The tangled complexities of the crypto currency and blockchain worlds are strikingly and economically explained in Bår Tyrmi’s documentary, Lie to Me, which details the rise and fall of OneCoin, the company that sold itself as the ‘BitCoin killer’ but which – surprise, surprise – turned out to be one almighty scam that drew in millions of victims.
The company’s charismatic front people – Sebastian Greenwood and Ruja Ignatova – used classic pyramid scheme tactics, staging evangelical gala meetings to whip up enthusiasm among attendees and draw them (and folk within their personal networks) into buying vast amounts of digital currency. As we see in on-line archival footage, Greenwood and Ignatova appear right from the off to be nothing other than hucksters, but of course the lure of easy money is always a strong one.
In a prologue titled ‘London, A Couple From Hell’, footage from the Wembley Arena from June 11, 2016, shows how 20,000 gathered to see Greenwood, tackily resplendent in dinner suit and bow-tie, promote and hype OneCoin before introducing its “mastermind” and “creator” Ignatova, a Bulgarian businesswoman who, it turns out, had a somewhat shady past.
“OneCoin is going to be the #1 crypto currency in the world, and all of you will get very, very rich,” she tells the gathering.
The spine of the film comes via interviews (and footage) with Norwegian blockchain expert Bjørn Bjercke, who had been approached to build the much-needed blockchain to facilitate this new crypto currency. He stumbled across a video on October 1, 2016, which “spooked” him. The exact same time as he was being interviewed a video from Bangkok was showing Ignatova imploring a crowd 10,000 people to “switch on the new blockchain.” For Bjercke, red flags started “popping up left and right,” because this was the blockchain he was being asked to build. (For the record, a blockchain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain is a record of transactions that is shared between users in a distributed network and linked cryptographically.)
The film then follows Bjercke as he launches a campaign (with the help of others around the world) to expose OneCoin, while weaving in testimony from many others with similarly bad experiences. These include Jonatan Wigerup, an investor from Sweden who started by investing $5,000 and continued to build his portfolio because it “felt like a step toward success.” Now he has a valueless pot of 194,000 OneCoins which, at least on screen, should be worth more than €8 million. “I look at the screen and am sad…the truth is hard sometimes,” he says.
Also interviewed is Layla Begum, a London investor who invested more than £50,000 into the scheme because it was sold as being Shariah-compliant and right for Muslims. Offering another perspective is Duncan Arthur, a former banker from South Africa, who took a job with OneCoin, but ended up being a whistle-blower and now is afraid for his life. “OneCoin is a cult,” he stresses.
There is much darkness – and a pervading sense of threat – lurking behind the scenes. Ruja Ignatova disappeared in 2017, and is on international most-wanted lists, but still hasn’t been found. Duncan Arthur lives in fear of his life, and Bjorn regularly receives threatening messages – the film shows a video message from Cordell ‘King Jayms’ James, former evangelist for OneCoin, who says, “one life for more life, leave the network alone – Bjorn, be aware, be very aware!”
Structured often as a thriller, the film raises all sorts of questions about human nature, how we let ourselves be fooled, and the desire for seemingly easy money. As one interviewee comments: “Justice works slowly, whilst the scams work fast.” At times the technology and complexity of crypto currency is mind-boggling, but at its heart Lie to Me is the simple story of a con carried out on a truly international scale.
Norway, 2024, 94mins
Dir: Bår Tyrmi
Production: Hacienda Film
International sales: JAVA Films
Producer: Dag Mykland
Scr: Dag Mykland, Bår Tyrmi, Ellen Morgenstierne
Cinematography: Trond Høines, Dag Mykland
Editors: Jo Eldøen, Bår Tyrm
With: Bjørn Bjercke, Jonatan Wigerup, Duncan Arthur, Daniel Leinhardt, Erica Stanford, Mufti Amjad M. Mohammed, Layla Begum
