HBO has unveiled a trailer for an engaging new documentary series that they’ve produced called McMillions. The six-part series reveals the insane true story of Jerome Jacobson, an ex-cop turned security auditor who found a way to rig McDonald’s favorite Monopoly game. He ended up scamming the company out of millions of dollars. Jacobson was scamming the system for over a decade, and no one knew about it!
Here’s the synopsis:
This documentary series chronicles the stranger-than-fiction story of an ex-cop turned security auditor who rigged the McDonald’s Monopoly game promotion for a decade, stealing millions of dollars and building a vast network of co-conspirators across the U.S. The series draws on exclusive firsthand accounts and archival footage, featuring: the FBI agents who brought down the gaming scam; McDonald’s corporate executives, who were themselves defrauded; the lawyers who tried the case; and the culprits and prizewinners who profited from the complicated scheme, as well as the individuals who were often unwittingly duped into being a part of the ruse.
Here are some additional details from Wikipedia:
“Jacobson’s associates won almost all of the top prizes including cash and cars between 1995 and 2000, including McDonald’s giveaways that did not have the Monopoly theme. The associates netted over $24 million. While the fraud appeared to have been perpetrated by only one key employee of the promotion company, and not by the company’s management, eight people were originally arrested, leading to a total of 21 indicted individuals with members of the Colombo Mafia family believed to have been involved in the fraud at some point.”
The series is created by Unrealistic Ideas, the non-scripted production company launched by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, and Archie Gips. The doc was directed by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte.