Netflix has presented the new movies for January 2024, including Bitconned, the docu-film about Ray Trapani’s crypto scam and the rise and fall of Centra Tech.
Summary
Netflix and the new film Bitconned that documents Ray Trapani’s crypto scam
On Netflix the trailer for the new documentary film “Bitconned” is already online, which tells the story of one of the biggest crypto scams Centra Tech, created by Ray Trapani.
Ray Trapani, who has always wanted to be a criminal since he was a boy, is the protagonist of the film. The documentary talks about his frenzy in creating one of the biggest crypto scams behind Centra Tech, which took place in 2017, during the peak of the Bitcoin boom.
Together with his partners Sohrab Sharma and Robert Farkas, Trapani made his debut in the crypto world with the company Centra Tech, which offered, among other things, a debit card.
With this business card, Trapani then created an ICO (“Initial Coin Offering”) that would have raised a whopping $25 million from interested parties.
And it was precisely the discovery of the illegality of such ICO together with false statements of material, including omissions that encouraged people to invest, that would have led to charges against Ray and his partners.
Currently, Ray Trapani has pleaded guilty to charges related to the investor fraud scheme and has been ordered to repay $2,608,869, in addition to being sentenced to prison.
Netflix and the documentary film Bitconned: director Bryan Storkel offers an “exploitative” view of the crypto world
The director of the new documentary film Bitconned on Netflix from January 1, 2024 is Bryan Storkel, renowned producer of The Legend of Cocaine Island and director of The Pez Outlaw.
From what emerges, it seems that Bitconned offers an “exploitative” view of the crypto world, from which the scam was born.
Ray Trapani, in fact, has always been interested in alternative ways of making money, and the legality of every situation has never been an obstacle for him. In the movie, Trapani candidly talks about his involvement in this particular scam that involved the rise and fall of Centra Tech.
According to the complete file of the court, Trapani has been charged with ten separate counts:
- “Criminal association aimed at financial fraud against Centra Tech”;
- “Financial fraud against Centra Tech”;
- “Criminal association aimed at telematic fraud against Centra Tech”
- “Telematic fraud against Centra Tech”;
- “Obstruction of justice”;
- “Criminal association aimed at telematic fraud against Venmo”;
- “Criminal association aimed at telematic fraud against Miami Exotics”;
- “Internet fraud involving credit cards and other charges”;
- “Illegal possession of firearms”;
- “Narcotics”.
Even the other co-founders of Centra Tech, Sohrab “Sam” Sharma and Robert Farkas, have pleaded guilty and received prison sentences and heavy financial penalties. Sharma has been ordered to repay a whopping $37,701,966.
The latest crypto scam by SafeMoon and the Task Force in the USA
And speaking of crypto scams, the latest news reports the one about the SafeMoon project that has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (not Chapter 11).
In practice, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the USA (or SEC) would have accused the members of the team of violating the rules on the sale of securities, but then, the Department of Justice effectively arrested them for alleged fraud.
Who knows if the discovery by the American Department of Justice comes thanks to the establishment in June 2023 of a new task force in the USA specifically against crypto scams: Darknet Marketplace and Digital Currency Crimes (DNMDCC) task force.
