Unveiling the dark side of the cryptocurrency boom, Bitconned is a gripping Netflix documentary that chronicles the outrageous story of Centra Tech. In 2017, the company perpetrated a massive scam amidst the fervor of initial coin offerings (ICOs). From ambitions as a kid to become rich at any cost to defrauding celebrities and investors of millions, Bitconned is The Wolf of Wall Street for the cryptocurrency and Bitcoin era.
The documentary sheds light on the murky world of ICOs, a fundraising method that thrived from the late 2010s into the early years of the pandemic. But ICOs were riddled with fraudulent schemes, a perfect opportunity for criminals and grifters to exploit people’s fear of missing out (FOMO) on big cryptocurrency gains. It was the “Bitcoin Boom,” after all.
Why Centra Tech resonated with investors
Appropriately, Centra Tech’s base of operations was in Miami, Florida, where exotic cars, beautiful women, and loose morals reign.
Centra Tech, co-founded by the contrasting personalities of CEO Sohrab Sharma–also known as “Sam Sorbee” (portrayed as a tech prodigy) and COO Ray Trapani (a flamboyant salesman and inevitable parallels to Jordan Belfort), capitalized on this unregulated space to lure investors into their Centra Tech Coin (CTR) through an illegal ICO starting in 2017.
The ICO raised over $25 million from investors in 2017, giving these young fraudsters a level of wealth they never imagined possible seemingly overnight.
“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a criminal”
Ray Trapani, former COO of Centra Tech – lead protagonist of Bitconned
Centra Tech and the Centra Tech Coin were appealing because they offered a Centra Debit Card – at the time, a precedent. The company boasted that it provided “cardholders to spend their cryptocurrencies in all fiat currency transactions.”
The company claimed that its Currency Conversion Engine (CCE) Module would “enable customers to convert their blockchain assets to market value fiat to obtain near-perfect exchange rates.”
In 2017, converting cryptocurrency assets into fiat currency was not well understood, and certainly not instant. Giving investors access to a card they could easily swipe to purchase tangible goods was immediately enticing.
Celebrities like Floyd Mayweather are shown in Bitconned touting their Centra Tech debit card, making flashy designer purchases in a luxury mall.
Bitconned delves into the extravagant lifestyles of Sorbee and Trapani, funded by the millions they amassed from unsuspecting investors. It also features interviews with journalists and investigators who tirelessly exposed the Centra Tech scam and former investors who lost significant sums of money.
The ease of the con is one of the most fascinating parts of the documentary, showing how Trapani, Sorbee, and their associates faked everything from a Harvard degree to being a Vice President at Wells Fargo on their LinkedIn profiles and company website. Did investors really believe it? It didn’t matter if they were going to make money. And that’s the greed of the American consumer on full display.
The film starts with Trapani being fitted for a tailored suit and boasting about being worth “on paper” hundreds of millions but having millions on hand in liquid cash at his height.
In actuality, helping operate an exotic car rental business, Trapani is frequently seen driving high-end exotics and designer accessories and sitting in what appears to be a mansion–which he wouldn’t answer how he can afford today.
Indeed, as Selina (Anne Hathaway) from The Dark Knight Rises commented to Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) when he was bankrupt, “Even the rich don’t go broke the same as the rest of us.”
The arrest of Ray Trapani and the downfall of Centra Tech
Eventually, the U.S. Department of Justice caught up to the fraudsters. “As alleged, Raymond Trapani conspired with his co-defendants to lure investors with false claims about their product and about relationships they had with credible financial institutions.”
Trapani was arrested in 2018 and convicted on four securities and wire fraud counts, with maximum sentences of 20 years each. He briefly served time in prison, had three years of supervised release, and paid $3 million in fines.
The U.S. government seized all of Centra Tech Coin’s digital cryptocurrency assets—Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Ripple—and has since sold them for $33 million to reimburse victims of the Centra Tech fraud.
The Centra Tech website has also been seized and is no longer online since 2021.
Bitconned offers an engrossing look into Centra Tech’s inner workings, the motivations and psychology of the founders, and those hoping to capitalize on the Bitcoin boom. The documentary serves as a stark warning for potential investors in the cryptocurrency space: what goes up almost always goes down, and it might even go to zero.
One thing is sure: Centra Tech’s days may be over, but criminals continue exploiting cryptocurrency and those willing to invest in the unregulated space. From hackers stealing money out of ATMs to exploiting decentralized finance (DeFi) bugs, cryptocurrency is the criminal’s choice.
Final Score
Highly Recommended
Bitconned Movie Details
Platform: Netflix
Rated: TV-MA
Length: 1 hour 34 minutes
Description: In this true-crime documentary, three guys exploit the freewheeling cryptocurrency market to scam millions from investors and bankroll lavish lifestyles.
Subtitles: English, Spanish (Latin America), French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Genre: Documentary
Year of release: 2024
Discover more from Cybersecurity Careers Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
