Stockbrokers doing IPOs?

I'm sure all of you are familiar with the Wolf of Wall Street movie. In this movie there is a scene where the stockbrokers from Stratton Oakmont perform an IPO for Steve Madden. How could this be? I thought only Investment Bankers offered to take companies public.

Thank you in advance.

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Note the types of companies that they took 'public' with the exception of Steve Madden. You don't need an investment bank to go public, it isn't like there is a law requiring you sign up a bank to advise you. You can offer stock directly as long as you have buyers, which is why Investment banks are the path of least resistance. What they are doing is drumming up interest in potential buyers, mainly institutional etc. so that they can bring it public. I won't get into any nuts and bolts, but Stratton functioned much the same way except it dumped stock onto individual buyers via their boiler room style tactics.

 
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