The Masked Scammer is a French language docu-film that revolves around the conman Gilbert Chikli, who duped people of millions of dollars through scams and frauds. The documentary is directed by Dominic Sivyer and Yvann Yagchi and has a total runtime of one hour and thirty minutes. Moreover, it also features the complete trajectory of Chikli’s fraudulent career.
The thrill doc makes use of real-life archival footage, interviews, and call recordings to present the complete extent of the monetary scams. Furthermore, the events in the docufilm are designed in chronological order, which doesn’t reveal the fate of Chikli until the end.
How Was the Masked Scammer Gilbert Chikli Caught?
The documentary initiates the story of Gilbert Chikli right from his childhood in Paris, where he lived in financial distress and had almost nothing to himself. This transformed the ambitious child inside him, into a street-smart lad, with an innate talent to convince people pretty easily. Moreover, the gab of surrendering individuals with his strong impression laid the very foundation of his million-dollar scam empire.
At first, Gilbert Chikli made use of the common distress circulating the streets of Paris in 2005. He took advantage of the layer of fear amongst the citizen followed by a spirit of patriotic sense of duty in everyone. The scammer, pulled through his first fraud when he made a phone call to a funds manager and asked him to transfer millions of dollars into a safe bank account. He also convinced him that this was a direct way to help the nation, in retrieving forcefully taken hostage.
When Chikli found success in this attempt, he made sure to elevate the extent of the scam and take things forward. Gilbert continued with the streak of extortion and fraud and acquired a wealthy lifestyle. He had almost everything to his name, and it was still not near enough. In the process to multiply his reach, he evaded the authorities in France and settled in Israel.
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Furthermore, during one of his religious visits to Ukraine, the special task forces nailed him down and made an immediate arrest. This was the only time when they had an extradition opportunity, and they took it with both hands. However, the story wasn’t over until the final trial took place in France.
During his unsettling arrest, the police recovered some crucial evidence to the case. They found a video of Chikli, impersonating the defense minister of France. This made their case even stronger and linked Chikli to the fraudster who was duping elite citizens of their wealth.
In the end, Gilbert Chikli was arrested for the charges, and sentenced to 11 years in jail. Even though he denied all such accusations, there was enough evidence to put him behind the bars. Moreover, the associates of Chikli were also sentenced with him in the high-profile court case.
You can stream the docufilm The Masked Scammer on Netflix. Let us know your thoughts about it in the comment section below.