LOGLINE

An absurd comedy of errors ensues after two suburban teenagers start credit card scamming, spurring investigations from a Wall Street bank and federal agents.

SYNOPSIS

After their dad loses his job, two Michigan teenagers start credit card scamming to help out financially. Meanwhile, a Wall Street bank, newly invested in the startup they are using to perpetrate their crime, catches wind of their scam and sends a private investigator to track them down.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

Fraudulent Activity is a comedy-thriller inspired by the disconnect between the mind blowing things the internet enables and how hard it is to actually make sense of how it works. The film covers a game of cat and mouse between two credit card scamming teenagers and a major bank, in the midst of a corporate identity crisis, doing its best to stop them. At its emotional core, it’s a contemporary underdog story about subverting power using creativity and craftiness, based on many of my own experiences in the tech industry. My own foray into tech happened somewhat randomly. After college, with no idea of what I wanted to do, and back home in the Bay Area, I got sucked into the tech industry that was blowing up there at the time. I got a job at a large venture capital firm which gave me a fascinating look into the industry that One assignment took me to Detroit, where a major car company had hired us to help them find cutting edge automotive startups. I was blown away by the decimation of the once booming auto industry in Michigan, and felt strange being there as a representative of the country’s latest industry du jour. Standing at the intersection of these two epochs, the seeds of this movie were planted. The rhetoric of the tech industry is all about “innovation,” “democratization,” and an ethos of inclusion and meritocracy. But a lot of Silicon Valley is an insular world where venture capital firms rely on proven track records and existing networks to de-risk their investments. Similarly, many legacy corporations’ attempts to understand the internet’s power to change their industries reflects their insecurity about keeping up with the latest trends rather than a desire to build on game-changing technology. In contrast to this sterility, at a more grassroots level, it was clear to me that the internet really was enabling individuals to do previously unthinkable things. A seventeen year old intern in our office started a crypto arbitrage fund and became a millionaire in a few months. The recent Wall Street Bets movement that rocked hedge fund investors is an obvious example. And at another fintech company I worked for, we were constantly vigilant in order to prevent scams from incredibly sophisticated hackers - the basis for how Arcarius is scammed in this movie. I want to shed an entertaining light on how the internet has shifted the power imbalance between the establishment and the individual in recent years. I’m interested in who is “innovating,” what “democratization” of access to resources really means outside of corporate rhetoric and who the real “scammers” are. I am excited about showcasing the anxiety that powerful institutions have when their grip on power is challenged. I feel we are at an exciting tipping point where technologies with the potential to rewrite longstanding economic rules are emerging and finding adoption.

KEY CREW

Aman Desai - Director, co-writer

Aman Desai is a filmmaker from New York City. He has worked in the tech world for the last decade, including at 500 Global, Social Capital and several startups. He also studied film at USC's School of Cinematic Arts and is interested in telling funny and tense stories that reflect the current state of economics, technology, and culture.

Marie Laurence Basque - Co-writer

Marie Laurence Basque was a corporate lawyer in her home city of Montreal before moving to Berlin, where she oversaw the sales and marketing direction of influential magazine and streetwear brand 032c. She also developed a career as a DJ at this time, which led to music production, songwriting, and finally, fiction writing. She has a lifelong passion for elucidating the contemporary with narrative.