All language subtitles for The.Stormtrooper.Scandal.2024.1080p.WEBRip.x264-CBFM

This programme contains very
strong language from the start.

PHONE LINE RINGS

ANSWER PHONE BEEPS

Hey, buddy.
Um, well, what can I say?

HE CHUCKLES

Fucking insane! I'm in shock.

DARTH VADER RESPIRATOR RASPS

Everyone within the industry
is fucking shocked as well.

They're just like,
"This has never gone down so quick."

# I was five and he was six

# We rode on horses
made of sticks... #

ANSWER PHONE BEEPS

You are a fucking millionaire!

How do you feel?

# He would always win the fight
Bang, bang... #

DARTH VADER RESPIRATOR RASPS

# Bang, bang,
my baby shot me down. #

It's 8.30 in the morning.

In West London,
an art curator is waking up

to discover he has become
a millionaire overnight...

..selling art
that doesn't physically exist.

It's part of a revolution in art

that promises vast wealth
for those in the know.

This project looked huge.

I could have got a Damien Hirst,
one of one.

It was going to make me rich,
you know?

I decided to pull the trigger
and went all in.

Let's do this.

The whole collection
sold out in five seconds.

One of the fastest-selling
NFT drops ever.

If it's this popular,
where could this go?

Just made two mil on NFT.

GUNSHOTS

But is this fast money
nothing more than fool's gold?

It's snake oil.

There was no valuable thing
to be able to sell.

People were busy pumping air
into the balloon,

and eventually the balloon
was going to pop.

Our story unfolds in a world where
digital art meets cryptocurrency...

What is going on,
all my crypto friends?

..and not everything
is as it seems...

There was so much deception
and fraud,

and it was across so many planes.

..with characters who use monikers
and masks as a means of expression,

but also to hide.

CHEERING

This is a tale of ambition...

He insisted he was an artist,

but what he made
seemed fairly unhinged.

He seems to be scared
of absolutely nothing.

If you want anything done in life,
you're going to piss people off.

..greed...

There was a gold rush, and people's
motivations aren't always pure.

He saw the pot of gold
at the end of the NFT rainbow,

and he took it with both hands.

We knew that people were
going to get hurt, unfortunately.

..betrayal...

Artists' work was stolen.

It's a rip-off
at a very fundamental level.

..and fortunes made and lost
on a new digital frontier.

I lost a lot of money.

I think he's fallen into
some kind of digital abyss

that he didn't really reckon with.

There's millions of pounds
unaccounted for.

Someone must know where it is.
Someone must have it.

If you're being completely honest,
was this a scam?

Our story begins, not here
in the art studios of London...

..but on the battlefields
of Afghanistan...

..with a man called Bran.

I joined
the Special Forces Reserves.

I was called up to go
to Afghanistan.

And we came under fire
from the Taliban...

GUNSHOT

And I dove for cover in a ditch
with this kid next to me...

..and his AK-47
was covered in pink stickers.

And I just had that defining moment.

The voice in my head just said,
"If I get back in one piece,

"this is something
that I'd like to look into doing...

"..taking something
of fear and loathing

"and turning it
into beauty and intrigue."

That was my first entry
into the art world,

and then it snowballed from there.

These customised AK-47s
become Bran's hallmark.

But he thinks he could get
more exposure for his concept

by engaging higher-profile artists.

In 2012, he invites the likes

of Antony Gormley
and the Chapman brothers

to add their own take on the guns
for a charity exhibition.

We auctioned off
all the AK-47 art pieces.

That night,
we raised £450,000 for charity.

And that was actually
when I first met Ben.

Unbeknownst to either man...

..this meeting will start
a chain of events

that, over the next ten years,

will lead to
some people making millions

and others losing everything.

Ben. Where do you start?

I, personally, think
he's a bit of a maverick.

And action.

Ben Moore is a curator

who has been part of the London
art scene since the mid-noughties.

At this point, he's best known
for putting artist's work

on the London Underground
through his company, Art Below.

In 2008, Ben encounters
the British designer

of an iconic piece
of movie history...

Did you create the actual...?

Yeah. Um, you designed them as well?
Yeah.

..the helmet of the Imperial
stormtrooper from Star Wars.

Having acquired
two stormtrooper outfits...

..Ben begins a new artistic journey.

I think Ben's talent
is taking things that people know

and are very aware of,

but approaching it
from a different perspective.

Ben stuck out

because he was always doing
something out of the ordinary.

Stand further against the wall, Ben.

He does divide opinion.

CORK POPS

CHEERING

It can either be fifth grade idea,
or it's art.

Nice!

Ah! Hot pink. Yeah.

Ben created this idea
of a Pink Stormtrooper,

taking the Star Wars suit
and painting it pink.

And we went around London
taking photos.

CAMERA CLICKS

Hey!

INAUDIBLE

And that was his first experience
with, you know,

the idea of using these suits
in the form of art.

As well as a piece
of performance art...

..the Pink Stormtrooper
becomes Ben's alter ego.

CHEERING

Self-promotion is a trait of Ben's.

So if there's one thing worse
than being talked about,

it's not being talked about.

CHEERING INTENSIFIES

So, good or bad,
I think it, you know,

it led him into
the things he ended up doing.

All right, I'm doing this.

My mate, Bran,
likes to fuck around with AK-47s.

I happen to be
the proud owner of one.

Also happen to be
the Pink Stormtrooper.

This little motherfucker right here.

Beyond the street stunts,

there seems little mileage
in the Pink Stormtrooper.

But Bran's AK-47 exhibition
has given Ben an idea.

In 2013, he decides to set up
his own charity show.

But in place of guns, he'll exhibit
customised stormtrooper helmets.

He manages to secure
the world-renowned Saatchi Gallery

and will call the show Art Wars.

Star Wars is something
that is very mainstream,

you know, appeals to all ages.

Um, and the...the helmet,
the object of the helmet, is

one of the most iconic - IS the most
iconic - object in film history.

Ben emailed me to say
he was organising an exhibition

of stormtrooper helmets for charity.

I remember thinking
he was a bit of a live wire,

but it's the art world.

It attracts live wires.

He said he'd give us
the physical helmet

to do whatever we fancied with it.

CAMERA CLICKS

And then he listed off some of

the artists he had involved already.

They were all household names.

I think if you're an artist and you
command a certain amount of money

for your work, that primes you

for a certain sense of
kind of internal guilt

about being an artist and making
ridiculous amounts of money

for things which don't seem
to kind of correlate.

So we agreed to do it just
on the basis of it being a charity,

rather than anything
that Ben Moore said

or any kind of curatorial
sort of conversation.

CAMERA CLICKS

He gave us a blank

and said, you know,
"Do what you want with it."

Ben is Ben.

Basically, he's a chancer, you know?

But then, in what he's trying to do,
you have to be a bit of a chancer

because, you know, you
have to make things happen,

and you have to sort of
gee people into it.

CAMERA CLICKS

His show's charitable status helps
Ben land some big-name artists.

Even Damien Hirst is on board,

supplying a helmet decorated
with his trademark spot painting.

Ben seemed to, from the get go,

seemed to have the right
connections - Damien Hirst,

Jake and Dino Chapman, etc, etc,
are involved.

You're like, "Wow, this is
fantastic. What a great line-up.

"I feel honoured
to be part of that line-up.""

CAMERA CLICKS

Ben seemed like someone that was...

..honest, and in it
for the right reasons.

He did a couple more shows
in London.

I think he did
an exhibition in America,

and he pulled in
some big artists again.

We are live in Miami.

The Pink Stormtrooper is going
to show us around Art Wars.

Ben Moore,

I mean, I've kind of
met his type before,

a kind of posh boy chancer.

Would you like an ecstasy?

The Pink Stormtrooper
has everything.

But we all contribute
to...to good causes,

and if it's engaging,
you've got an idea for it,

then you'll do it.

CAMERA CLICKS

I made a piece
covered in ecstasy pills.

The piece sold for $5,000
to somebody in Bel-Air.

I was very happy for Ben.

It got a great response.

I remember Ben was
interested in the fact

that I could photograph
the finished art pieces as well...

CAMERA CLICKS

..to then make some prints
from them,

and then possibly to sell the prints
at a further date.

But I was always pushing him,

saying, "Look, you know,
this could be something huge."

Over the next few years,
Ben continues to run Art Wars shows.

But, eventually,
the money they make...

..and his interest in curating them
wanes.

But just as the helmets
seemed destined to be forgotten...

..a new force awakens.

A revolution in art
is under way,

one that exists entirely
in the digital realm.

REPORTER: Encrypted digital art
is today's investment craze.

NFTs might be
tomorrow's burst bubble,

or the beginning of a new story
in the history of art.

An NFT, or non-fungible token,
is a kind of digital watermark...

..an identifier that can be attached
to a work of art online

to make it unique.

Now it can be bought or sold
like a work in the physical world.

It's an innovation that finds
its moment in the Covid pandemic.

With the world locked down,

everyone and everything
is forced online.

The conditions are perfect
for an explosion...

..in this new digital art form.

A new craze that is redefining
what it means to be a collector.

A digital artwork by a relatively
unknown American artist,

known as Beeple, has sold at
Christie's for nearly $70 million -

that's £50 million -
and become the first ever sale

by a major auction house of a work
that doesn't physically exist.

Suddenly, you had this mass
of people spending lots of money

on these digital works.

It was completely crazy.

Suddenly the world had exploded

and there were thousands of people
doing it. Tens of thousands.

Taking advantage of this NFT boom
are a new generation of investors,

like the crypto-entrepreneur
who calls himself Sillytuna.

People liken the NFT bubble
to the tulip bubble

back in the 17th century,

where one tulip could be worth up
to six times someone's salary.

You can look in hindsight and go,
"This is crazy."

At the time, people didn't know
when it would stop,

so they kept trading tulips.

This is what I call Bored Ape mania.

If you got in early,
then you're sitting on

a quarter of a million
to half a million-plus dollars.

NFTs are traded in cryptocurrency,

so their popularity is partly driven
by the huge rise in values

of cryptocurrencies
like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

You could see that
there's this booming market

and valuations are becoming crazy.

At the height of the bubble,
I sold an NFT for $12 million.

2021 was a massive year for NFTs.

$13 billion was traded in NFTs
in that year.

Some estimates valued
the whole market at $40 billion.

It was huge.

Everybody was trying to work out
whether they could make one

and make some money on it.

Now artists are discovering
that digital creations

can be worth millions.

People like me who've been
in the market for a long time,

we could see that
there was a gold rush going on.

And that gold rush was not healthy,
in a lot of cases.

People were going to get hurt,
unfortunately.

In the autumn of 2021,
with the market at an all-time high,

investors begin to hear about

a special new collection.

Its name is Art Wars.

And it's an opportunity
that seems too good to miss.

I just want to say
that I really appreciate

the warmth and positivity

that I've felt from the community
over the last few weeks.

It's my first time in this space.

You're forever struggling,
doing really good things,

and the pay-off is that, apparently,
you have a good reputation...

..but...no money.

All right. I'm bored of that.
I want some money.

It was sort of an opportunity

that I felt was, like, cooked up
by the gods for me to...to...

..to finally...

..make serious money very quickly.

The first voice who convinced me
of that was...was...was Bran.

In the ten years
since they first met,

Ben and Bran have remained in touch.

We were always connected
through collaborations.

At the time,
NFTs were just going crazy

and everyone was bringing out
anything and everything.

I instinctively thought of Ben
because of... Given Art Wars.

Star Wars and NFTs -
a marriage made in heaven.

I was like, "Ben, you kind
of need to get on this now

"because you've only got
so many months

"before it's going to
kind of fall off a bit."

Bran knew all about it.

He'd made 80 grand
in the previous month.

And then I thought,

"OK, well, let's just go along
with whatever his plan is."

You know? Er...

Cos, I mean,
80 grand sounded fine to me.

I supplied Ben with the photography

that I had
from the original Art Wars.

CAMERA CLICKS

He was like my sort of spirit guide

into the next chapter
of what happened.

I've heard about Art Wars
around October 2021.

There was a blog about it
mentioning the fact that Star Wars

was officially
going to start an NFT,

which was massive.

I searched Ben Moore.

That's how I found out that he had
an art gallery with the helmets.

And when I saw the pictures
of the exhibition,

I was just like,
"Damn! This looks good!"

Art Wars is a body of work
ten years in the making.

I called upon all the best artists
that I knew in the world,

and asked them to take the normal
white stormtrooper helmet...

..and put their iconic mark onto it.

And we're digitalising it.

So these Art Wars,

it is actually, er,
stormtrooper helmets from Star Wars.

Art Wars appears to be
a unique offering.

Unlike any NFT that's come before,

it promises a connection
to a global movie franchise...

..with work by some
of the world's leading artists.

There is some big names,
as well, involved,

including someone like Damien Hirst.

Definitely think that is cool.

It's a combination
designed to be irresistible.

Anything he's involved, definitely
is going to be nice to pick up.

The fact that it was Star Wars,
Damien Hirst, all these big names,

NFTs were peaking also
at that time, 2021.

So it was just perfect, you know?

Art Wars - what's the deal
with this project?

These are, like,
pretty sick-looking.

The floor price is nearly two ETH.
They're pretty cool.

It's where all the action's at.

I can't believe I'm so late to it.
I'm pissed off.

The sale is gaining
serious traction online...

..enticing NFT collectors,
like Joey Strachan...

When you hear names like
Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor,

really big names in the art world,
you automatically think,

"That's going to be worth
a shitload of money."

..and street artist Gasman-Butano.

I thought,
"Of all the NFTs I've seen,

"this one looks special.

"This is the one I'll dip my toe
in the water with."

Art Wars had all the ingredients
to be a unique investment.

I was going to own
a piece of Star Wars history.

I did think, "This could be it!"

I am an ultra-contemporary artist.

Embracing NFTs was
a business decision for me.

You know, the boom that we were in,

this is a really attractive
environment,

but it's also
a frenzied environment.

It's a "jump on the bandwagon
really fast" environment.

The Art Wars NFT sale
aspires to feature many more helmets

than were part
of the original exhibition.

And that's where digital artists
like Amy Karle come in.

This project looked huge.

I saw a number of artists

who I recognised, too -
some big-name artists.

The curator was Ben Moore.

I see that he was associated
with a blue chip gallery,

which was Saatchi.

I didn't know him, but I didn't have
any reason not to trust him.

Along with the other new artists,
Amy will be creating

computer-generated helmets
from scratch.

I was invited to make
two digital artworks.

One piece they would sell
to a collector,

and the other piece
I could choose to keep,

or sell, or do what I want with.

It looked like it was
going to make a lot of money

and be very successful...

..you know, as long as
it was all done properly.

In the NFT world,
you definitely felt like you were

at the beginning of a wave
of something new and exciting.

It was like a dark magic.

By the autumn of 2021...

..there are some emerging masters
in this dark magic.

Mysterious, Svengali-like figures

who run NFT sales
behind the scenes...

..for a price.

All businessmen are shrewd.

As an artist,
you have to be aware of that,

that they're going to try
and manipulate you to make money.

I mean, that's what galleries do,
isn't it?

But are they going to open a door

to another world
that I don't know about?

There are two NFT gurus
that Bran's already worked with

that are on the lookout
for new opportunities.

I had introduced Ben to these guys.

They were well-rehearsed
within that world.

These two men
will operate out of sight

and will only be known
by their crypto handles.

I met Crypto Cowboy in the pub.

And then I went on a zoom call
with NFT Master.

He spoke to me from
his quite vast-looking,

impressive house in Thailand,

and my first impression was,

"Yeah, this is a guy who knows
what he's doing," you know?

If Ben's got something in his head,
it's very difficult to get it out.

But he doesn't take advice
very easily.

I think he had a few shadows
that formed around him.

He found some people
in certain circles

that I wouldn't have liked
to see him in.

He saw a pot of gold
that was sitting there, ready,

at the end of the NFT rainbow,
and he took it with both hands.

You imagine that all
the governmental banking systems

that run our societies are
kind of similar to the Death Star.

And that this NFT,
this cryptocurrency,

is almost like a rebel alliance.

With the Art Wars NFT,

there are links to Star Wars,
links to the rebellion,

and so that might appeal
to those types of people

who are quite anarchical.

The stormtroopers
of the Art Wars collection

are the ones who managed
to escape from the Death Star

and liberate themselves.

The art world is quite
an elite, gated community.

This was a way
of revolutionising that.

It's new technology,
and it's disruptive technology,

so, in many ways,
it can liberate people.

It's a bit like the Wild West,

but there is a lot of money
to be made.

The sale is launching into
a completely unregulated market.

There's potentially a lot to gain,
but everything to lose.

I've been a bartender-slash-waiter
for most of my life.

It was a pretty big deal for me,

so I was really aware of
the money I was putting in it.

Of course, NFTs can be a gamble,

but seeing the hype
around the project,

I was pretty convinced
that it would be a safe investment.

What I didn't like about it all was
the element of how urgent it was,

of how quickly it needed to be done.

But...the team was saying,
"It needs to be done now

"because it's at its peak...

"..like a piece of fruit just ready
and ripe to pick off the tree...

"..and it's about to start dropping
down, so we have to get it now."

Usually, when I'm invited
to projects,

there's a huge lead time.

But in this case, I was invited,
like, a few weeks before the drop,

so everything had to happen
really fast.

I had to just kind of keep moving
forward, making the artwork...

..to make sure it was ready to mint.

And the other artists did, too.

The sale promises high-quality,
individually-created works.

But even with the addition
of Amy and other new artists,

the project is well short
of the NFTs it needs.

The way that this NFT made money
was due to volume.

So, if you were just selling
50 NFTs,

it would make, like, 100 grand,
or something.

But if you're selling 1,000 of them,

then you're making...

..proper money.

With only two weeks to go, the team
are over 1,000 helmets short.

They'll need to do whatever it takes
to get them created in time.

Mate, it's good. It's all good.

1,138 images.

Let's do this.

Building up to the launch,
Crypto Cowboy was in Bosnia...

..working with Chewsnacca...

CHEWBACCA HOWLS

..making sure that
the bulk of all the helmets

that were computer-generated
were made.

I'm not sure
if he's actually an artist,

more of a graphic designer.

CHEWBACCA HOWLS

At the time, I wasn't aware
that there was just one guy

making so many helmets,

and quite how badly done a lot of
the computer-generated helmets were.

Oh, it's fucking done, mate!

17 days,

16 to 18 hours a day,

I have just completed it.

ECHOING: Done 'em! Done 'em!
Done 'em! Done 'em! Done 'em!

Done 'em! Done 'em! Done 'em!
Done 'em! Done 'em!

So, the way the drop was organised,
it was going to be a lottery.

You couldn't rush to buy

the Damien Hirst or Anish Kapoor
or something,

so people had to pay quite a bit of
money to purchase these artworks

before they even know what they are.

Each helmet in this lucky dip
is on sale for the same price,

roughly £2,000, payable in
the cryptocurrency Ethereum, or ETH.

You don't know
what you're going to get,

so that can be
another big part of the drive

to get buyers interested
and to get more money.

There were some fantastic artists
on those helmets,

so the chance of getting
one of those was brilliant.

I mean, I could have got
a Damien Hirst, one of one.

I think there were like some legit
artists that had actually done this.

This is a pretty big project.

A few days before the drop,
we started hearing some of the hype

and thought, "Oh, this is getting
some significant attention

"from people who are in
the industry, from people who know."

What is going on,
all my crypto friends?

I might just go try and FOMO in for
one of these after the show, guys.

When I look at this stuff
that's on the screen right now,

it looks like really,
really good 3D art.

As the hours and minutes tick away,

the potential investors
take to the online chatroom Discord,

where NFT communities are hosted.

Being in the Discord, I was excited
because, at the time,

I was just convinced
this was going to blow up so much

that it was going to
make me rich, you know?

I was on Discord, talking to people,
getting hyped up about it.

There was a lot of FOMO,

so a lot of fear of missing out.

The general feeling of everybody
in the Discord was happiness.

They were just happy
they were part of it.

"I can't wait for this."
"I'm going to get the Damien Hirst."

"I'm going to do this."
"I'm going to get that."

"It's going to be worth this much."

The expectations were really high.

It just gets crazy, and people
start getting the wildest ideas.

The hype's getting up.

It's a lot of enthusiasm,
a lot of, like,

"What am I going to get?"
"What's going to be revealed?"

This feeling of,
like, Vegas excitement, casino...

That is part of the experience,
the build-up.

It is a rush.

It's kind of like Christmas.

I've set an alarm
to be sure to not miss it.

It just goes super, super quick.

I went out to the shops,
and I come back,

and I remember
running back upstairs, thinking,

"Oh, shit, it might be on!"

I was running up the stairs.
Looked at it.

It still hadn't happened yet.

And then probably smoked about,
like, 20 cigarettes

just watching the screen.

Looking at the clock
every five minutes, like,

"When's it going to happen?
When's it going to happen?"

I got ready, I got prepared

because I thought there would be
a fastest-finger battle.

And then...it was open
to the public.

I bought one.

I was just so ecstatic,

so happy,
because everything clicked.

FIREWORKS POP

I was watching the clock.

I waited for the minutes
to come down.

And then suddenly it all deflated,
as I realised they'd all been sold.

That's the button. Didn't work.

Cos there were so many people
out there,

trying to get it at the same time,
I missed it! I didn't even get any!

The whole collection sold out
in five seconds.

When it actually...
In front of my eyes,

I could see that
it had actually made that money,

and I was told, it was confirmed,
and I knew it had happened,

I just fucking went mad!

I mean, to go from running on empty

to suddenly being
into the realm of a million...

..I was just elated.

MUSIC: Marea (We've Lost Dancing) by
Fred Again and the Blessed Madonna

Finally, I'd made it.

We've just made, like,
stupid amounts of money.

It was just pure, unlimited ecstasy.

Yeah.

GUNSHOTS

Just made about two mil on NFT.

HE LAUGHS

Yeah, that's how we roll!

We made it on the NFT,
that's what I'm saying!

Were you concerned at all
about repercussions at this point?

Um...

No.

PHONE LINE RINGS

ANSWER MACHINE BEEPS

You are a fucking millionaire.

How do you feel?

ANSWER MACHINE BEEPS

Hey, buddy.
Um, well, what can I say?

HE LAUGHS

Fucking insane. I'm in shock.

Everyone within the industry
is fucking shocked as well.

They're just like,
"This has never gone down so quick."

ANSWER MACHINE BEEPS

This situation, I mean,

I suppose I'm absolutely
over the fucking moon!

I wouldn't be surprised

if we were worth ten million
by the end of this.

Ah!

After the day of selling the NFTs,
he was elated. Very happy.

He... You know,
nothing could touch him.

He was on cloud nine.

But, er, clouds can be dark
as well as light.

And I think
storm clouds were coming.

DARTH VADER RESPIRATOR RASPS

So now, if you look at OpenSea,

they've already been selling
for a pretty good...

The floor price is already at 3.6.

When I last looked, it was two.

I probably should have bought one
when it was at two.

The important thing with NFTs,
at the time,

was it was all about the after-sale.

it was all about people
trading the NFTs.

And I think that's when

the large amount of money
was going to kick in.

The early people to buy,
buy it for a lower rate,

and then they could resell it,

and sometimes flip it really fast
and make good money on it.

MUSIC: Ooh La La
by Goldfrapp

With the after-sale trading
under way,

those that missed out
get another chance to buy.

The FOMO creeps in,
and you start thinking,

"I want this! I want this!"

But the price is going up.

So, the next day,
I decided to pull the trigger

and went all in,
probably about £6,000.

I bought one.

And then I bought three more
on the aftermarket.

So, now if you look at OpenSea,

they've already been selling
for a pretty good price.

I probably should have bought one
when it was at two.

In that moment, I was feeling, like,

"Look at how much money
it's making."

I get what the hype around NFTs was.

That's when I, like,
really just felt it.

The price was jumping
all over the place.

So I was thinking, "Wow,
you know, if it's this popular,

"where could this go?"

Within the first few days,
hundreds of trades are made,

with Ben and his team getting a cut
of every single one.

Yeah, man,
they're...they're like hotcakes.

Going like fucking hotcakes.

The cheapest one up for sale
at the moment is fucking $25,000.

# Switch me on

# Turn me up... #

Every now and again,
I'd get a message saying

"We just made another
200 grand in royalties."

That was constantly coming
into the wallet all the time.

It was just like winning the jackpot
in a....

All the money in the casino.

I remember, like,
running around in my kitchen,

looking at my phone,
and I kept refreshing the screen,

seeing what the sales were like,

and they were just
going up and up and up.

It felt like the drama of Vegas.

It was way more money
than what was expected.

I had never even handled anything
close to that kind of money before.

He got a car. He got a Bentley

with a personalised number plate,
I think.

# Made for love

# I need la la la la la
I need... #

It wasn't all fast cars.

Ben also made a donation
of £30,000 to charity.

So we'd had our honeymoon period,

and I thought,
"There's probably trouble coming,

"but probably got a few days
before it all kicks off."

# I need oooh la la la la... #

The next thing that happened
was that we got wind

that Damien Hirst
pulled out of the project.

Hirst is one of the biggest artists
in the whole world.

So to have his name
associated with this project

added a lot of value.

This way, guys. This way, please.

From the start, I said to
the Crypto Brothers,

"Please, please, don't feature
Damien Hirst's helmet."

Damien Hirst is known
in the art world...

..to have the most aggressive
lawyers behind him.

I think that was the first sign
I saw of trouble brewing.

The project has lost its poster boy.

And the question for collectors
like Samir...

..is should they stick or twist?

I was pretty concerned,
even though they said

they had the rights and that
everything was going like planned,

but clearly it wasn't.

But I was still optimistic about it
because it's still Star Wars,

and it still seemed legit.

People were convinced
it was just a minor inconvenience,

and eventually it would be OK.

So Ben came into the Discord
community and let us know

about what was going on,
but also kind of blew it off, like,

"Oh, his team called my team,
and everything's all set."

And, you know, being in the art
world, I see this kind of stuff.

So I didn't feel good about it,
I didn't like it,

but sometimes these things happen.

A lot of people worried
that he had pulled out,

but I respected his decision.

I've worked in collaborative shows
before where, for whatever reason,

an artist has pulled out, whether
they've fallen out with someone,

whether the timing's bad.

You're dealing with a bunch of
narcissists, at the end of the day.

Well, let's talk about the reveal.

This is the most exciting stage.

The art is revealed.

It's only now,
after three days of trading,

that the collectors will find out
what they've actually bought...

..and whether their gamble
has paid off.

So I showed up for the reveal,

and it really
just quickly took a turn

for something
I was not expecting at all.

There were some people
in the community

who started raising red flags

that there was really poorly made
artwork in the collection.

My helmet that I revealed, it
wasn't...it wasn't anything special,

but it wasn't as bad
as some of them.

I was happy with one piece
that was pretty unique...

..but then I was a bit disappointed
in the three other ones

that I have because
they were very similar.

And then I noticed, when looking
at all the helmets,

a lot of them was just duplicates.

Some of these pieces
were appallingly bad.

We were essentially
seeing wallpaper art

being put on top of these helmets.

It had been rushed.

People started questioning
what was going on.

That was the first time I learned
that there was a number of helmets

that were made, that were
just kind of mass-produced

and thrown in there.

There was quite a bit
of disappointment.

So it was a bit of everything,
combined with the fact

that Damien Hirst
also pulled out of it, etc,

that I was starting
to worry about my money.

So even though all of these
different straws are mounting up

and there was all these red flags,
the price still kept going up.

The overall sentiment was that,
"We can solve these problems,

"we can keep this project going.
We can keep making money."

The issues with
the mass-produced Bosnian helmets

doesn't seem to have much impact
on the value of the trades.

CHEWBACCA HOWLS

I mean, even these badly rushed jobs

were still selling at,
you know, serious money.

Sometimes it doesn't matter

how good or bad the image of
the artwork you've bought is,

it's more the fact that you own
a limited edition of something

that apparently is very valuable.

The pink one, the pink helmet,
sold for 50 grand in crypto,

and that's the biggest sale
I've ever done.

For the organisers,
the money is still pouring in,

5% of every trade, worth
hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Despite the problems,
it seems they're untouchable.

The team were always convincing me

that it was all...it was all fine,
it's all going to be sorted.

But, in my own head, I was like,
"There's so much that can go wrong."

Were you aware
of...of...of this NFT sale?

And if you weren't, when did
you first hear anything about it?

I think I was first aware...

I think... I can't remember
which...who it was,

but one of the artists kind of,
like, reached out

and said, "You know, your work's
being exploited, and mine is, too.

"What you want to do about it?"

I received a tweet
telling me about the sale.

I was entirely new to the NFT world
and such things.

I didn't really understand
what I was being told

until I looked into it further,
and then it quickly unravelled.

I called people, I emailed people.

I just wanted to make everyone
aware as quick as possible

so that we could take action
as quick as possible.

I, like a lot of other artists,
knew nothing.

The first I knew was Unskilled
Worker contacted me via Instagram

and said, "Do you know about this?"

Sent me a screen grab of the helmet
that I made in a Twitter post.

A friend of mine

sent me a screen capture
of my sculpture.

You know, a very grainy thing.
And then underneath it, it said ETH,

E-T—H, with that
little triangle sign.

And then, what I later found out was
about £8,500 on it or something,

you know, like, um...

And that was the first
I knew about it, yeah.

Max, my assistant, was on Discord,

and he's like, "Hey, it seems like

"Ben's releasing your helmet
as an NFT."

And I was like, "What?
What...what are you talking about?"

So it already sent up a big flare,

red flag of, like,
what are you doing?

And why wouldn't you
have asked me about that?

I was told by Chemical X,
another of the artists,

that mine had sold
for substantial money,

but I couldn't figure out
what the money was,

cos it was all codes
I'd never seen before.

Some things were saying 100,000,
some things were saying £5,000.

It seemed... It became quite
apparent that, in fact,

he hadn't contacted anyone.

And people are mad about it.
Rightfully so.

Obviously, Hayden was incensed,
as was I,

and most of the people
that found out about it.

I didn't know him well enough
to have any influence on him,

apart from wanting to maybe
pop round and break his legs.

Ben then made me aware

that a couple of the artists
had reached out to him,

and were a bit disgruntled

because they felt they hadn't been
asked in the appropriate manner.

That's the first time

I really heard intellectual property
being mentioned.

From the start, I said there's not
enough time to do this properly,

to get all the artists' permission.

You know, the sensible person
would be like,

"Right, so let's not do it at all."

And when you've got like 1 million
or 2 million, you know,

staring you in the face
on the other side of this,

then it's kind of difficult
to not do it.

His initial response was that,

"I emailed you,
telling you it was happening."

Oh-ho-ho!
You have a look at the email.

He sent out a little round robin
saying,

"Oh, we're doing this,
we're thinking of doing that.

"We've got..." Like anybody else
does. "And we might get into NFTs."

That's not the same as saying,

"We're going to do an NFT drop
using your stuff.

"Is that OK?"

I didn't read that email.

If I did receive it, I certainly
wasn't paying any attention.

And why would you
not address me personally,

having worked with me personally?

And what was his response?

Max, what was Ben's response?

He basically said,
"Oh, I was going to get around

"to telling you about that.
Sorry I didn't mention it."

After the helmets got revealed,

a couple of artists
started talking on Twitter

that they were not happy
with the fact

that their name had been used,
and their art.

And then indeed,
people were just angry

because there's been lies.

After another blow
to the credibility of the sale,

the NFT collectors
take to the Discord chatroom

to voice their concerns.

I was in that chatroom
with collectors as an artist,

and they're like, "What's going on
here? What did you know?"

And somebody came over and said,

"Hey, Amy,
Chemical X is saying stuff,

"and Unskilled Worker's
saying stuff,

"that their artwork was used
without their permission."

So this was a huge sign
something was going wrong.

And this was in the first few days
of the reveal.

After the kind of things
started going downhill...

..people had a lot of questions,

they wanted a lot of answers,

so the community was,
you know, banding together.

When these problems were raised,

I quickly realised
we were in big trouble,

and this was not going to get fixed.

He didn't ask
any of their permission.

He just did it.

So it all became
very dark and muddy.

Nobody took responsibility.

The sale is in a precarious state.

Behind the scenes,
the Crypto Brothers urge Ben

to speak directly
to the disgruntled collectors.

I was made aware that it was kind
of vital that I be the face of it...

..to keep up the morale
of the whole thing.

You can handle anything with comedy.

People will throw IP questions
at you for drama,

and if you can disarm them
with comedy,

then you'll get away with murder.

How are you doing, Kaiser?

HE CHUCKLES
Er, I'm doing OK, Ben. How are you?

Pretty good, man.
It's been a pretty crazy week.

Stakes are high, passions are high,

so welcome to the game.

I didn't even know what Discord
was until, one evening,

I found myself the main guest.

I have to apologise for not being

more on top of the communication
with the artists,

although, as I always stand by,

I did send out a notification
about the NFT drop

on the 4th of November.
And I've always made sure

that part of the proceeds
be reserved for the artists

who have been
such a major part of this.

These are solvable problems.

They're ugly, they all
came together, this is tough,

but as long as we've got you, Ben,
we're gonna get through this OK.

I thought it was amazing how
you handled that. It was brilliant.

You did that like the emperor,
to be honest.

You were perfect.

And I think with the attitude
that we've got, at the moment,

I think we'll get through anything.

To me, the fact
that there was communication,

and that they were listening to us,
kind of felt like,

"OK, they maybe messed up,
but it maybe could be OK still."

Ben has set aside some money
to pay the artists.

His hope is that
his offer of payment

will mean their helmets
can continue to be traded.

Many accept the money.

Others are going to make a stand.

I was offering as much as
10,000, 12,000 to some of them,

depending on how much content
they had in the NFT drop.

They just threw it back in my face.

They offered me £2,500 from sales

of which I think over £20,000
were generated

from my work, at that point.

I think I was offered something
like, I don't know, 1,500 quid.

It...it was irrelevant

because he wasn't acknowledging
what he'd done.

The attempts made were to
keep Ben Moore's show on the road.

As it was...
The longer it was live and active,

the more revenue it was generating
for him and his team.

The only way to stop them
being worth anything at all

was to have the sale pulled.

Within two weeks of the sale,

12 of its highest-profile artists
have pulled their helmets

from the largest trading platform,
OpenSea.

They put a takedown notice
to OpenSea

and their helmets
were off the market.

If you can't sell on OpenSea
and it can't be found on OpenSea,

that's a really bad sign.

It's called FUD,
fear, uncertainty and doubt.

It's something that happens a lot
in, you know, the NFT space,

so much so that
it can sometimes ruin a project.

I got a tip-off from a source
that this was happening.

I got in touch with the artists
whose work had been used

without their knowledge
or their consent.

Some artists who I got in touch with

had no idea
that this had even happened.

When the Financial Times
breaks the story,

the sale,
and its controversial aftermath,

immediately gets broader attention.

I'd known of other instances
of this happening in the NFT world,

but because you had
these high-profile artists,

that meant that the story
was really strong.

I should have saw at the moment,

but I just couldn't accept the fact
that they were worth so much

and then suddenly so little.

The negative press
is having an impact

on the value of the remaining NFTs.

I was thinking it's maybe just worth
waiting until the dust settles,

everybody calms down,
maybe we'll get some decent answers

and reasons why
all of this is happening.

So, around this time,
there was just so much confusion.

The drop wasn't really what
we were told it was going to be,

there was all different kinds
of voices saying

all different kinds of things...

..but the rest of the collection
were still existing

and still being traded.

I was thinking and feeling like,

"OK, Art Wars can still
make this right."

Here we are on our way
out of Orcines

to the grand capital of France,
Paris.

I took my family
down to the Alps, French Alps,

on an incredible skiing trip.

Good turn!

Fulfilled one of my kids' dreams,
which was to go to Disneyland...

Whee, Dad!

Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad.

..which, by the way,
was a complete fucking nightmare.

You know, when you start
turning money into things

that exist in the real world,
it does feel pretty real.

But a weird time
because, on the one hand,

suddenly, you've got
all this money...

..but, on the other hand,
your life is just full -

from the moment you wake up
to the moment you go to sleep -

trying to...

..sort out all these problems.

And...

..it just seemed like such
an impossible mess to sort out.

I had a few calls with Ben.

You know, I didn't know him
before this project at all.

And, like, I remember
one of the first ones, like,

he was in the bathtub
when we were talking,

which was really unprofessional.

And, like, he didn't seem
so...so concerned about the project,

which was funny because, to me
and to a lot of the collectors,

there was a lot of concern.

I mean, Ben, these people have
put a lot of faith in you

and a lot of money in this project.
They believe in you.

And, I mean, I think the least
they deserve is...

..is the time of day, you know?

They just want to know
what's going on behind closed doors.

If there are no updates, then
we don't really need to do an AMA,

but I think that's all people
want to know about right now.

BEN SLURS: I've got
GuantaBean saying

you're taking advantage
of a drunk man.

No.

It's one o'clock
on a Friday evening in London.

I got drunk...

..at the end of a long working week,

thanks to all you lot.

BEN CHUCKLES

It was really weird.

I have never experienced something
like this in my professional career.

And it was getting
more and more concerning.

The more things that came out,
the worse it was.

I think some of the rumours were

that they just...
That it was a cash grab,

so they just wanted to take
as much money as possible

and then just abandon the project.

Um, but, of course, I didn't know
what was true and what wasn't.

And I think it's around that time
that we saw the video emerge

of Ben Moore shooting with his gun
and bragging about 2 million.

Yeah.

Just made,
er, like, about two mil on NFT.

GUN CLICKS

Yeah.

GUNSHOTS

That's what we're talking about.

THEY LAUGH

Yeah, that's how we roll.
Two mil on the NFT!

One of the collectors
has got hold of a video

from Ben's private Instagram account
and circulated it online.

I was just so angry.

A lot of people were so angry
and the bragging, etc,

it was just such a backstab.

He never struck me as that person,
so it seemed strange

that he'd then post some crazy
Instagram video

of him bragging
about how much money he made.

What did you think
when you saw that?

"What a cunt!"

That told me everything
that I need to know.

He was there to rip us off.

ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS

With the Art Wars project
hanging by a thread,

all eyes are on Ben.

And the pressure
is beginning to show.

It was quite a wild couple of weeks.

Well, he seemed to be off his face
most of the time,

doing completely batshit
"ask me anything" things on Discord.

Absolute madness.

BEN SLURS: What has happened
is a digital crime, you know?

Or... Yeah, it's digital crime.

You know, it's like, er...

Wow!

It's like Art Wars
actually turns into art wars.

It was so upsetting.

You know, we're looking for answers.

There's people who have
invested a lot of money,

and the project
is clearly going downhill,

and there's big problems
that need to be solved.

And he's getting on,

talking about absolute nonsense
when he's drunk.

So I just thought...
Yeah, I just thought,

"He's a man unravelling,"
is what I actually thought.

BEN SLURS: How do you, like,
even quantify that shit?

And like...

Because I... The way I rolled was,
like, I was happy to have

loads of money or no money. Right.

I'm always happy, I always have...
Always have the equilibrium happy.

With either.

But you know what?

I just want to make it all good
for everyone...

I appreciate that. ..as I always do,
and I've always done that.

Yeah... I always make sure
that everyone comes out good,

and anything I'm attached to,

I want make sure
everyone come out good.

Oh, my God!

Oh!

DARTH VADER RESPIRATOR RASPS

INAUDIBLE

It was just coming up to Christmas,
and I'd received an email.

It was one of those emails
that, um, when you open it,

tells whoever sent it
that it's been opened.

Lawyers tend to use that.

"Dear Mr Moore,

"We represent Lucasfilm, which
owns the copyrights, trademarks

"and other rights in Star Wars
and its characters,

"including the Imperial stormtrooper
characters

"and their iconic helmets."

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

"Your sale and dissemination
of so-called Art Wars' NFTs

"infringes Lucasfilm's rights,

"and it hereby demands
that you cease and desist

"from this unlawful conduct
immediately."

Disney and Lucas
just went up to OpenSea and...

..scared them.

It was ripped off.

Um, yeah.

It was, basically, like the end.

The whole project
was taken off of OpenSea.

And in the Discord, like,
there's just so much distrust

and upset and anger now,

because now the most major
trading platform for NFTs

is saying, "You can no longer
do business here."

With the collectors unable to trade,

their Art Wars NFTs
are now essentially...

..worthless.

I checked for myself,
and it just gave me an error

because the page
didn't exist any more.

There was just no way
to sell anything.

People were just trying to get out
as quickly as possible.

They were worthless.

I remember sending emails to OpenSea

in the hopes they would help me
or refund anything

but, of course, they mentioned
they couldn't do anything about it.

They don't owe you anything.

So I felt really helpless.
I felt, um...

Yeah, I lost a lot of money.

I didn't do my homework enough,
clearly.

I did not do enough due diligence.

But it's important to note, yes,
there is a gambling element to this,

but ultimately we were lied to.

We were lied to multiple times
in multiple different ways.

And they made informed decisions,
right?

They were being told,
"We have the rights to do this,"

so they based a decision...

..on what was lies.

To me, Ben is the responsible one.

He's the one to blame.

Now things have gone south...

..Ben's left alone in the spotlight.

His collaborators
remain hidden from view.

No-one knew about
the Crypto Brothers.

I didn't realise that everyone hides
behind these crypto names

and that...
they're completely untraceable.

It just looked like I was the...
the mastermind of the entire thing.

And so I was at the forefront
of everyone's anger.

And I suppose that did start
to become a bit of a shock

when you realise
just how exposed you are.

Many of the collectors are
tens of thousands out of pocket.

They're angry,
and some are desperate.

I did fear for Ben's safety
quite a few times.

You know, people had invested
probably more money

than they could afford in some NFTs,
and they took it personally.

With the NFT buyers,
there's over a thousand of them,

and you've got no idea
who some of these characters are.

It just went...

It was just that terrible feeling
of, like, "Oh, God!"

And then people start
coming over to the flat.

And, what, you've come
all the way down from Blackpool?

I get that. I get that.

Um, but I'm not the boss here.

I'm the front man which is getting
blamed for everything, yeah?

Who's that in the background?

I think he felt that there
were a lot of people after him.

There WERE a lot of people
after him.

I mean, it felt quite unsafe.

And I can understand why people
would have been really very angry.

I definitely think he was...

He'd hit a low point,
and a lot of regret

and a lot of realisation
that he'd really screwed it up.

There was a lot of eruptions
about it, you know,

and people talking about suing,
and people talking about

nailing him to the floor
and sawing his legs off.

You know, this idea was

that he had become
this multi-millionaire overnight.

How much money did Ben make?

I don't know.

Genuinely don't know.

Do you know how much money
he made, personally?

All I know is what he said
in the video,

and that's 2 million.

And he just ran away with it.

Initially it was 3 million,

then, three days later,
I was told it was 5 million.

I've heard all sorts of
wild amounts of money.

I heard rumours that he had
a new kitchen out of it.

HE SCOFFS

They made sales in excess
of 1,425 ETH.

That was about 6.5 million USD.

That was a huge amount of money.

Crazy. Do you know what I mean?

Like, you talk about it now,
you're like,

"Holy Moley! That's serious
retirement money," you know?

I don't know
what happened to that money.

They probably think that
I'm sauntering around in a silk robe

on some sandy island somewhere...

# G-L-A... #

..that I'm hanging out on a yacht
with lots of beautiful people...

# Flying first class... #

..going out to really
nice restaurants

and having three-course meals.

Jumping on a private jet.

# Ooh, the flossy, flossy
Are you ready?

# The glamorous

# The glamorous, glamorous... #

Yeah.

RECORD SCRATCH

All of that!

I don't mind them thinking that
because I'd rather people think

that I'm rich
than knowing that I'm poor.

There have been fresh shock waves
sent through the crypto markets

after the leading cryptocurrency,
Bitcoin, fell below $20,000

to its weakest price in 18 months.

Cryptocurrencies are
all feeling the pinch,

with one unfortunate
losing 99% of its value this week.

It's May 2022.

Ben's holding the remaining
proportion of his share

of the sale proceeds
in the cryptocurrency USDT.

REPORTER: Crypto values have slumped
in the past few hours.

Investors now face billions
of dollars in losses.

One morning, I woke up,

and I'd lost half of it.

That just left me on a losing foot

because I owed
more than what I had left.

115,824.

And they have
attached correspondence,

saying that I owe a further 25,000.

Ben's also been dealing
with the legal issues

resulting from the sale,
both with the artists and Lucasfilm.

So these, these are the US lawyers.

They responded to a one-page letter
from Lucasfilm and Disney,

and then this bill here
goes to 42,551.

Fuck them!

In total, he's spent
over £500,000 on lawyers.

All these things
are just pushing me into bankruptcy.

I am just basically unable
to pay them.

Cos you've literally got nothing
right now, right? Nothing. Yeah.

I mean, at the moment I can't even
buy a drink at the pub.

I just feel...

..gutted, on so many levels.

People do fuck up...

..and I have.

So...

..that's where I'm at.

He really hasn't got any money.

Ben does live in a council flat
in Richmond,

and he's not actually living
in a beautiful house in France,

and he hasn't got, you know,
lots of cars.

And he's literally, you know,
stone broke.

I've got to sacrifice my baby.

KEYS RATTLE

There you go, buddy.

# Ta-dah! #
Nice.

13,359.

Um... What, and you can do it
right now?

The money will come tomorrow.

He really hasn't benefited at all.

I think he realised,
almost instantaneously,

that any money
he'd made on that night

was certainly not going to be his
for very long.

I think it was a very short-lived
moment of happiness for him.

Ever since the NFT debacle,
I haven't really done...

..anything.

I think all I've worked on or done

is just trying to clear up
all the mess

that the NFT thing has left behind.

We were very surprised
at how self-destructive

this was for him.

He'd spent so much time
building up these relationships

with these artists, and then, in one
fell stroke, he just destroyed it.

It's a small world.
Word spreads real quick.

Um, you know,
and you burn those people once,

it's very hard for them
to...to come back with open arms.

You know, your reputation -

you might spend years
building your reputation.

And, as in Ben's case, you can
lose it like that, in a snap.

And that's what he's done. He's
completely knackered his reputation.

Probably irretrievably.

I know, for me, it took
a big toll on my mental health.

I wasn't a part of what happened.
Like, I was duped, too.

I never made any money from that.

We were all screwed in this process,
the artists and the collectors.

It's a scam, and people don't want
to be involved with scammers.

If you're being completely honest,
was this a scam?

That wasn't my intention. It was
not my intention to do a scam.

I just thought if we make sure
that there is money

set aside for these artists...

My philosophy is
get to where the money is,

and then sort out the problems,

rather than
trying to sort it out before,

which could create more problems

and stop the whole thing
from happening at all.

It could still be generating
money even today

if it had been done differently.

If everything
would have continued until now,

it would have been
one of the most successful projects

that, er...
ever existed in the NFT space.

Maybe never have to work again
in your life.

Life-changing.

REPORTER: Trading in NFTs, or
non-fungible tokens, has collapsed.

For everyone in the world
of NFTs in 2021 and 2022,

dreams of a glorious future
were short-lived.

I feel like this was inevitable.

Yeah. I never got on board with it.
I never understood why people

were paying tens of millions
of dollars for something

that they don't actually own
the physical picture of.

Since the rapid decline
in NFT trading in 2022,

the market has not really recovered,

and, at the end of 2023,
it is estimated

that over 90% of NFTs
ever issued are worthless.

The thing about that moment in time,
it was a perfect storm.

Unfortunately,
the hype was so quick,

and there was so much speculation

that it could only, inevitably,
crash or plateau.

My experience of NFTs has proven
that they are very much gimmicky,

flash in the pan, a quick buck,

and I don't think NFTs
have any great merit or future.

During the NFT craze,
I was really hopeful.

That was an exciting time.

I don't know where that lands
for the future.

We're in a little bit of a crypto
and NFT winter right now,

but there are still really quality
artists and projects out there.

Many people will look at NFTs
and laugh at them and say,

"How is this valuable?"

But they don't understand that
this young generation coming in

have different ideas
of what value means.

We're constantly
attracted towards things

which cooperates
with our sense of desire.

NFTs are a kind of financial
attractors, as is any work of art,

as is any capitalistic object,
as any object,

unless it's a rock in a desert.

Unless it's an NFT
of a rock in the desert!

The problem, unfortunately,
did set us back

because it created this impression

that NFTs were only these big,
expensive, highly scammy projects.

But every time you go into these
markets and there's a boom and bust,

three or four years later, the same
people who participated then,

they come back because
they're not scared of it,

and they're like, "Oh, there's
another opportunity here.

"I understand this."

I'm not saying
it'll be a boom like before,

but they won't be afraid
of using NFTs.

I'm sure people in years to come
will be looking back at this

and laughing, because
we were just at the...the beginning

of something very huge.

What is the plan?

Well, I've got a lot of stuff to do
with my accountants,

tax, various different people
that I owe money to

that I'm having to constantly
negotiate with and calm down.

Just the usual day-to-day stuff.

Do you feel fearful about the future
in the art world?

Um, no, not at all.

There's nothing to be fearful about.

It's just work.

HE LAUGHS

I'm going to just quickly
smoke this.

I'm sort of torn
between utter, abject fear...

..um, and also a kind of feeling

that Ben is like
a cat with nine lives,

and he really is one of these people
that just seems to bob back.

My take on it...

..is that Ben got swept up in it.

I'd give him the benefit
of the doubt and say it was,

a lot of it was just weakness and
getting played...played, really.

But then also
a bit of greed thrown in, yeah.

I think that he should be cancelled

because, fundamentally,
he has betrayed everybody.

I'd really like Ben Moore
to stop working in the art world...

..cos I think he's a crook.

I think that he's fallen into
some kind of digital abyss

that he didn't really reckon with.

And I think he just thought that
because he saw all these artists

as being hugely successful and rich,
that no-one would really care.

I think he just got caught.

Everyone makes mistakes.
Life's not perfect, you know?

Shit happens.

Some bad calls are made.

This was clearly
one of his worst calls.

I'd like to think that everyone
deserves a second chance.

I guess I would say, yeah,
I am sorry that this has happened,

that it happened the way it did.

Um...

And, er...

Yeah, I would say that.

Um...but by saying that,
it sounds like

I would say that I wouldn't do it.
I have done it.

I would have still done it,
but I am sorry about it.

HE CHUCKLES

Um, but when I was saying I'm sorry,

it's not saying I regret doing it,
cos I don't want to say that.

I want to say I would have still
done it. I would have still done it,

but I'm sorry
if it's pissed you off.

That's how I would say it.

But I'm not going to say
I wish I hadn't done it,

cos that's...that's not true.

So it's a weird one.