Ben McKenzie On Confronting Sam Bankman-Fried About Crypto Fraud

Ben McKenzie suspected there was one thing suspicious about crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried lengthy earlier than anybody else did.

The actor identified for Gotham and The O.C.who earned a level in economics from the University of Virginia, turned his consideration to the research of cryptocurrency through the pandemic. Unlike tens of millions of others who’ve evangelized for crypto, he got here to view digital forex as essentially unsound and rife with fraud – working example Bankman-Fried, who based the FTX cryptocurrency alternate that at one time was valued within the billions of {dollars}.

McKenzie wrote a ebook about it – Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraudco-authored with Jacob Silverman – and as a part of his analysis he reached out to Bankman-Fried for an interview. Perhaps surprisingly, Bankman-Fried agreed, and with out circumstances. Their on-camera interview is a key a part of McKenzie’s new documentary, Everyone Is Lying to You for Moneywhich opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles this Friday, earlier than increasing wider.

In the movie, we see McKenzie sit down with SBF, at first utilizing his performing expertise to seem credulous or suggestible, like “Tell me about this cryptocurrency thing. What’s it all about?” But the crypto bro ought to have been conscious of the harder questions he would finally face from McKenzie, on condition that McKenzie and Silverman’s Twitter feeds each indicated they had been writing a ebook on crypto fraud. And then there was the espresso cup McKenzie dropped at the interview.

It bore the phrases, “Being a fraud investigator is easy. It’s like riding a bike except the bike is on fire, you’re on fire, everything’s on fire.” He set the mug down in clear view of Bankman-Fried.

On Saturday, McKenzie screened Everyone Is Lying to You for Money on the Miami Film Festival (an acceptable place as a result of for the final a number of years, Miami has hosted Consensus, a serious cryptocurrency convention). At a Q&A after the screening, McKenzie was requested about bringing that espresso cup to the interview, in what may be known as a psy ops transfer.

Watch the video of McKenzie’s reply beneath.

The actor-turned-director pinned down his prey on vital questions on crypto and requested Bankman-Fried about his political contributions (which had turned many members of Congress into enthusiastic advocates for crypto). Like Capt. Louis Renault in Casablancawho memorably says in Rick’s Café, “I’m shocked, shocked to hear that gambling is going on here!” Before amassing his winnings, these politicians will need to have been “shocked” and red-faced when Bankman-Fried was arrested on fraud and different prices. The FTX founder is now serving a 25 12 months jail sentence at FCI Terminal Island in San Pedro, CA.

Watch the second from the Q&A in Miami when McKenzie responded to the question about his interview with SBF and the espresso cup.