According to Quartz, there’s a new Wolf of Wall Street in town, and suffice to say, things have changed since Jordan Belfort first earned the nickname back in the 1990s.
A recent investigation paints influencer and Faulkner frontman Lucas Asher as the Belfort-style head of a precious metals scheme targeting conservative seniors. Asher, who reportedly runs the scheme as one of two co-presidents of Metals.com, is an indie rocker with a penchant for red leather jackets and sparkly shoes. With 233,000 Instagram followers, Asher is an active influencer and startup founder who also boasts holdings in companies including Palantir, Slack, Spotify and SpaceX.
At Metals.com, Asher reportedly serves as the company’s high-energy pep-talker, pushing customers to sell gold and silver to conservative adults using political rhetoric and scare-tactics threatening sudden financial collapse.
Informed by court filings, internal messages and reports from former employees who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, the Quartz investigation pieces together a shady company culture rife with aliases, incentivizing in-office cash-grab machines and daily compliance meetings drilling salespeople on the scheme’s carefully crafted rhetoric.
“Think Wolf of Wall Street,” an anonymous former salesperson told Quartz. “These meetings are just like that except without the coke and hookers.”
Salespeople were reportedly instructed to begin their calls with a political narrative designed to appeal to conservative buyers. “I’m part of a conservative team… we help Fox News/Hannity/Limbaugh/Levin,” read one script obtained by Quartz. Employees were reportedly told to “hang up” on liberal customers.
The ideal target was also close to retirement, in order to best play on fears of sudden economic collapse.
“Fear sells,” the former salesperson said. “All they care about is money,” they added of Asher and others at the helm of the scheme. “They even will say that’s all they care about.”
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