Shady past for Wall St. Mr. Clean

EXCLUSIVE

Two years ago Thomas Belesis, founder and CEO of John Thomas Financial, took up the mantle of bringing “the pride” back to the financial industry and helping “restore” Wall Street’s tattered reputation.

Given the way Belesis has burnished his own image, he might be just the man for the job.

Since founding his brokerage firm in 2007, just down the street from the New York Stock Exchange, Belesis has become a frequent guest on cable television and has won numerous public and private sector accolades.

In 2010, Belesis — who cuts a figure in tailored suits — caught director Oliver Stone’s eye and landed a bit part in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” the sequel to the 1987 hit that immortalized fictional corporate raider Gordon Gekko.

Angel Chevrestt

SOME BIO : Thomas Belesis (above) — who played a trader in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” — was called to testify for the feds in their triple homicide case against former pal Christian Tarantino.

As a crusader for Wall Street, Belesis is no stranger to publicity, yet he has managed to keep his own controversial past — one involving drugs and car theft — out of the limelight.

The first glimpses into his past came last year when Belesis, 37, was called to testify in a Central Islip courtroom as a witness to a triple homicide. Belesis took the stand for the government, which had charged his former childhood pal, Christian Tarantino, with killing three people between 1994 and 2003, according to testimony obtained exclusively by The Post.

Belesis, whose friends rented a storage space where one of the 1994 murder weapons was found, was not charged in the crime and played no part in the alleged murders. But his testimony highlighted his own youthful exploits, leading lawyers for the defendant to question his credibility. While the trial drew little publicity, Belesis’s testimony could resurface later this month in the re-trial over the murder of Vincent Gargiulo, the brother-in-law of Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider.

Prosecutors accused Tarantino of killing Gargiulo in 2003, after he allegedly tried to blackmail Tarantino with a secret recording of him confessing to two 1994 murders surrounding a botched armored car robbery. The FBI used Gargiulo’s tape to arrest Tarantino for all three murders in 2008.

Last year, with the help of Belesis’ testimony, a jury found Tarantino guilty in the 1994 murders, but remained split on whether he silenced Gargiulo. A re-trial is set for April 23.

Robert Bursky, a lawyer for John Thomas Financial, said Belesis doesn’t know if he will be called to testify but said it’s possible.

“I think it takes great courage to get up on a stand and acknowledge that we make mistakes when we’re youthful, which we all do,” Bursky said, describing Belesis’ past as “a vagary of youth.”

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