I just realized that Netflix has released a new documentary that deals with one of the biggest crypto scams — and the story behind it is really intense. The film is called Bitconned and focuses on Ray Trapani and his fraud at Centra Tech. This is one of those cases that shows how wild the early crypto scene was.

Ray Trapani has always been looking for quick money — according to the documentary, that was basically his motto. In 2017, at the height of the Bitcoin boom, he co-founded the company Centra Tech with Sohrab Sharma and Robert Farkas. The idea wasn’t even that bad — a crypto debit card. But then Ray Trapani and his team decided to launch an ICO and lie massively. They raised $25 million this way. The only problem: the whole thing was illegal, with forged documents and deliberate omissions to get investors involved.

The SEC and later the Department of Justice caught Ray Trapani and the others. Ray Trapani had to plead guilty and not only went to prison but also has to pay back over $2.6 million. His partners Sharma and Farkas had it even worse — Sharma has to pay back nearly $38 million. Ray Trapani faced ten different charges — from financial fraud to telecom fraud to illegal weapons possession.

Director Bryan Storkel crafted the film to really show how exploitative the entire crypto world was back then. Ray Trapani openly talks about his methods and how he duped people. Interestingly, this wasn’t an isolated case. Just look at SafeMoon — another project that recently filed for bankruptcy after the SEC and Department of Justice went after the founders. This even led the U.S. to establish a special task force against crypto scams in 2023.

Bitconned actually does a good job of illustrating why it’s important to stay critical of crypto projects. Ray Trapani and his team are prime examples of how greed and lack of regulation can quickly lead to massive fraud.