THE WOLF OF WALL STREET AND THE LAW

Between the Glorification of Fraud and Legal Silence

Abstract

This article offers a critical reading of the film The Wolf of Wall Street, linking its narrative elements to the framework of Economic Criminal Law and the critical theory of financialization. It takes the figure of Jordan Belfort as a symbol of the financialized corporate subject, whose trajectory reveals the fusion of criminal practices with market rationality. Through the analysis of the illicit conduct portrayed—such as fraud, money laundering, market manipulation, and tax evasion—and the legal control mechanisms (compliance, governance, criminal liability), the article demonstrates the structural weakness of the law in confronting elite criminality. It argues that the law, colonized by capitalist logic, becomes an instrument for legitimizing financial order, thus undermining its normative function and its role in containing inequality. The work engages with authors such as Sutherland, Zaffaroni, Zizek, Greco, Debord, and Carvalho Filho, showing how cinematic representation serves as a critique of legal shortcomings in regulating capital in its financialized stage.