She promised a new future with her revolutionary new crypto currency. But her $4 billion empire was all a fraud, milking investors, and sending her on the run as a global fugitive.
Social & External
The people behind it
Cassie Brown
Ruja Ignatova
Henley Hughes
young Ruja Ignatova
Chris Stanley
Sebastian Greenwood
Justin Whitehead
Konstantin Ignatov
Estamira is a 63-year-old woman who suffers from schizophrenia. She leads a tough life and has supported herself for the past 20 years by picking through garbage at the Jardim Gramacho Disposal Area in Rio de Janeiro. The film follows her starting in 2000, the year she begins treatment in a psychiatric clinic. At first, it is hard to understand her in her stream-of-consciousness sentences, delusions and obsessions. Gradually, however, we get to know her as a woman who can have quiet and lucid moments despite her illness.
The St. Valentine's Day massacre is the stuff of American legend, and the tale is familiar to nearly everyone. But the story of that bloody day in Chicago has never been told, or seen, like this before. Cutting-edge graphics and frenetic recreations accompany Johnny Fratto, son of onetime Al Capone-associate Louis "Lew" Fratto, back to Chicago, where he uncovers massacre myths and learns more about the life his father and uncles led when they roamed those lawless streets in the 1920s. Johnny gets guidance and opinions from a team of renowned Chicago gangster experts, and bridges the gap between the stories he heard as a little boy and the reality he lived growing up in a mob family. Johnny's take about what happened on Feb. 14, 1929 will surprise you.
Wincapita documentary film gives a silenced perspective on Finland's alleged biggest financial crime and pyramid scheme.
A film that exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.
Plunder: The Crime of Our Time is a hard-hitting investigative film by Danny Schechter. The "News Dissector" explores how the financial crisis was built on a foundation of criminal activity uncovering the connection between the collapse of the housing market and the economic catastrophe that followed.
Filmed over four years with unprecedented access, this documentary chronicles the riveting courtroom drama of two defamation lawsuits brought by Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims' families against Alex Jones and his website, InfoWars.
Los Angeles District Attorney’s office professes to protect the residents of Los Angeles County by prosecuting violent and dangerous criminals and seeking justice for all. But there is a dark side to the LA DA’s operations, when it is utilized by powers-that-be to persecute whistleblowers, violate the civil rights of U.S. citizens and stop investigations of criminal elements.
Workers Compensation, is the Worker's Con, a process flawed, buried in bureaucracy, adding insult to injury.
With any and all things crypto being pushed by celebrities, influencers, and politicians alike, actor-turned-author and director Ben McKenzie decides to investigate. Leveraging his celebrity status to gain access to eager prospectors, McKenzie finds himself unraveling the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrency. This skeptical but evenhanded take on the present and future of what we consider money gives a firsthand account of the chaotic financial frontier of our time.
In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, two national motorcycle festivals are held over the weeks around the Memorial Day Holiday. One festival is primarily white, the other is predominantly black. While bikers of both colors enjoy both festivals; the city, community and state view these two festivals vastly different creating a divide among the participants, business owners and residents. Against the backdrop of the historical relevance of the area's segregated past, this documentary explores the opposing viewpoints on segregation and integration, mutual love of motorcycle culture, and racial tensions that reach a boiling point every spring in this southern beach mecca.
Through interviews filmed over four years, Noam Chomsky unpacks the principles that have brought us to the crossroads of historically unprecedented inequality – tracing a half-century of policies designed to favor the most wealthy at the expense of the majority – while also looking back on his own life of activism and political participation. He provides penetrating insight into what may well be the lasting legacy of our time – the death of the middle class, and swan song of functioning democracy.
A provocative snapshot of the world we live in. It is a well-known fact that our society is structured like a pyramid. The very few people at the top create conditions for the majority below. Who are these people? Can we blame them for the problems our society faces today? Guided by the saying “A fish rots from the head” we set out to follow that fishy odor. What we found out is that people at the top are more likely to be psychopaths than the rest of us.
PBS Frontline traces rise and fall of television evangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker and investigates why government agencies failed to vigorously investigate charges of corruption in Bakker empire.
Basically we just drove around aimlessly, stopping any time we saw something or someone that interested us and one thing would lead to another and the universe would pull us in one direction or another. Most of what you’re seeing in the final film is the entirety of our interaction with these guys. It was quick and to the point and I didn’t even interview people besides the occasional “Any words of wisdom?” So what we got was a whole bunch of people telling stories and talking about whatever was on their mind. It was a strange and exciting journey that took us to a lot of places we didn’t expect.
Classic arcade champion Dwayne Richard pulls back the curtain on the King of Kong film, including how the filmmakers changed the facts of the story, how Billy Mitchell received payoffs from them and how the man who really defeated Mitchell's 1982 Donkey Kong record was left out of the film. You'll never look at the King of Kong the same way after you've learned the truth.
Cláudia, the longest-serving and most respected inmate at Madre Pelletier Penitentiary, is expected to leave prison soon. Like Betânia, who will be placed in a semi-open regime, and unlike Daniela, who recently arrived and is awaiting trial. While Daniela seeks protection in prison, Cláudia and Betânia will face the uncertainties of returning to the streets.
In this true-crime documentary, three guys exploit the freewheeling cryptocurrency market to scam millions from investors and bankroll lavish lifestyles.
When the young founder of a collapsing cryptocurrency exchange dies unexpectedly, irate investors suspect there's more to his death than meets the eye.
With a magical new invention that promised to revolutionize blood testing, Elizabeth Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her 10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.
Upstart payment firm Wirecard wowed the financial industry with its runaway success — until a tenacious team of journalists exposed massive fraud.
Interviews with leading authors, philosophers and scientists, with an in-depth discussion of the Law of Attraction. The audience is shown how they can learn and use 'The Secret' in their everyday lives.
Posing as a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul, an Israeli conman wooed women online then conned them out of millions of dollars. Now, some victims plan for payback.
Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.
A documentary exploring how money and the trading of value has evolved, culminating in Bitcoin.
Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
Vulgar, taunting texts blow up the phones of a teen and her boyfriend. Who's sending them — and why? This twisty documentary reveals the shocking answer.
A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.
A documentary about a man who impersonates a wise Indian Guru and builds a following in Arizona. At the height of his popularity, the Guru Kumaré must reveal his true identity to his disciples and unveil his greatest teaching of all.
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
Alex Gibney explores the phenomenon of Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer virus discovered in 2010 by international IT experts. Evidently commissioned by the US and Israeli governments, this malware was designed to specifically sabotage Iran’s nuclear programme. However, the complex computer worm ended up not only infecting its intended target but also spreading uncontrollably.
Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance, " goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor's heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.
A teen slams her car into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend. What seems like a tragic accident becomes a murder case.
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
RETURN tells the story of a retired Green Beret who embarks on a healing journey from Montana to Vietnam. There he retraces his steps, shares his wartime experiences with his son, treats his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and seeks out the mountain tribespeople he once lived with and fought alongside as a Special Forces officer.