Ben McKenzie’s film Everybody Lies to You for Money features interviews with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried about his political donations.
Ben McKenzie, a Hollywood actor known for his roles in TV shows including Gotham and OKhas released a trailer for a documentary about cryptocurrency, in which it interviews actors and former executives of the once popular trading platforms.
Released on Tuesday by the international sales agency and distributor The Forge, the trailer for the documentary called “Everybody Lies to You for Money” showed Mackenzie saying that cryptocurrency is “very stupid” and the actor’s journey to campaign against the industry. The film features footage from 2022 of former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky before their companies collapsed, as well as interviews with celebrities including Morena Baccarin and Gerard Butler.
The trailer shows Mackenzie directly asking SBF how much he has donated to politicians; It lists among its members the President of El Salvador, Naib Bukele, who is in favor of the country adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in 2021. Notably, Butler said in an interview with McKenzie that he has “made a ton of money” investing in crypto, but “really doesn’t know anything about it.”
After learning about the technology in 2020, McKenzie transitioned from working in Hollywood to speaking out against issues in the crypto industry. After FTX collapsed in 2022, he testified at a US Senate hearing investigating the stock market crash, calling the industry “the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.”
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Cointelegraph reached out to the filmmakers for comment on the content of the interviews with SBF and Bukele, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Bankman-Fried is still investigating a possible presidential pardon or appeal
The former FTX CEO is serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison after being convicted in 2023 of seven felony counts of misappropriating client funds at the exchange. However, Bankman-Fried has two potential early release options.
Shortly after the 2024 verdict, SBF’s attorneys filed an appeal to overturn the conviction and sentence. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals had not issued a decision as of Wednesday.
In addition, Bankman-Fried lobbied US President Donald Trump through social media posts praising his actions, often on crypto-related issues. However, Trump said in an interview in January that he would not consider pardoning the former director.
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