Where Are Ray Trapani and Sam Sharma From Netflix’s ‘Bitconned’ Movie Now?

If you want to start 2024 with a dose of rage, then go ahead and watch the Bitconned movie on Netflix. Bitconned is the latest story of a scammer who was rewarded for his crimes with a flashy Netflix documentary, and boy, will it make your blood boil.

Directed by Bryan Storkel (The Pez Outlaw), most of the film is spent retelling the reporting done by journalist Nathaniel Popper, whose 2017 New York Times story exposed the bit-coin start-up Centra Tech—which had been endorsed by celebrities like rapper DJ Khaled and wrestler Floyd Mayweather—as a total scam. But Storkel’s movie gets the story straight from one of the scammers himself: Ray Trapani. Centra founders Sam “Sobre” Sharma (also sometimes referred to as Sohrab Sharma) and Trapani, two twenty-somethings from Miami, claimed they had invented a “bitcoin debit card” which allowed buyers of Centra tokens to access their bitcoin just like a Visa. In fact, they even claimed they were working with Visa to make the card.

But it was all a lie. Centra wasn’t working with Visa. It didn’t have a functioning app. The man that the Centra website claimed was its CEO didn’t even exist. (Trapani says in the documentary he found a picture for their fake CEO, Michael Edwards, by Googling “old white guy.” The photo actually belonged to a Canadian physiology professor.)

Yet the lies worked. Trapani and Sharma raised upwards of $30 million, thanks to investors fooled by the charade. Eventually, the Securities and Exchange Commission finally stepped in 2018.

What happened to Sam Sharma from the Netflix Bitconned movie?

Sam “Sobre” Sharma also known as Sohrab Sharma, is currently in prison, which is why he is not featured in the film. He is serving out his eight-year sentence, which began in 2021. He pled guilty to “conspiring to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud in connection with his and his co-conspirators’ use of material misrepresentations and omissions to solicit investors to purchase securities,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Sharma is serving his time at Montgomery FPC, a minimum security prison campin Alabama. He is set to be released on August 19, 2027.

Sharma’s attorney provided a statement for the film, which is featured just before the credits, and reads, “Mr. Sharma denies the various claims made by several individuals in this documentary. In the near future, Mr. Sharma looks forward to telling the true story of Centra Tech and its background.”

Where is Ray Trapani from Netflix Bitconned movie now?

Ray Trapani did not serve any time in prison for his crimes and is currently living with his wife and child as a free man. He was arrested in 2018 shortly after Sharma, and charged with four-count criminal complaints with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of securities fraud, and one count of wire fraud.

Bitconned director Bryan Storkel filmed Trapani on his sentencing day, April 2, 2022.

“The biggest thing is to have the judge believe you’re not going to do more crimes,” Trapani informs the camera confidently. “The whole point of putting someone in jail is to make sure they don’t hurt the community, or whatever the fuck they say.”

Trapani notes that he fully cooperated with the FBI. He says he helped secure evidence to put away Sharma for eight years and the third Centra co-founder, Robert Farka, in prison for one year.

“The fact that I cooperated means a lot, so I hope I get less time,” Trapani tells the camera, adding, almost as an afterthought, “I am sorry for what I did.”

Even if viewers doubted Trapani sincerity, his story worked on the judge. Trapani was sentenced to “time served,” meaning no jail time. The judge praised his “extraordinary” cooperation, saying she “didn’t want to interrupt the path you’re on, because you seem to be doing so well.”

Laughing in his car, Tripani is on film declaring, “No time, bitch!”

When asked what happened to his money, Tripani shrugs, smiles coyly, and refuses to answer. “I told the FBI there’s more money out there. It’s up to them to find it.”

Trapani was also ordered to pay $2.9 million to victims of the Centra fraud. But, as the documentary notes, two months after his sentencing, Tripani bought a house. Does that mean he has more crypto money hidden somewhere? His mother says in the film that he co-signed with his father-in-law.

When asked in the film how he afforded the house, Trapani responds,”I did something shady, clearly. My whole fucking story is shady shit.”

Trapani has a verified account on X, and other social media platforms, where his is happily promoting the documentary.

Questions about #Bitconned ? Ask away.

— RayTrapani (@RayTrap__) January 1, 2024

The doc also notes that as of August 2023, none of the Centra investors had been paid back any money. Tripani told the Bitconned filmmakers that he is planning to start a new loan business for “people in need” at a 50 percent interest rate, and wants to call it “Cambridge and Brown,” after the prestigious universities. (He claims on his Twitter that this detail is not true.)

So, apparently, the scamming hustle never stops.