Exploring dark side of corporate America
If you’re already angered by what seems like a culture of corruption in the worlds of business and politics, then Netflix’s “Dirty Money,” available today, will likely increase your blood pressure.
The six-episode documentary series from Alex Gibney (“Going Clear: Scientology” and “The Smartest Guys in the Room”) covers such topics as money laundering by banks for drug cartels, how Volkswagen lied about its “clean” diesel cars, payday loans, the theft of $18 million worth of maple syrup, and the price gouging of patients in need of life-saving drugs.
The final episode covers Donald Trump.
The episode “Hard Nox” — directed by Gibney — starts by discussing how the filmmaker had proudly owned a Volkswagen diesel, believing it to be an environmentally friendly auto. But VW, as it turned out, had been able to falsify test results by using a software gimmick that allowed better fuel mileage but increased pollution.
It’s a reminder that most of us ordinary citizens are often victims of these scams in more than one way. Not only were Gibney and his wife sold a bill of goods,
but they were doing damage to the environment, which they thought they were protecting.
VW did this so it could save money on a $500 part and increase the mpg to make the car more attractive to consumers. Gibney takes viewers through the culture at VW that made this possible.
While none of the information in “Dirty Money” is particularly new, the episodes — directed by various filmmakers — solidly lay it out in a way that makes it understandable. However, there is something to be said for getting all this information in one sitting instead of in bits and pieces, and in this “Dirty Money” delivers.
Perhaps the Trump-centered “The Confidence Man,” directed by Fisher Stevens, will seem the most timely.
Journalist Tim O’Brien, who wrote 2005’s “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald,” is one of its sources. Early on, he says, “Donald Trump, in the scope of American business life, really shouldn’t be understood as someone in the tradition of John Rockefeller, Steve Jobs. He’s P.T. Barnum.”
A New York Times writer at the time, O’Brien was surprised that Trump cooperated with him on his book. According to the writer, they even watched movies together. (The access echoes that of Michael Wolff, who says he got to hang around the White House to report what became the recently released book “Fire and Fury.”)
Trump sued O’Brien after the publication of the book, which claimed the businessman’s net worth was about $250 million and that he wasn’t a billionaire as he said. Trump lost the suit in 2009 when he couldn’t or wouldn’t prove differently, and a 2011 appeal was thrown out.
According to O’Brien, the future president was bailed out during his business career by his father, Fred, whom O’Brien describes as a real self-made success story.
Stevens takes viewers through Trump’s different ventures — successes and failures — including the infamous Trump University and “The Apprentice.” Randal Pinkett — the 2005 winner of the show — is one of those interviewed, and he describes Trump’s company as “an unnecessarily combative culture.”
Shortly after the election, it was reported that the Trump Organization agreed to pay $25 million
to settle three suits against Trump University while admitting no wrongdoing.
Obviously, the documentary isn’t flattering to the current president. With so much out there about Trump, there is probably little here that will change your mind about the man one way or another.
“At what point in his presidency will the American people utterly lose confidence in him?” asks O’Brien.