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Christopher Nolan was celebrating one of the biggest successes of his career when The Dark Knight stormed the box office in 2008 – but behind the scenes, his family was facing a real-life drama that sounded more like one of his movies.
The Batman blockbuster, which grossed more than $1 billion worldwide and helped redefine the modern superhero genre, was co-written by Christopher and his younger brother Jonathan Nolan, continuing a creative partnership that had already produced Memento and The Prestige. But while the filmmaking brothers were enjoying critical and commercial success, their older brother, Matthew Nolan, was at the center of a shocking FBI investigation involving fraud, kidnapping and murder allegations.
In one of the strangest twists, Matthew allegedly used the alias "Matthew Oppenheimer" years before Christopher would go on to direct the Oscar-winning biopic Oppenheimer. While there is no suggestion the alias had any connection to the film, the coincidence has continued to attract attention. This comes as Christopher Nolan reveals the one thing that was 'banned' from the set of The Odyssey.
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According to police sergeant John Lucki, Matthew first came to investigators' attention in 2008 after he allegedly boasted about The Dark Knight and falsely claimed to have helped finance the blockbuster as part of an elaborate fraud scheme, Far Out Magazine reported.
Lucki alleged Matthew wrote checks linked to Costa Rican bank accounts, deposited them in Chicago and withdrew the money before the checks had cleared, with investigators claiming the scheme netted around $600,000.
As authorities dug deeper, they discovered the FBI was already investigating Matthew in connection with the 2005 killing of accountant Robert Cohen, who was found tortured and murdered in Costa Rica. Investigators believed Matthew had been the last person seen with Cohen before his death.
Interpol issued a Red Notice for Matthew's arrest in 2006, and when a U.S. arrest warrant followed two years later, FBI Special Agent Pablo Araya began monitoring his Chicago home.
Araya recalled, "I saw his wife, his kids, his nanny, and his mother-in-law, but I never saw him." He added, "He was hiding in Florida. He knew we were after him." Araya said Matthew "seemed to be very savvy about surveillance," describing him as particularly skilled at "covering his tracks and using multiple aliases."
Investigators finally got their chance in early 2009 after Matthew and his wife filed for bankruptcy, requiring him to appear in court. The FBI arrested him at the hearing, ending months of surveillance.
Although Matthew was never convicted of being a hitman, another man, Luis Alonso Douglas Mejia, was later convicted of Robert Cohen's murder. However, Matthew did admit to using the surname "Oppenheimer" as an alias while carrying out financial crimes.
Following his arrest, he attempted to escape from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, leading to an additional prison sentence of 14 months. After being released in 2010, Matthew largely disappeared from public view, while Christopher and Jonathan Nolan have never publicly commented on their older brother's legal troubles.
Reflecting on finally catching him, Araya said, "He's very arrogant. He told me I'd never have caught him if it wasn't for the bankruptcy."
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