FINANCE

It is 23 years later, and fictional investment banker Gordon Gekko is out of jail after serving a 20-year prison sentence for financial fraud. Once again, as Gekko said in the 1987 hit film "Wall Street," "greed is good."

The sequel that is to be released in April, "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps," will have a special significance for Long Island's business community: One of its own, Thomas Belesis, 35, of Merrick, chief executive and founder of the investment banking firm John Thomas Financial, with locations in Hauppauge and Manhattan, will play one of the film's investment bankers. In fact, the sequel's director, Oliver Stone, took a tour of John Thomas Financial in Manhattan to get an idea of how an investment banking firm looks and feels. The Hauppauge office, although smaller, is similarly appointed.

"I'm in four or five scenes," Belesis said, adding he could not discuss the plot except to say, "This 'Wall Street' is going to blow away peoples' minds."

Michael Douglas is back as the evil Gekko. Shia LaBeouf plays a young Wall Street broker. Frank Langella is a veteran broker. Donald Trump, who was introduced to Belesis and Stone through one his building managers, makes a cameo.

This is the same Thomas Belesis who earlier this week staged a "rally" inside his Wall Street office to stick up for the Street against the populist outcries of President Barack Obama and others. The rally, attended by about 30 brokers, was inside because, Belesis told The New York Times, "It's cold out."

Belesis' 3-year-old firm has gone from about four employees to more than 200, and although it started in about 400 square feet of space it now occupies 43,000 square feet. So is Belesis an actor? A rabble-rouser?

Neither, he says. "I'm a financial guy."

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