activities, the blatantness of the way they were soliciting people and cold calling people, and the number of victims that were complaining on a daily basis." -CNBC
Yes. The Wolf of Wall Street movie shows Jordan (Leonardo DiCaprio) hitting his wife (Margot Robbie) with his hand and fist. According to his memoir, he actually kicked his wife Nadine down the stairs while he was holding his daughter. She landed on her right side with "tremendous force."
Yes. In real life, he put his daughter Chandler in the front seat of the car without a seat belt on, before crashing it through the garage door and then driving full speed into a six-foot-high limestone pillar at the edge of the driveway. Like in the movie, he was high at the time.
When he was finally arrested in 1998 for money laundering and securities fraud, Jordan Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison. This was after agreeing to wear a wire and provide the FBI with information to help prosecute various friends and associates. In the end, the true story reveals that he served only 22 months in a California federal prison. His cellmate in prison was Tommy Chong of "Cheech and Chong" fame, who was serving a nine month sentence for selling bongs. -TheDailyBeast.com
It wasn't so much a what as it was a who. Tommy Chong (one half of "Cheech and Chong") was Jordan Belfort's cellmate in prison. After laughing at some of Belfort's stories from his days running the firm, Chong encouraged him to write a book. -TheDailyBeast.com
Jordan Belfort attempted to model his writing after Hunter S. Thompson ( Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ), who was known for using plenty of exclamation points.
Danny Porush, renamed Donnie Azoff for the movie and played by actor Jonah Hill, served 39 months in prison for his part in the corrupt dealings of Stratton Oakmont, the firm that he co-founded with Jordan Belfort. Porush currently runs a medical supply business in Florida, where he lives with his second wife Lisa in a $4 million mansion. A 2008 Forbes article pointed out his company's fraudulent tactics, which included trying to persuade people to order diabetic supplies and getting them to provide information about their physicians that could be used to bill Medicare. A number of complaints surfaced accusing Porush's company of sending unsolicited packages that were accompanied by unexpected Medicare charges. Back in 2001, Porush was arrested in connection to a fraud scheme surrounding Noble & Perrault Collectibles, a company that sold commemorative coins over the phone. Victims saw their credit cards charged repeatedly, at times for thousands of dollars, while often never receiving any merchandise for purchases that were largely unauthorized to begin with. -Sun Sentinel Enjoying a well-to-do life in Florida, Daniel Porush and his wife drive matching Rolls-Royce Corniche convertibles. With regard to The Wolf of Wall Street movie, Porush said, "I really have no comment other than to say I would never try to profit from a crime I'm so remorseful for." -NYPost.com
Catching the Wolf of Wall Street includes more of Belfort's outrageous stories that were not included in his first book. As we investigated The Wolf of Wall Street true story, we discovered that Jordan's books, The Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street , netted him a $1 million advance from Random House. He also earned $1 million for the film rights to his story ( TheDailyBeast.com ). In a response to criticism over these profits and future profits from the movie, Jordan Belfort said the following via his Facebook page, "I am not turning over 50% of the profits of the books and the movie, which was what the government had wanted me to do. Instead, I insisted on turning over 100% of the profits of both books and the movie, which is to say, I am not making a single dime on any of this." According to Jordan, the money is being used to pay back the millions still owed to those who were scammed by his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont.
Yes, the real Jordan Belfort appears at the end of the movie as the person who introduces Leonardo DiCaprio's character before he takes the stage at his Straight Line seminar.
Yes, but only loosely. The brokerage firm in the movie Boiler Room , released in 2000, was inspired by the illegal practices of Jordan Belfort's Stratton Oakmont firm. In the movie, actor Ben Affleck portrays Jim Young, the Belfort-esque co-founder of the firm, who, like Jordan Belfort, trains his brokers in the "pump and dump" scheme. -NYTimes.com
Watch The Wolf of Wall Street movie trailer. Also, view Jordan Belfort interviews and home video footage of him speaking at a Stratton Oakmont party in the 1990s.
Jordan Belfort Speaks at the Stratton Oakmont Christmas Party (1994) The real Jordan Belfort speaks at the 1994 Stratton Oakmont Christmas party. He tells the firm's employees that he is "proud" of what he has accomplished and that the employees should also be proud of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity they have been given. At the end, he shares a moment with co-founder Danny Porush (Jonah Hill in the movie). The video was posted by Mary Detres, author of the book , which provides an insider's account of what it was like to work at the notorious brokerage firm. |
Jordan Belfort Interview Grant Lewers interviews Jordan Belfort on in 2010 about his memoir . Belfort talks about his life and what led him to start his firm. He offers his four keys to success that he teaches during his seminars and he recounts various stories, including his drug addiction, the story about his yacht sinking from the book, and trying to commit suicide. |
FBI Agent Gregory Coleman Interview (2007) This CNBC interview is from 2007, around the time of the release of Jordan Belfort's first memoir . Following a brief interview with Belfort, during which he describes himself as an "arch-criminal" who was in a way a "cult leader," FBI agent Gregory Coleman speaks about why he was so determined to catch Belfort. |
The Wolf of Wall Street Trailer 2 The second trailer for the Martin Scorsese movie , based on the autobiography of the same name by Jordan Belfort. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey and Jonah Hill. |
The Wolf of Wall Street Trailer Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio in the film adaptation of Jordan Belfort's memoir chronicling his life as a fast-living, corrupt stockbroker during the 1990s. Belfort's criminal ways caught up with him in 1998 when he was convicted of securities fraud and money laundering for which he spent 22 months in Federal Prison. |
Italian prosecutors have placed the boat's captain and two Britons who worked on the yacht under investigation for suspected multiple manslaughter and culpable shipwreck.
Thursday 5 September 2024 12:13, UK
Four people who died when a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily suffocated in an air bubble as oxygen ran out, according to Italian media.
Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were four of the seven people who died when the Bayesian superyacht sank last month.
They were on the trip with British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch to celebrate his acquittal of fraud charges in June in the US, when a violent storm hit.
Who was on superyacht that sank off Sicily?
Mr Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch, and the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas, died as well.
As the boat went down, Mr and Mrs Bloomer were said to have suffocated as oxygen ran out, and not drowned, La Repubblica reported.
Their post-mortems, along with those of Mr Morvillo and his wife, were said to have found no water in their lungs, suggesting they died as their cabins filled with carbon dioxide and ran out of oxygen.
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Divers who recovered the bodies reportedly found them on the left side of cabins - which investigators believe showed them seeking the last pockets of air as the vessel tilted to the right after sinking.
There were no signs of injuries to the four victims examined so far, La Repubblica added.
Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, survived the sinking, along with 14 other people.
The remaining post-mortems, on Mr Lynch, his daughter, and Mr Thomas, will be carried out on Friday, reports added, and the superyacht is expected to be raised from the seabed as part of the investigation.
Italian prosecutors have placed the boat's captain, New Zealander James Cutfield, and two Britons, engineer Tim Parker Eaton and crew member Matthew Griffiths, under investigation for suspected multiple manslaughter and culpable shipwreck.
Mr Parker Eaton reportedly denied allegations that external doors were left open on the night of the storm, allowing water to flood the engine room.
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The three men have been allowed to leave Sicily as the investigation continues to try to understand what happened in the 16 minutes between the yacht being hit by the storm at 3.50am and sinking in 60 seconds at 4.06am.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mr Cutfield has been quoted by Italian media as telling investigators: "Griffiths came to wake me, saying there were 20 knots of wind.
"I checked the instruments and it was effectively true. I went out immediately and asked that everyone was advised of this because I didn't like the situation."
He reportedly said the yacht then tilted to 45 degrees and held there for a bit, before suddenly lurching the other way and throwing them into the sea.
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Mr Griffiths has reportedly said: "We were then able to climb back on and we tried to save those we could. We were walking on the walls. We rescued those we could, also Cutfield rescued the little girl and her mother."
PORTICELLO, Italy — Survivors of a storm that sank a superyacht off Sicily recounted their ordeal to one of the doctors who rushed to their aid, with some saying it took mere minutes for the 180-foot ship to go down.
Dr. Fabio Genco, head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, told NBC News on the phone Thursday that he arrived in the seaside village of Porticello before dawn Monday, about an hour after the $40 million Bayesian sank in the violent and sudden storm.
Of the 22 people onboard, 15 survived despite storm conditions and darkness, climbing onto a lifeboat before being rescued by a nearby sailboat. The crew members have made no public statements so far, though some have been interviewed by investigators.
“They told me that it was all dark, that the yacht hoisted itself up and then went down,” Genco said, recounting what the survivors told him. “All the objects were falling on them. That’s why I immediately made sure, by asking them questions, if they had any internal injuries,” he said.
It appears they had just minutes to abandon the sinking ship, Genco said.
“They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there,” he said, “And that the whole thing seems to have lasted from 3 to 5 minutes.”
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, the Bayesian's shipbuilder, told Sky News that there were no flaws with the design or construction of the yacht. He said their structure and keel made boats like that “unsinkable bodies.”
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he disavowed responsibility, blaming instead the actions of the crew. “Mistakes were made,” he said.
Genco said one of his colleagues who arrived at the scene before him initially thought that only three people survived, but the coast guard reported there were other survivors and more emergency services were called in.
When Genco arrived, he found scenes of panic and despair.
“Unfortunately, we are used to such panic scenes because we are used to the shipwrecks that happen on Lampedusa ,” Genco said, referring to the island southwest of Sicily, where the wreckage of boats carrying migrants on the sea journey from North Africa to Italy are often found .
Six of the passengers were declared missing Monday, and by Thursday, the bodies of five had been recovered from the wreck , some 160 feet underwater.
Among those who survived is Angela Bacares, wife of the British tech mogul Mike Lynch , whose body was recovered Thursday.
Another survivor has been identified as Charlotte Emsley, 35. She told the Italian news agency ANSA that she had momentarily lost hold of her year-old daughter, Sofia, in the water but managed to retrieve her and hold her over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were pulled into safety.
Dr. Domenico Cipolla at the Di Cristina Children’s Hospital in Palermo is also part of a team of medical professionals treating the shipwreck survivors. He told the BBC on Wednesday that Emsley and her daughter, as well as the father of the child, who Cipolla said also survived, are continuing to receive psychological help.
“Psychological support was constant and is constant even today, because basically it is the wounds of the soul that are the most in need of healing in these cases,” Cipolla said.
Genco also told NBC News that he was especially concerned about the child. “She did not understand anything. She was soaking wet and cold,” he said.
Karsten Borner, the Dutch captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, a yacht that was anchored near the Bayesian, said by phone Wednesday that he saw a thunderstorm come in at around 4 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) Monday, followed by what looked like a waterspout, a type of tornado that forms over water.
The International Centre for Waterspout Research noted on X that there was a “waterspout outbreak” off Italy on Monday, the day the Bayesian sank.
“I turned on the engine and made maneuvers so that we wouldn’t collide with the Bayesian, which was anchored about 100 meters from us,” Borner said. “Then all of a sudden it disappeared. Then the wind calmed down, we looked around and saw a red flare.”
Borner said he got into his boat’s tender and saw a life raft with 15 people on it. Members of the crew were administering first aid.
“I don’t know why it sank so quickly, but it may have something to do with the mast which was incredibly long,” he said. Questions have been raised about whether the mast was to blame for the accident as tall masts, even with the sails down, have more surface area exposed to the wind, which can contribute to tipping a vessel in a storm.
The CCTV footage that emerged Tuesday showed the yacht’s 250-foot mast, believed to be one of the tallest aluminum sailing masts in the world, lashed by the storm as it appears to tilt to one side before disappearing.
Claudia Rizzo is an Italy based journalist.
Claudio Lavanga is Rome-based foreign correspondent for NBC News.
Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.
There was a violent storm, but even then, luxury yachts are built to weather such events. so why did this boat sink off the coast of sicily, leaving seven people dead, by natalie finn | e news • published august 24, 2024 • updated on august 24, 2024 at 9:34 am.
Originally appeared on E! Online
Nobody was trying to reach the lowest depths of the ocean or otherwise test the boundaries of human endurance .
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But what was supposed to be a routine pleasure cruise aboard a superyacht turned deadly all the same on the morning of Aug. 19 when the 184-foot Bayesian got caught in a storm and sank off the coast of Sicily .
"I can't remember the last time I read about a vessel going down quickly like that," Stephen Richter of SAR Marine Consulting told NBC News . "You know, completely capsizing and going down that quickly, a vessel of that nature, a yacht of that size."
Of the 22 people onboard, including crew, seven people died. The last of the bodies was recovered Aug. 23, an expectedly sad coda to what had already been a tragic week as the search for answers as to how this happened got underway.
And to be sure, every minute of the Bayesian's ill-fated outing is being fiercely scrutinized, starting with the general seaworthiness of the vessel itself.
Because, frankly, this was a freak occurrence.
"Boats of this size, they’re taking passengers on an excursion or a holiday," Richter explained. "They are not going to put them in situations where it may be dangerous or it may be uncomfortable, so this storm that popped up was obviously an anomaly. These vessels that carry passengers, they’re typically very well-maintained, very well-appointed."
But in this case, a $40 million yacht sank, seven people are dead—including a billionaire tech mogul and his 18-year-old daughter—and morbid fascination doesn't need a second wind.
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Here is how the story of the Sicily yacht tragedy has unfolded so far:
The Bayesian had set off from the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Aug. 14 at capacity with 12 guests and 10 crewmembers aboard.
The aluminum-hulled vessel was built in 2008 by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi and registered in the U.K. Cruise sites listed it as available for charter at $215,000 per week, per the Associated Press.
On the morning of Aug. 19, the superyacht was anchored off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village in the Sicilian province of Palermo (also the name of Sicily's capital city), when a violent storm hit.
The vessel "suddenly sank" at around 5 a.m. local time, seemingly due to "the terrible weather conditions," the City Council of Bagheria announced shortly afterward, per NBC News .
At the time, only one person was confirmed dead—the ship's chef—but six others were said to be missing. The 15 survivors—who managed to make it onto an inflatable life boat, according to emergency officials—were rescued that morning by the crew of another yacht that had been nearby when the storm hit.
"Fifteen people inside," Karsten Borner, the Dutch captain of the ship that was able to help (the Sir Robert Baden Powell), told reporters afterward, per Reuters. "Four people were injured, three heavily injured, and we brought them to our ship. Then we communicated with the coast guard, and after some time, the coast guard came and later picked up injured people."
When the storm hit, his boat ran into "a strong hurricane gust," Borner said, "and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position."
They "managed to keep the ship in position," he continued, but once the storm died down, they realized the other boat that had been behind them—the Bayesian—was gone.
The wreck ended up settling 165 feet below the surface, according to Italy's national fire department.
Fire officials said that divers, a motorboat and a helicopter were deployed to search for the missing.
Meanwhile, footage was captured of the ship capsizing on closed-circuit TV about a half-mile away from where it was anchored.
In the video obtained by NBC News, the illuminated 250-foot aluminum mast of the ship appears to list severely to one side before disappearing completely. Survivors recalled having just a few minutes to literally abandon ship.
The tragedy initially became headline news because billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch—"Britain's Bill Gates," some U.K. media called him—was among the missing. His body was ultimately recovered Aug. 22 .
"They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there," Dr. Fabio Genco, head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, told NBC News Aug. 22. "And that the whole thing seems to have lasted from 3 to 5 minutes."
Genco said he got to Porticello about an hour after the Bayesian capsized.
Survivors "told me that it was all dark, that the yacht hoisted itself up and then went down," he said. "All the objects were falling on them. That’s why I immediately made sure, by asking them questions, if they had any internal injuries."
Italian prosecutors are investigating to determine what transpired before the boat went down, according to NBC News.
Meanwhile, the CEO of shipbuilder Perini's parent company The Italian Sea Group defended the vessel itself as "unsinkable."
Perini boats "are the safest in the most absolute sense," Giovanni Costantino told Sky News Aug. 22 . What happened to the Bayesian "put me in a state of sadness on one side and of disbelief on the other," he continued. "This incident sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact."
Costantino said it had to have been human error that led to the boat sinking, declaring, "Mistakes were made."
"Everything that was done reveals a very long summation of errors," he told newspaper Corriere della Sera Aug. 21, in an interview translated from Italian. "The people should not have been in the cabins, the boat should not have been at anchor."
The weather was "all predictable," he continued, adding that the storm "was fully legible in all the weather charts. It couldn't have been ignored."
The yacht's captain, identified as James Cutfield of New Zealand, was taken to Termini Imerese hospital for treatment. From there, he told La Repubblica, per Sky News , that he didn't see the storm coming.
Borner, the captain of the ship that rescued the 15 Bayesian survivors, told NBC News that he noticed the storm come in at 4 a.m. local time, and saw what looked to him like a waterspout, a type of tornado that forms above water.
The International Centre for Waterspout Research posted on X Aug. 19 that it had "confirmed 18 waterspouts today off the coasts of Italy. Some were powerful waterspouts, one of which may have been responsible for the sinking of a large yacht off of Sicily."
Borner said he didn't know why the Bayesian sank so quickly, guessing "it may have something to do with the mast, which was incredibly long." (A tall mast, even with its sails down, means there's more surface area exposed to wind, which can result in tipping.)
Confirming that one person was dead and six unaccounted for immediately following the wreck on Aug. 19, Salvo Cocina of Sicily's civil protection agency told reporters that a waterspout had struck the area overnight.
"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
The 59-year-old founder of software firm Autonomy had been on the trip with his wife Angela Bacares and their 18-year-old, Oxford-bound daughter Hannah to celebrate his recent acquittal in the U.S. on fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the $11.7 billion purchase of his company by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
In a bizarre turn of events, Lynch's co-defendant at trial, Stephen Chamberlain, the former vice president of finance at Autonomy, died after being taken off life support following a road accident on Aug. 17. Chamberlain's attorney told Reuters Aug. 20 that his friend and client had been out for a run when he was "fatally struck" by a car.
Meanwhile, multiple people who contributed to Lynch's defense were on the cruise with him and his family.
The bodies of Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer—who testified on Lynch's behalf—and his wife Judy Bloomer, as well as lawyer Chris Morvillo, a partner at the U.S. firm Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda Morvillo, a jewelry designer, were recovered on Aug. 21 .
In a LinkedIn post thanking the team that successfully defended Lynch, Morvillo wrote, per Sky News , "And, finally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo. None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home. And they all lived happily ever after…"
The first casualty confirmed Aug. 19 was the ship's Canadian-Antiguan chef, later identified as Recaldo Thomas.
"He was a one-of-a-kind special human being," a friend of Thomas told The Independent . "Incredibly talented, contagious smile and laugh, an incredible voice with a deep love of the ocean and the moon. I spoke to him nearly every day. He loved his life his friends and his job."
Hannah's body was the last of the missing six to be found , with divers bringing her remains ashore on Aug. 23.
Lynch and Bacares, who was rescued, also shared a 21-year-old daughter, according to The Times.
While awaiting trial, Lynch—who maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings—had spent 13 months under house arrest in San Francisco. Back home in London afterward, he admitted to The Times in July that he'd been afraid of dying in prison if he'd been found guilty. (He faced a possible 25-year sentence.)
"It's bizarre, but now you have a second life," he reflected. "The question is, what do you want to do with it?"
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Rescue crews recovered the sixth and final missing body off the coast of Sicily, the Italian coast guard said Friday.
It's been five days since the Bayesian, a luxury superyacht, sank after it was caught in the middle of an unexpected and violent storm. Six passengers were reported missing at the time.
British tech magnate Mike Lynch, who seemed to have been hosting a celebration on the yacht after being acquitted of fraud charges in June, was one of those missing. His body was recovered on Thursday.
While Italian officials did not identify the last body, Lynch's 18-year-old daughter was the only person unaccounted for.
An investigation has been launched looking into the sinking. Naval marine experts said a boat like the Bayesian should have withstood the storm. Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which owns the company that made the Bayesian, alleged to Reuters that the shipwreck was caused by "indescribable, unreasonable errors" made by the crew and not any design or construction issues.
The Bayesian capsized about half a mile off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village. There were 22 people on board — 12 passengers and 10 crew members. The City Council of Bagheria said in a statement that seven adults were taken to the emergency room following the rescue, but “it seems that none are in serious conditions.”
While crews searched for the remaining bodies, others are trying to confirm why the boat sank in the first place. According to a BBC report , a heavy storm hit the coast of Sicily and created waterspouts , which are tornadoes that form over water. The waterspout winds were so powerful that they broke the boat’s mast in half, causing the ship, which was anchored, to lose its balance and sink.
The U.K.’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch plans to send a team of four investigators to make a preliminary assessment of why the Bayesian sank and why people were still on board.
As the ship was going down, 15 people were able to make it to safety and were rescued by a nearby boat.
The crew on a Dutch-flagged vessel nearby noticed the yacht had disappeared and saw flares being set off in the sea. They went to help survivors before the Italian coast guard could arrive.
One British passenger, Charlotte Golunski, told reporters she kept her 1-year-old daughter alive by holding her up above the water until they got on a lifeboat.
The wreck was found around 164 feet beneath the water's surface. More than 400 people, including 28 specialist divers, were involved in the rescue efforts.
Charter sites list the yacht’s weekly rent as $215,000, the Associated Press reported .
Boat International , a superyacht and luxury yacht guide, reported that the Bayesian had the tallest aluminum mast in the world at over 240 feet, making it one of the 50 largest sailing yachts in the world.
Lynch, 59, founded the software firm Autonomy and recently faced a legal battle with U.S.-based Hewlett-Packard after the tech company accused him of inflating Autonomy’s value in an $11 billion sale in 2011.
Lynch was acquitted of multiple fraud charges in June after a three-month trial, avoiding a potential 20-year jail sentence.
Hp is seeking up to $4 billion from mike lynch’s estate.
The company won a civil lawsuit again Mike Lynch in 2022.
Mike Lynch, the investor and high-profile founder of U.K. tech firm Autonomy, has been declared missing at sea after the yacht he was on, the Bayesian, capsized in a storm off the coast of Sicily early Monday morning. Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, is one of the 15 who have been rescued. The news is a dramatic, tragic development for one of the more colorful, and sometimes controversial, figures in technology out of the U.K.
Mike Lynch, the U.K. investor and founder of IT company Autonomy, has been identified as one of two bodies recovered from the Bayesian, the yacht that sunk off the coast of Sicily early Monday, according to several reports coming out of the country that cite the chief of Civil Protection, Salvo Cocina. The boat, registered to Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, quickly capsized in the early hours of Monday after it was struck by a tornado-like water column. In a tragic coincidence, Chamberlain was hit by a car last Saturday and died of his wounds earlier this week.
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A BOEING flight bound for the UK was forced to make an emergency landing in Russia overnight after encountering "technical problems".
The Air India flight from Delhi to Birmingham touched down at Moscow airport on Wednesday evening with some 258 passengers onboard.
The 17-person crew were forced to make an unscheduled landing at Sheremetyevo International Airport at around 9.30pm local time.
The airport said in a statement: "The aircraft’s crew requested an unscheduled landing at Sheremetyevo Airport due to technical problems.
"Airport services promptly responded to the crew’s request and prepared to receive the aircraft according to the applicable emergency plan.
"The foreign crew received full assistance from the Russian airport and specialists under the applicable international convention."
The UK government advises against all travel to Russia amid Vladimir Putin's ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
It is not clear what technical problems the aircraft was facing when it made the unscheduled stop.
A different Air India flight heading from Delhi to San Francisco had to make an emergency landing in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk airport in July.
Crew were concerned about a possible problem in the hold section of the jet.
Passengers were essentially left stranded in the Russian region and needed third-party services to help them board a ferry to the US, according to the Hindustan Times.
It is not yet known how the few hundred passengers onboard this flight will get home from Moscow.
The Sun has reached out to Air India and Boeing for comment.
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A talk-show host, who usually reflects the Kremlin’s line, questioned how the ship was lost.
By Neil MacFarquhar
A video released by Russia’s Ministry of Defense purporting to show dozens of uniformed crew members from the missile cruiser Moskva standing in formation, apparently days after the ship sank, did not answer lingering questions about the fate of the vessel and its more than 500 personnel.
The questions reached the point Saturday where even Vladimir Solovyev, a popular prime-time talk-show host whose pronouncements often reflect the Kremlin line, began asking what went wrong.
Mr. Solovyev, describing himself as “outraged” over the sinking , then asked a series of rhetorical questions that picked at both versions of how the Black Sea fleet vessel sank overnight on Wednesday.
If the ship caught fire before sinking, as the Russians claim, then why did it not have a system to extinguish such blazes, the television host wondered aloud. If the ship was sunk by two Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles, as Ukrainian and unidentified U.S. Defense Department officials have claimed, then why did it lack an antimissile system?
“Just explain to me how you managed to lose it,” Mr. Solovyev asked no one in particular on his Saturday show, Solovyev Live, when he has no guests in the studio.
The segment was unusual not least because Mr. Solovyev broached the idea that Ukraine had managed to sink the Moskva, one of the biggest naval losses anywhere in the world since World War II.
It comes as more pundits and other television talking heads in Russia have started referring to the fighting in Ukraine as a “war” — although they have tended to use the term when suggesting that the whole of NATO, including the United States, is ganging up on Russia. They do not describe Russia’s invasion itself as part of a war, nor do they mention the fact that the Kremlin started the conflict.
The Kremlin squelched any open discussion about the conflict by promulgating a law in early March that criminalizes spreading any “false information” about what Russia calls its “special military operation,” including calling it a war, with violators facing up to 15 years in prison.
Over all, official Russian media continues to refer to the invasion as a “special military operation,” even while expanding the definition of the enemy. One state paper last week referred to the enemy next door as “Ukrainian-American neo-Nazism.”
While carefully scripted television news programs still use the “military operation” formula, guests in the heat of the shouting that is a trademark of Russian TV talk shows often yell about “war.”
The even angrier tone than usual when discussing the sinking of the Moskva indicated that many commentators found Ukraine culpable. Skipping the official explanation that it caught fire, for example, Vladimir Bortko, a film director and former member of the Duma, Russia’s parliament, said on Thursday that the assault on the vessel should be treated as an assault on Russia itself.
“The special military operation has ended, it ended last night when our motherland was attacked,” he said, after asking the other panelists to remind him what Russia was calling the war. “The attack on our territory is casus belli, an absolute cause for war for real.” He suggested that possible responses included bombing Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv; the transportation networks that allowed foreign dignitaries to visit; or something more sinister: “Bomb them once and that is it.”
His ranting about war brought an admonition from Olga Skabaeeva, the host of the popular “60 Minutes” program, who said that he was talking in the context of NATO aggression against Russia. Some analysts think all the talk of NATO attacking Russia is meant to lay the groundwork for a possible general mobilization of the male population — martial law is a necessary prior step, and a declaration of martial law requires going to war or being under threat.
Until now, however, Russian news programs are not calling the events in Ukraine a war. They take their cues from the Ministry of Defense’s briefings.
“It is all the presidential administration with their giant printer, there are no differences of opinion available,” said Vasily Gatov, a Russian media analyst based in the United States. “They will not risk interpreting reports from the Ministry of Defense.”
When it comes to the Moskva, Russian media reports have stuck to the official version promulgated by the ministry and echoed on TASS, a state news agency. That version held that a fire onboard had ignited an ammunition magazine, seriously damaging the Moskva, named for the Russian capital.
After the crew of at least 510 men was evacuated, according to the ministry, the ship sank in rough seas while being towed back to Sevastopol, the fleet’s Crimean headquarters. Ukraine has said it struck the ship with two missiles and the vessel rapidly sank.
The defense ministry posted a video on its official Telegram channel, as well as on the channel of its Zvezda television network, on Saturday, showing Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, the commander of the Russian Navy, and other officers purportedly meeting with what it said were some Moskva crew members in Sevastopol.
The 26-second clip showed the admiral addressing dozens of sailors, but there was no explanation about the fate of the rest. “The traditions of the missile cruiser Moskva will be carefully preserved and continued in the way it has always been accepted in the navy,” he said, adding that the crew would continue to serve elsewhere.
Social media posts suggested that some of the crew members had died, but the toll is unclear. Videos posted online from an unofficial memorial service at a monument to the 300th anniversary of the Black Sea fleet showed a wreath with a ribbon bearing the inscription “To the ship and sailors.”
Radio Liberty, a U.S. government network based outside Russia, reached the widow of one midshipman who confirmed his death and said that 27 crew members remained missing.
Neil MacFarquhar is a national correspondent. Previously, as Moscow bureau chief, he was on the team awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting . He spent more than 15 years reporting from around the Mideast, including five as Cairo bureau chief, and wrote two books about the region. More about Neil MacFarquhar
Zelensky Plans Major Shake-Up: President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed ahead with his sweeping overhaul of the senior government ranks as the head of Ukraine’s ruling party released a slate of nine candidates for top cabinet positions.
Head of Power Company Fired: The head of Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s electric company, was reportedly blamed for failing to fortify energy infrastructure , which has come under steady Russian bombardment, leading to blackouts.
A Deadly Russian Strike: Russian missiles struck a military academy in eastern Ukraine, killing more than 50 people and underscoring Moscow’s superior firepower in one of the war’s deadliest attacks.
Ukraine’s Scarred Students: As children across Ukraine return to school, a teacher in Kyiv worries for her pupils , many of whom have fled frontline areas or lost family members in the fighting.
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Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions to independently confirm troop movements and other details.
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After their lavish wedding, Belford (Leonardo DiCaprio) covers Nadine's, or Naomi as she's known in the movie, eyes with a blindfold before revealing the huge yacht, which has been christened the ...
Her solution was to buy her own yacht. A 37m with a steel hull, built by the Dutch yard Witsen & Vis of Alkmaar. The yacht passed through many hands, finally ending up belonging to the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, on whose watch she foundered and sank in 1996. The yacht was originally built for a Frenchman under the name Mathilde, but ...
The Jordan Belfort yacht sinking scene in The Wolf of Wall Street was heavily inspired by a real-life event, though the movie did take some creative liberties. For one, the yacht was called Naomi in the reel version since the name of Belfort's wife (played by Margot Robbie) was changed in the movie. In reality, the yacht was named Nadine.
The real story of the sinking of the Wolf of Wall Street's yacht. In 2000, Doug Hoogs interviewed Capt. Mark Elliott about the sinking of the motoryacht Nadine.Elliott was in command of Nadine on the fateful day in 1996 when she encountered a powerful mistral in the Mediterranean between the Italian mainland and Sardinia. All guests and crew survived, but the real story of the sinking, which ...
Jordan Belfort's seshes were so legendary that sinking a multi-million-dollar yacht was simply another act of depravity that Martin Scorsese could weave into The Wolf of Wall Street's preposterous film adaptation. Those familiar with The Wolf of Wall Street book will have read Belfort's account of this in closer detail, but the backstory of the superyacht Nadine is a lesser-known tale ...
Like Naomi, Nadine was a model and met Belfort at a party before they married in 1991. Nadine and Belfort had two children together and separated in 1998 as depicted in the film (per the U.S. Sun).
The video, released by the coast guard, showed the yacht named My Saga struggling against the waves before sinking near the Catanzaro Marina on Saturday. 3 Video shows the boat listing to one side ...
It turns out that the preposterous scene in The Wolf of Wall Street where Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Jordan Belfort, and his co-horts are caught in a ferocious storm and nearly meet their makers, is true.. According to an article by Brad Hutchins on bosshunting.com, the real Jordan Belfort was on a luxury yacht called the Nadine that was caught in a raging tempest and before sinking ...
The Jordan Belfort yacht sinking scene in The Wolf of Wall Street was heavily inspired by a real-life event, though the movie did take some creative liberties. For one, the yacht was called Naomi in the reel version since the name of Belfort's wife (played by Margot Robbie) was changed in the movie. In reality, the yacht was named Nadine.
Yes. The real-life yacht was named "The Nadine" after Belfort's wife, who, like in the movie, he affectionately referred to as "The Duchess of Bay Ridge." In the movie, the yacht bears the name "Naomi" after the character portrayed by Margot Robbie (Belfort's wife's name was changed for the film).
MILAN (AP) — The first autopsies of victims of the Bayesian super yacht sinking off Sicily show drowning as the cause of death, authorities said Monday. U.S. lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda were among seven people who died when the Bayesian sank in a sudden, violent storm on Aug. 19. The autopsies were carried out by coroners ...
August 13, 2013By: Diane M. Byrne. To be fair, The Wolf of Wall Street, hitting theaters in November, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, and Jonah Hill. But to those of us in yachting, the megayacht in The Wolf of Wall Street movie is the real star. She's Lady M, and she plays the role of a well-known yacht from the 1990s, Nadine.
LEAVE THE CASH... TAKE THE QUAALUDES!The REAL Wolf of Wall Street tells how he sunk his 167-foot yacht, The "Nadine," with its own plane & chopper. This was ...
The three men have been allowed to leave Sicily as the investigation continues to try to understand what happened in the 16 minutes between the yacht being hit by the storm at 3.50am and sinking ...
Sicily yacht sinking most likely caused by 'downburst' Officials reveal a freak weather phenomenon is thought to be responsible - but not the one early reports suggested. 24 Aug 2024
Aug. 22, 2024, 8:28 AM PDT. By Claudia Rizzo, Claudio Lavanga and Yuliya Talmazan. PORTICELLO, Italy — Survivors of a storm that sank a superyacht off Sicily recounted their ordeal to one of the ...
As many of you may recall, in The Wolf of Wall Street the yacht sinks somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea as they are trying to reach Monaco. On the next scene, having been rescued by those Italian folks, Naomi (M. Robbie) appears dancing to U. Tozzi's Gloria theme.... Who was the girl she was dancing with supposed to be?
The vessel "suddenly sank" at around 5 a.m. local time, seemingly due to "the terrible weather conditions," the City Council of Bagheria announced shortly afterward, per NBC News. At the time ...
Autopsies show drowning as the cause of death for a US lawyer and wife in super yacht sinking. The 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged luxury yacht went down near the Mediterranean island in southern Italy. Investigators are focusing on how a sailing vessel deemed "unsinkable" by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a ...
Rescue crews recovered the sixth and final missing body off the coast of Sicily, the Italian coast guard said Friday. It's been five days since the Bayesian, a luxury superyacht, sank after it was ...
4 Bayesian victims SURVIVED yacht sinking but died in air bubble, autopsy says. DRAGONFIRE Moment Ukraine deploy ANOTHER 'dragon drone' spewing flesh-melting thermite.
April 17, 2022. A video released by Russia's Ministry of Defense purporting to show dozens of uniformed crew members from the missile cruiser Moskva standing in formation, apparently days after ...
In February 2022, the Moskva left the Port of Sevastopol to participate in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [3] The ship was later used against the Ukrainian armed forces during the attack on Snake Island, together with the Russian patrol boat Vasily Bykov. [4] Moskva hailed the island's garrison over the radio and demanded its surrender, receiving the now-famous reply "Russian warship, go ...
Whatever the cause, the Moskva's sinking constitutes a major military embarrassment for Russia, as it was the biggest wartime loss of a naval ship in 40 years. The Moskva was one of the Russian ...