Ben McKenzie suspected there was something suspicious about crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried long before anyone else did.
The actor known for Gotham and The O.C., who earned a degree in economics from the University of Virginia, turned his attention to the study of cryptocurrency during the pandemic. Unlike millions of others who have evangelized for crypto, he came to view digital currency as fundamentally unsound and rife with fraud – case in point Bankman-Fried, who founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange that at one time was valued in the billions of dollars.
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McKenzie wrote a book about it – Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, co-authored with Jacob Silverman – and as part of his research he reached out to Bankman-Fried for an interview. Perhaps surprisingly, Bankman-Fried agreed, and without conditions. Their on-camera interview is a key part of McKenzie’s new documentary, Everyone Is Lying to You for Money, which opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles this Friday, before expanding wider.
FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
In the film, we see McKenzie sit down with SBF, at first using his acting skills to appear credulous or suggestible, like “Tell me about this cryptocurrency thing. What’s it all about?” But the crypto bro should have been aware of the tougher questions he would eventually face from McKenzie, given that McKenzie and Silverman’s Twitter feeds both indicated they were writing a book on crypto fraud. And then there was the coffee cup McKenzie brought to the interview.
It bore the words, “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.
The coffee cup Ben McKenzie brought to his interview with Sam Bankman-Fried.
On Saturday, McKenzie screened Everyone Is Lying to You for Money at the Miami Film Festival (an appropriate place because for the last several years, Miami has hosted Consensus, a major cryptocurrency conference). At a Q&A after the screening, McKenzie was asked about bringing that coffee cup to the interview, in what might be called a psy ops move.
Watch the video of McKenzie’s answer below.
The actor-turned-director pinned down his prey on critical questions about crypto and asked Bankman-Fried about his political contributions (which had turned many members of Congress into enthusiastic advocates for crypto). Like Capt. Louis Renault in Casablanca, who memorably says in Rick’s Café, “I’m shocked, shocked to hear that gambling is going on here!” before collecting his winnings, those politicians must have been “shocked” and red-faced when Bankman-Fried was arrested on fraud and other charges. The FTX founder is now serving a 25 year prison sentence at FCI Terminal Island in San Pedro, CA.
Watch the moment from the Q&A in Miami when McKenzie responded to the query about his interview with SBF and the coffee cup.
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