Authorities dismantle a bizarre criminal network inspired by Wolf of Wall Street to defraud thousands of Brazilians

The Portuguese Interpol unit and the Brazilian police managed to dismantle a criminal network that defrauded thousands of Brazilians with a scheme inspired by the famous movie Wolf of Wall Street.

According to a statement from the Brazilian authorities, a group of criminals operating a fake company in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, hired a hundred workers in the South American country to call people and convince them to invest in shares and then inform them that their money had been lost in the stock market.

"Due to desperation (...) they were encouraged to make new investments in the hope of reversing the loss. It turns out that the new investments also generated losses, creating a snowball," recounted Eric Sallum, chief of police.

After some four years of operation, six leaders of the network were arrested and will now face charges of fraud and money laundering. Authorities have removed several fake web pages they generated and have frozen their bank accounts.

Network inspired by the Hollywood movie

According to reports, there was a motto for its workers "think of yourselves and your families, forget about the victims" and in the company's call center there was a "sociopathic atmosphere". The leaders also forced their employees to watch the movie The Wolf of Wall Street not only for inspiration but also to imitate the behaviors of the tragicomedy's protagonist, a role played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

It should be recalled that the 2013 Hollywood blockbuster was inspired by the memoirs of Jordan Belfort, a man who swindled investors out of millions of dollars and ended up in prison during the 1990s.