Ben Mckenzie Releases April Documentary After 2021 Crypto Investigation

Ben Mckenzie released Everyone Is Lying to You for Money in April after turning a 2021 investigation into cryptocurrency into a documentary. The project moves from his own skepticism into a story about fraud, losses, and the people still chasing money in the market.

McKenzie and Silverman

In 2021, McKenzie began working with journalist Jacob Silverman to investigate cryptocurrency, and that work later became the 2023 New York Times bestseller Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. He financed the documentary with his own cash, which made the release less like a studio assignment than a personal wager on a subject he already believed was being sold badly to the public.

McKenzie has said, "I’m an actor. I’m also a bullshitter. And these guys are bullshitting us. There's a lot of people lying to you for money." He added, "I figured I'd turn a camera on and see what happens."

South By Southwest 2022

Day one of filming took place at the 2022 South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where Alex Mashinsky of Celsius was on the floor. McKenzie later said, "I saw Celsius, which was being sued by multiple state regulators, trying to sell people on this scheme. I was like, ‘This is shocking.’"

That encounter gave the documentary a direct point of contact with one of crypto’s most visible collapse stories. Celsius was later described as now-bankrupt, and Mashinsky is now serving twelve years in federal prison on commodities and securities fraud.

Celsius investors

McKenzie interviewed people who lost financial footing after investing in Celsius, then found that some of them were still putting money into crypto in pursuit of their American dreams. That is the sharpest edge of the film: it is not just about one executive’s downfall, but about how the same pitch keeps finding buyers even after losses.

McKenzie’s background gives the documentary an unusual frame. He played Ryan Atwood on The O.C. in 2003, later starred in Southland and Gotham, and said his interest in crypto began during COVID-19. With an economics degree from the University of Virginia, he is not presenting himself as a detached observer; he is presenting a case built from interviews, his own money, and a market he now treats as a warning.