Award-winning French investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Benoit Bringer’s new film (trailer) in which I have a small role, aired recently on France 5 Television.
The premiere on French TV in prime time last week was watched by over 600,000 people to great reviews. Le Figaro called it a “Must See”, Le Monde said, ”Fascinating and Lifesaving,” La Croix raved, “A Hard-Hitting Documentary.”
Benoit was part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) Panama-Papers team which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for their work. In 2017 he was also shortlisted as International Journalist of the year by One World Media.
This July he and his crew came to Dallas and spent a considerable amount of time interviewing me in my home about what had happened when I spoke out against the behavior I witnessed and reported at Citigroup and my continual efforts to warn management and the board of directors about the huge potential losses I knew existed. We also talked about the subsequent cover-ups I witnessed at the SEC, FCIC and DOJ.
His intent with the film is to highlight the blatant unpunished criminal wrongdoing that contributed to the worldwide financial crisis that devastated many countries’ economies, including ours, not to mention millions of individual lives. Based on the feedback the documentary has gathered to date, he has succeeded.
His hope and mine is that eventually there may be an English release for the UK and North America as well as getting more TV stations airing it in other parts of the world.
As the documentary points out the top executives who were involved in the bringing down of banks worldwide during the 2008 financial crisis, got away with fraud and lined their pockets with millions. A very few of their subordinates were not as lucky and took the rap for them. This film points out the disparities.
Our hope is that a documentary like this one will, in fact, raise public awareness, enough to prevent another financial meltdown. I’m also hoping it will raise public awareness for the need for whistleblower protection around the world, with the EU Parliament now considering such ground-breaking legislation.
More stories like mine and the others in Benoit’s film need to be told so we do not allow continual cover-ups to erode our financial wellbeing. It’s a slippery slope we must always be aware of.
More on the film is available through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
EXTRAIT “BANKSTERS” RICHARD BOWEN ENG from Citizenbb on Vimeo.
Richard Bowen is widely known as the Citigroup whistleblower. As Business Chief Underwriter for Citigroup during the housing bubble financial crisis meltdown, he repeatedly warned Citi executive management and the board about fraudulent behavior within the organization. The company certified poor mortgages as quality mortgages and sold them to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other investors.
