Gilbert Chikli has tricked dozens, maybe even hundreds, of people out of millions of dollars simply by asking them for money over the phone. The Masked Cheata French documentary on Netflix, explains how this charming scammer snuck into the bank accounts of prominent French citizens and businesses until he was taken down by a woman who didn’t believe him.
opening shot: A phone rings, and when it’s answered, the voice on the other end says, “Hello, Your Highness, how are you?” A quick montage shows a flash of highly confidential documents while people are duped by that disembodied voice on the phone were explaining how persuasive he was.
The essentials: So who was that voice on the phone that tricked everyone at the beginning of the movie? Gilbert Chikli, the so-called King of Scams, who extorted over 100 million euros over an extended career of deception and lies. The story begins around 2005 when Gilbert meets a woman named Shirley and they become a couple. Gilbert grew up poor in Paris, while Shirley enjoyed living in luxury, meaning they both shared the same personal goals: to make money. They also shared the same professional values, especially to get money by any means necessary. So, after the 2005 terrorist attacks in London, they devised a scam to exploit people’s vulnerabilities amid heightened fears of terrorism. Gilbert posed as the CEO of several large corporations and called people who worked in the finance departments of those organizations to request money transfers under the guise that their company was helping fund anti-terrorist groups. It sounds wild, the Gilbert and Shirley were so convincing it worked, dozens of times. The police eventually traced the calls and searched Shirley’s home; She was sentenced to two years in prison while Gilbert fled to Israel and evaded the law.
Soon after his arrival in Israel, Gilbert meets – you can’t imagine it – another woman named Shirly (no “e”). She’s referred to as Shirley number 2 in the movie, and you better believe Shirley number 1 hates her. Gilbert and Shirly 2 marry, and while they live a lavish life in Israel, Gilbert continues his scam on a global scale. He starts a company full of employees tasked with posing as CEOs and requesting funds to be diverted to his various accounts, and it continues to thrive. At this point Gilbert is a well known person, his name has been splashed through the news and the French police are hot on his heels, the problem is that now that he is in Israel their hands are tied. And Gilbert, being the troll that he is, taunts them by giving interviews in the Israeli press and even urging the French detectives to boast after completing successful scams.
So where does the “masked” part of the masked scammer come in? Well, up until about 2015, all of Gilbert’s scams were conducted over the phone, but when video calls became a thing, he was encouraged to use them to convince new victims to “donate” to his “counterterrorism” funds. In 2015, Paris was the scene of a series of terrorist attacks. Chikli has once again hunted people down at a difficult time, posing as French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. He called his targets, senior members of the elite and religious leaders, on Skype, asking for help paying for things like ransoming French hostages – all while wearing a custom rubber mask meant to look like Le Drian. He swindles millions of euros out of his targets until he ends up calling the wrong person, a tax officer named Sophie Grenier, who notices something is wrong and is willing to show Chikli that he’s not the only master of deception out there is. He flees again, this time to Ukraine, where he is arrested, extradited to France and tried for his crimes. He is currently serving an 11-year sentence.
What shows will it remind you of? 2022 really is the year of the cheating show, right? The Masked Cheat is totally in line with shows like Netflix The Puppet Master: Hunt for the ultimate imposter and HBO Max’s Generation hustlewhich profiles scammers like WeWork’s Anna Delvey and Adam Neumann.
Our opinion: The Masked Cheat is an intriguing film that manages to portray a master thief who uses psychological warfare to extract millions of unsuspecting victims while also telling a compelling narrative of how he was eventually brought down by a detail-oriented woman who mastered his deception felt.
Featuring in-depth interviews with everyone from Chikli’s wife (Shirly Number 2), to police detectives who stalked him to journalists who interviewed him, the film paints a picture of a mastermind who, despite stealing millions, still does There’s something about a genius that he can’t help but admire. The French police detectives even seem to laugh that over the years Chikli has mocked them and called him to invite them to the premiere of the film about his life. His charm and pride were the reason for his success and ultimately responsible for his downfall.
Chikli’s story never made front pages in the US, but it’s every bit as fascinating as that of Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey. Was he a sociopath or just a great actor? I’m not the best psychiatrist to pass on a diagnosis, but whatever you want to call him, he was willing to fool everyone around him at every turn.
gender and skin: none.
farewell shot: Towards the end of the film – only six minutes before the end! – Number 2 Shirly explains that on the day of Chikli’s sentencing she was approached by a journalist and asked why she was crying. When she tells the journalist that she is Chikli’s wife, the journalist tells her, uh, no, you’re not Miscellaneous wife here is his wife.
Ah! This is an aspect of the story I need so much more information on, but all we learn is that Gilbert met and apparently married another woman while he was in Ukraine.
Number 2 Shirly realized that she was just another victim of Gilbert’s scam, and in the film’s epilogue we see a “Where are they now?” from all the main actors who appeared throughout the documentary. You’ll be glad to know that number 2 Shirly has filed for divorce and is now a DJ.
sleeping star: Shirley number 1 is incredible. While Gilbert might be the imposter we’re focusing on here, he’s mysterious and chameleon-like and looks like your average guy. Shirley is the person who looks as if she were a cheater. She has wild black hair and is wearing her dark sunglasses indoors, which she pulls down to squint at the camera. She says things to the production team like, “Make me look tan. And thin. Makes me skinny,” and explains, “I don’t get up if there’s no money.” She’s everything you want in a movie like this.
Most pilot line: “In my eyes, I wasn’t a cheater. I was a persuasive person, that’s all.”
Our appeal: STREAM IT! What a ride! While stealing from the rich can easily be viewed as a victimless crime, the film is very clear as pointing out that the real victims are the people on the other end of the phone line, the middle managers who thought they were just doing their job and were turned her life upside down after Gilbert’s betrayal. These consequences are devastating. But the film’s exploration of Chikli’s persistence, his convincing charm, and his ambitions to escalate his crimes is utterly entertaining and the definition of a true story that just can’t be made up.