Meet Denise Lombardo, millionaire Jordan Belfort's first wife

Meet Denise Lombardo, millionaire Jordan Belfort's first wife

Denise Lombardo is an American real estate agent and sales executive. Many recognize her as millionaire Jordan Belfort's first wife. Denise rose to fame in the early '90s when NASD (now FINRA) indicted her ex-husband, Jordan Belfort, and his wife, Danny Porush, for money laundering and securities fraud. This article shares important details about her life, her marriage to Jordan, and her current whereabouts.

Denise Lombardo
A fictionalized version of Denise Lombardo and Jordan Belfort's life was portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street comedy/thriller film. Photo: @celebcritics, @wolfofwallst (modified by author)
Source: UGC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Despite being divorced for over 20 years, Denise Lombardo and Jordan Belfort's love story is still awash online. Read more about them below, including why people became curious about Denise when Jordan Belfort's issues with the law surfaced.

Profile summary

Full nameDenise Lombardo
NicknameDeni
GenderFemale
Date of birth11th November 1963
Age60 years (as of July 2024)
Zodiac signScorpio
Place of birthOhio, USA
ResidenceWashington, DC., USA
NationalityAmerican
EthnicityWhite
Height5' 2" (157 centimeters)
Weight135 lbs. (61 kg) Approx.
SexualityStraight
Hair/eye colorBrown
FatherAnthony Florito
MotherAnn Lombardo
Siblings3
Former spouseJordan Belfort (1985 - 1991)
Marital statusMarried
Current spouseNick Amato
Children3
High schoolBayside High School
UniversityAdelphi University
QualificationBachelor's degree in English literature
UniversityTownson University
QualificationBusiness Administration and Science course
UniversityAustralian Catholic University
QualificationMaster's in Educational Leadership & Administration General
ProfessionReal estate agent and sales executive
Net worth$3 million (Approx.)

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Who is Jordan Belfort's first wife?

Jordan Ross Belfort (an American entrepreneur, speaker, and author) was married to Denise Lombardo before he became famous in 1999 for securities fraud and money laundering.

What is Denise Lombardo's age?

Denise is 60 years old (as of July 2024). She was born on 11th November 1963 in Ohio, USA.

Denise Lombardo's parents and siblings

She is the daughter of Anthony Florito and Ann Lombardo and was raised alongside her two sisters, Deanna and Lisa, and a brother named Paul.

Denise Lombardo
Facts about Denise Lombardo. Photo: @celebcritics on Facebook (modified by author)
Source: Original

Educational background

Denise attended Bayside High School and obtained a Bachelor's degree in English literature at Adelphi University in 1987. She subsequently did a Business Administration and Science course at Towson University, Maryland, and earned a Master's in Educational Leadership and Administration General at the Australian Catholic University.

What does Denise Lombardo do for a living?

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Jordan Belfort's first wife has been a real estate agent and sales executive at Prudential Douglas Elliman Company since 2010. She has also been a flooring specialist at Home Depot Company since 2000.

Before this, Denise was a sales executive at Modern Medical System Company (1993 - 2000) and a customer representative at Smith & Nephew Company (2006 - 2008).

What did Denise Lombardo's ex-husband do?

The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) began investigating Jordan Belfort's company, the Stratton Oakmont franchise, in 1989. At that time, he was about three years into his marriage with Denise.

Nonetheless, this did not cause his marriage with Denise to fall apart. Instead, Belfort's affair with model Nadine Caridi tore them apart.

The couple divorced five years before NASD expelled Belfort's franchise in 1996. Later, Jordan was indicted for securities fraud and money laundering in 1999.

Since Denise Lombardo had been Belfort's wife, she could not avoid media attention when his financial crimes and questionable lifestyle went public.

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Denise Lombardo
Denise and Jordan Belfort divorced five years before NASD expelled Belfort's company. Photo: @wolfofwallst (modified by author)
Source: UGC

Denise Lombardo and Jordan Belfort's story

There are two conflicting accounts of how Jordan Belfort (born in 1962 in The Bronx, New York) met Denise Lombardo (born in 1963 in Ohio).

The first version claims Jordan met Denise while she was working in a hair salon. The second version says they met as students at Bayside High School.

However, Belfort states in his memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, that he was a meat and seafood salesman when he first met Lombardo.

After completing high school, Belfort and his childhood friend, Elliot Loewenstern, had begun selling Italian ice at a local beach and would earn $20,000 from the business.

After completing his biology degree at American University, Belfort wanted to use his ice business earnings to attend the University of Maryland School of Dentistry.

Nevertheless, his dentistry plans did not go through, so he became a door-to-door meat and seafood salesman on Long Island, New York.

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According to Belfort, he first saw Lombardo while trying to sell meat to the owner of the hair salon where she worked. He was "blown away" by her beauty and repeatedly asked for her number before rushing home to pick up his Porsche in an attempt to impress her.

Eventually, the pair reportedly married in 1985. Belfort's meat and seafood business would later fail in 1987, forcing him to file for bankruptcy. After that, a family friend helped him find a job as a trainee stockbroker at L.F. Rothschild.

Denise Lombardo
Denise Lombardo's ex-husband was sentenced to four years in prison but only served 22 months. Photo: @wolfofwallst (modified by author)
Source: UGC

The company fired him in 1987 when it experienced financial difficulties caused by the Black Monday stock market crash. Subsequently, Belfort established the Stratton Oakmont franchise, which marketed penny stocks and defrauded investors with "pump & dump" stock sales.

At one point, the company employed over 1,000 stock brokers and dealt in stock worth over $1 billion. During his years at Stratton Oakmont, Belfort led a lavish party life, an extramarital affair, and an addiction to recreational narcotics.

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NASD began to investigate the company in 1989. By this time, he and Denise Lombardo had already divorced in 1991. NASD closed Stratton Oakmont in December 1996 and arrested Belfort over securities fraud and money laundering in 1999.

During the investigation, Belfort became an informant for the FBI, wearing a wire and eventually testified against multiple associates in exchange for a reduced sentence. As a result, he turned on many of his former friends and partners, including Danny Porush.

On 18th July 2003, he was sentenced to four years in prison but only served 22 months at the Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, California, in exchange for a plea deal for running pump-and-dump scams that defrauded investors around $200 million.

The court ordered Belfort to pay back the $110.4 million he swindled from stock buyers. His case was so intense that it inspired the production of the crime films Boiler Room (2000) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). The latter depicted Belfort's illegal activities and questionable lifestyle.

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Jordan Belfort is now a social media personality with millions of TikTok followers, capitalizing on his popularity to become an online celebrity.

Denise Lombardo
Jordan Belfort has capitalized on his popularity to become an online celebrity. Photo: @wolfofwallst (modified by author)
Source: UGC

How much did Denise Lombardo get paid?

After divorcing Jordan Belfort, Denise got a considerable sum in financial settlement from her wealth with her ex-husband, but they did not disclose publicly the exact amount.

What happened to the first wife of Jordan Belfort?

Belfort was still running his Stratton Oakmont franchise when he divorced Denise Lombardo in 1991. The two never had children together. Three years later, Denise remarried and had three children with her second spouse.

Who is Denise Lombardo married to?

She is married to Nick Amato, but little is known about him because he keeps his life private.

Denise Lombardo’s kids

Denise Lombardo and her current husband, Nick Amato, have three sons, Brett, Nicolas, and Matt.

What happened to Denise Lombardo’s ex-husband?

Jordan Belfort rekindled his romance with American model Nadine Caridi, whom he had dated before meeting Denise. They met at a Westhampton Beach House party and quickly struck up an affair. He wrote in his memoir:

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I should’ve been horsewhipped for what I did to Denise. I don’t care if it’s Wall Street or Main Street. What I did was in-f*cking-excusable.
Denise Lombardo
Jordan married Nadine Caridi after divorcing Denise Lombardo. Photo: @therealdrnadine, @wolfofwallst (modified by author)
Source: UGC

Belfort cheated on Denise Lombardo “dozens of times” with the model before she finally found out. The affair was all over the newspapers and Denise received the short end of the stick. He wrote:

I mean, she was a twenty-five-year-old girl who was dumped for some young hot model. And the newspapers painted her to be some old socialite who’d lost her sex appeal — like she was being traded in for a girl who still had some life left in her!

After divorcing in 1991, Jordan married the model in 1991 and had two children with her: daughter Chandler (1993) and son Carter (1996). Nevertheless, he never trusted her the way he trusted Lombardo.

The two would later divorce in 2005 over claims of domestic violence, infidelity, and narcotics addiction. That was after Belfort reportedly kicked her down the stairs of their Long Island mansion.

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Following the divorce, Nadine moved to California with the children. She once told IndieWire why she and Jordan always fought in their marriage:

He was a drug addict… I didn’t care about the hookers or coming home late…

She said he would be doing crack in front of their newborn baby. Any mother would divorce their husband for that.

Jordan Belfort and Nadine Caridi have moved on. Belfort married Anne Koppe between 2008 and 2020. Nonetheless, Belfort and Koppe are business partners. His current wife is Cristina Invernizzi, and they have been married since 2021.

On the other hand, Nadine Caridi went to therapy and became a therapist. She was 39 when she earned two degrees in Counseling and a PhD in Somatic and Depth psychology.

Caridi also married film producer John Macaluso. They have maintained a healthy blended family for over 22 years while she also co-parents with Belfort.

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Where is Denise Lombardo today?

Jordan Belfort's ex-wife is a real estate agent/sales executive at Prudential Douglas Elliman Company and a flooring specialist at the Depot Company.

Denise Lombardo
Jordan Belfort's current wife is Cristina Invernizzi. Photo: @wolfofwallst (modified by author)
Source: UGC

What is Denise Lombardo's net worth?

Sources like Tvshowstars.com estimate her net worth as $3 million. The amount comprises her career earnings and her compensation after divorcing Jordan Belfort.

Denise Lombardo's real estate career of over a decade is her primary source of income. She has worked in the sector since October 2010.

Meanwhile, Celebritynetworth.com reports that her former husband, Jordan Belfort, has a negative net worth of -$100 million.

Who played Denise Lombardo in The Wolf of Wall Street?

American actor Leonardo DiCaprio played Jordan Belfort, while American actress Cristin Milioti took the role of Teresa Petrillo to portray Denise Lombardo.

Since the film's release, Denise has not made any public comments, so it's not clear whether she found the film's portrayal of her accurate.

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On the other hand, Jordan Belfort's side chick-turned-second wife, Nadine Caridi, was featured in the film as the character Naomi Lapaglia (played by actress Margot Robbie). Nadine said in a video on TikTok:

If you look at [the film] through Jordan’s lens, it was really accurate. And I think that if you look at it through my lens, it wasn’t, and that makes sense because that was actually how our marriage was. However, I went to therapy, I became a therapist… and so I am able to discern his truth, my truth, and everything in between.
Denise Lombardo
Jordan Belfort's first wife is not on social media. Photo: @wolfofwallst (modified by author)
Source: UGC

Is Denise Lombardo on Instagram?

Jordan Belfort's first wife has no social media account the public knows of.

Facts about Denise Lombardo

  • Jordan Belfort paid Denise Lombardo a considerable amount of money as divorce settlement.
  • Her life is illustrated in Jordan Belfort’s memoir The Wolf of Wall Street — and its film adaptation.
  • She avoids high-profile public appearances.
  • She speaks English, German, and Italian.
  • She has Italian ancestry.

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Denise Lombardo became famous for being the first wife of former stockbroker Jordan Belfort, who ran the Stratton Oakmont financial firm. The company orchestrated pump-and-dump schemes that defrauded investors around $200 million between 1989 and 1996. Despite being popular, Denise does not appreciate media attention. Instead, Jordan Belfort's first wife enjoys a quiet and private life away from the public eye.

Yen.com.gh published Laurie Holden's biography. She is a Canadian-American actress, producer, and human rights activist. Holden was a theater actress before she landed her first movie role at age 20.

Today, the actress is best known for her portrayals as Andrea Harrison in AMC's The Walking Dead, Marita Covarrubias in The X-Files, and Amanda Dumfries in The Mist.

Source: YEN.com.gh

Authors:
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Favour Adeaga (SEO author) Favour is an author, speaker, and coach. He graduated with a degree in Mass Communication from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2011. He had his internship programme at The Nation Newspaper and taught diploma students in Newspaper and Magazine course at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi. He curates the facts and life hacks category since 2018. Favour is the author of two books available on Amazon. He currently lives in Nigeria. favouradeaga@gmail.com

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Peris Walubengo (Lifestyle writer) Peris Walubengo is a content creator with 5 years of experience writing articles, researching, editing, and proofreading. She has a Bachelor of Commerce & IT from the University of Nairobi and joined Yen.com.gh in April 2022. The writer completed a Google News Initiate Course. She covers bios, marketing & finance, tech, fashion & beauty, recipes, movies & gaming reviews, culture & travel. You can email her at perisrodah254@gmail.com.