Actor Ben McKenzie calls crypto ‘pretty stupid’ in new documentary trailer

Actor Ben McKenzie released the trailer for his documentary ‘Everyone Is Lying to You for Money,’ distributed by The Forge, featuring 2022 footage of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky. The cast list shown in the preview includes El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.

The trailer focuses on McKenzie’s critique of digital assets and his shift from acting to industry critic. It shows him pressing Bankman-Fried about political donations and features interviews with entertainers Morena Baccarin and Gerard Butler.

In an exchange captured in the preview, Butler tells McKenzie he ‘made a ton of money’ investing in crypto while not ‘actually’ knowing much about it. The teaser also includes archival footage from 2022 with Bankman-Fried and Mashinsky recorded before their companies failed during a market downturn.

McKenzie began researching cryptocurrencies in 2020. After FTX’s November 2022 bankruptcy filing, he testified at a U.S. Senate hearing on the exchange’s collapse and characterized the wider crypto industry as ‘the largest Ponzi scheme in history.’

Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence after a 2023 conviction on seven felony counts related to the misuse of FTX customer funds. His legal team has appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals; no decision had been issued as of Wednesday. He has also posted on social media praising Donald Trump and indicating interest in clemency. In January, Trump ruled out a pardon for Sam Bankman-Fried.

Celsius, led by Mashinsky until 2022, froze customer withdrawals in June of that year and filed for bankruptcy the following month as crypto prices fell and liquidity thinned across multiple platforms.

The trailer does not provide a release date or distribution plan for the finished film.