Actor and crypto critic Ben McKenzie is targeting the crypto industry with a new “Everybody Is Lying to You for Money” documentary. According to reports, the actor will make his directorial debut at SXSW London when the documentary premieres in June.
The documentary was written, directed, and produced by McKenzie, with input from Giorgio Angelini. It was also filmed over three years in locations across New York, London, El Salvador, Miami, and Austin.
The documentary follows McKenzie, who is best known for his roles on “Gotham” and “The O.C.,” as he investigates the cryptocurrency industry and interviews key figures in the industry. Notably, he made a trip to El Salvador to examine the regime of President Nayib Bukele, which made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021.
Ben McKenzie targets the industry with a new documentary
The documentary features an interview with disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, with the filming done months before he was indicted on multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy. Sam Bankman-Fried was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison in addition to three years of supervised release. The court also ordered him to pay about $11 billion in forfeitures for carrying out multiple fraudulent schemes.
The documentary also featured Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of Celsius Network. Late last year, Mashinsky pleaded guilty to multi-billion-dollar fraud and market manipulation. He was accused of luring retail crypto investors into investing billions on his platform under false promises that their investments were low risk.
The court said instead of keeping users’ funds safe, he put them in riskier bets, secretly using their funds to prop up the price of the CEL token.
In addition to these personalities, the documentary highlights El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and his fondness for the crypto industry. Nayib Bukele has been a strong supporter of the industry, especially Bitcoin. Bukele has continued to purchase Bitcoin, although at a slowed pace due to what many believe are restrictions from the country’s arrangement with the IMF. In addition, the country has removed the mandatory clause on the acceptance of Bitcoin as legal tender.
McKenzie highlights the ills of the crypto industry
In his interview with Deadline, McKenzie mentioned how he got little attention after warning people in 2021. “When I started warning people about crypto fraud in the fall of 2021, I caught a bunch of flak from the bros online,” he said.
He added that almost all the guys are now in jail, and many investors have lost a lot of money to these conmen. In his documentary, McKenzie featured other celebrities, a pseudonymous whistleblower, and several victims.
The highlight of the documentary features McKenzie, who had been exploring the crypto industry in 2021, while the world was being torn from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Since then, he has been a vocal critic of the industry, even going as far as testifying before the United States Senate Banking Committee on the collapse of FTX.
During his testimony, he calls crypto “the largest Ponzi scheme in history.” The documentary also features his home life, showing snapshots of the life he shares with his family and how boredom led him to research crypto.
He had previously released a book in 2023 titled “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud,” with journalist Ben Silverman. The book explored many of the themes that the documentary will touch on.
“Why is the false story of crypto still spreading? That’s the question I set out to answer with this film,” McKenzie said. He also added that he is excited about the documentary, noting that “I cannot wait for audiences to see ‘Everyone Is Lying to You for Money,’ a comedy that treats crypto and the creeps shilling it with the respect they deserve: zero.”
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