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The game Monopoly has
come to life at McDonald's.
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Win a McDLT, Coca-Cola,
or $1 million.
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Remember the McDonald's
Monopoly games?
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The game was big
back in the '80s and '90s,
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and McDonald's was giving away
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$1 million game pieces
around the country.
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Well, we had a source.
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This guy kept talking about
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McDonald's, McDonald's,
McDonald's.
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And he said, the McDonald's
Monopoly games are fixed,
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and this guy Uncle Jerry
is the person behind it.
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The source gave us names
and said,
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these people are
million-dollar winners.
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They're all either relatives
or live close by one another.
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That's not how this game
would probably work.
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- Can't make this shit up.
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There had to be over 100,
maybe 150 people
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that had been
in this huge conspiracy.
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Good grief, this is big.
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At least $24 million
was put out.
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How in the world do they do it?
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In the FBI, we make
a lot of headlines.
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Drug busts,
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mob stings,
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terrorist takedowns.
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Get down! Get down!
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We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.
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Mark it.
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- Freeze!
- FBI.
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- FBI!
- Action!
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But they don't know
the half of it.
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What really goes down,
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we save that for each other
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when we're talking
agent-to-agent.
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This is "FBI True."
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This was one of the most
unusual cases in all my career.
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So you guys are in
the Jacksonville office.
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And if I remember correctly, in
2001, you guys get a big tip.
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I remember it
like it was yesterday.
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Into my office walks Rick Dent.
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And he said a source,
that they had been operating
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mostly on insurance fraud says
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that McDonald's Monopoly
promotion games
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are compromised.
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During his 26-year career
with the FBI,
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Chris Graham investigated
complex white-collar crimes,
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supervised the Jacksonville
Joint Terrorism Task Force,
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and opened the FBI's office
in Milan, Italy.
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The game was big.
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Back in the '80s
and '90s, you know,
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McDonald's was giving away
$1 million game pieces
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around the country.
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Tom Kneir is a 29-year
veteran of the FBI.
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He served as
the special agent in charge
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of the Albuquerque,
Jacksonville,
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and Chicago offices
before retiring in 2004.
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People were flocking to the
stores to buy their Big Macs
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or fries, to pull that--
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pull that winning ticket
off of there.
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Monopoly has come
to life at McDonald's
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with over $40 million
in food, prizes, and cash.
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Just order any of these
McDonald's food favorites
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to get your game piece.
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Win instantly
or collect and win.
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Cruises, Dodge Vipers,
cash, a million bucks.
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Wow!
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So the source gave,
like, names?
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What did Rick say
the source said?
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Cindy Coppola is a 23-year
veteran of the FBI.
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She worked on cases
that included
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organized crime and terrorism
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and took part in multinational
investigations
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into drug trafficking
and money laundering.
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The source gave us,
like, four names--
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Robin Colombo, the recruiter,
bringing in winners,
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Gloria Brown,
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Buddy Fisher...
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And uh, Stacy Breegle...
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And said these people
are million-dollar winners,
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and it was all fixed.
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They were given
the million-dollar
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Monopoly game pieces.
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They didn't win legitimately.
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And this guy Uncle Jerry
is the person behind it.
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Robin Colombo was married
to Jerry Colombo.
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He won a car, I think,
back in '96,
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was on a TV commercial
for McDonald's.
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People everywhere
are winning big
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playing the Monopoly game
at McDonald's.
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Jerry Colombo
won a Dodge Viper.
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And there are two
$1 million prizes left.
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Jerry Colombo had
also been a recruiter.
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Was this Uncle Jerry?
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Jerry Colombo was dead.
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He had been dead
for three or four years
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by the time we got
into the case.
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But the source kept talking
about an Uncle Jerry.
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Is there another Jerry
out there who's doing this?
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Are they talking in the past
tense about Jerry Colombo
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and it's a historical thing?
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The source, he said this Uncle
Jerry was a former FBI agent.
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- Oh, shit.
- And we're like--
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Not good.
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Hopefully that's--
that's not the truth.
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- Yeah.
- Hopefully it's not.
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- But--
- You never know.
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Right.
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What were your first steps?
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We got subpoenas.
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We got some phone records
that tied those initial four
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or five people in together.
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You start digging in.
They all live in Jacksonville.
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All these winners,
they're all either relatives
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or live close by one another.
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That's not how this game
would probably work.
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Turns out, Buddy Fisher
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is Robin Colombo's
biological father.
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By the time you have Robin,
her father,
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her best friend Gloria Brown,
her cousin Stacy, all related,
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all winning within
a year or two--
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is statistically
impossible, right?
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If there is such a thing as
impossible, it would be that.
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You would be hit by lightning
before this happened.
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Numerous times by lightning.
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But now--now we've
kind of hit an impasse
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because we need to confirm
that they're winners.
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And there's no published list
of winners
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that you can look up.
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Then you get into,
do you have
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McDonald's employees involved?
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In most fraud type of cases,
you'd go to the victim
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company or victim--
- Sure.
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And say, hey, you know,
we need your help.
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With this one, we were
a little bit babes in the woods
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on how the game even worked.
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There was this assumption
that McDonald's is running
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this game,
and somebody on the inside
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has got to be getting
these pieces, if this is true.
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By calling them,
are we tipping our hand?
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So lots of discussion on,
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we need to contact
McDonald's...
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McDonald's directly.
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To take this thing further.
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At some point in time,
you can't just
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keep going in circles here.
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You've gotta make
some hard decision,
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and I think
we made the right one.
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It was contacting
their security department.
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But that initial contact
was not,
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hey, we've got
source information
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that your game is compromised.
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You got a big problem
on your hands.
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No.
- What did you tell them?
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It was, hey, can you confirm
that a few people
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are winners in this game?
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Good grief, they were.
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They said these people won.
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They gave us dates
and times when they--
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places they claimed it from.
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It was unbelievable.
Like, wow. Holy crap.
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Did they claim them all
in Jacksonville, or no?
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New Hampshire, Tennessee,
South Carolina.
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We knew at that time
most of them
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lived in Duval County, Florida,
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but they gave McDonald's fake
addresses in these states
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that they claimed
to have won in.
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McDonald's would,
for whatever reason,
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have to have winners
in different regions.
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So they would say,
we need a--we need a winner
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in the Southwest, or we need
a winner in the New England.
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Sure.
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New Hampshire,
to use that example.
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Which answers the question,
why would they claim
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to win in another part
of the country?
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Robin Colombo, she was in jail
for some sort
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of insurance fraud
when we opened this thing up.
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- Oh, really?
- Oh, yeah.
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And we look at jail logs,
and look who's name shows up.
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Oh, my God, it's Gloria Brown,
winner of a million dollars.
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And so we knew the source
was on to something.
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Okay, we need more
from McDonald's.
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So we go back to McDonald's
again, to their security folks,
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and said, can you tell us
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how these games are produced
and where?
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And they revealed
they contracted out
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to Simon Marketing,
a marketing company in Atlanta.
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And then there was also a
printing company that would--
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that would do
the secure printing,
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named Dittler Brothers.
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When McDonald's went
to Simon Marketing,
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they said, oh, by the way,
the head of security,
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the guy who handles
all the high-end pieces,
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his name is Jerry Jacobson.
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Of all things,
he was a police officer
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somewhere in South Florida
and went out on a disability.
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So you start, as they used
to say, connect the dots.
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Now we're--we're--
wait a minute.
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Now, is this--we heard about
uncle--is this Uncle Jerry?
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What do you guys
do next, then?
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We're, like,
March, April of 2001.
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McDonald's is starting
to get wind
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that there's a problem here.
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Why is the FBI
asking about winners?
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We never told them
the whole story.
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McDonald's went
to Simon Marketing
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and did essentially
an onsite audit
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00:10:03,472 --> 00:10:07,215
of how this process worked
and came back and said,
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00:10:07,302 --> 00:10:09,783
it's tight. It's secure.
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00:10:09,870 --> 00:10:13,090
We can't figure out, you know,
anything fishy about this.
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00:10:13,177 --> 00:10:15,876
That million-dollar piece
had some different markings
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00:10:15,963 --> 00:10:19,401
on there that you couldn't
just, you know,
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00:10:19,488 --> 00:10:22,491
go home and print
your own piece.
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00:10:22,578 --> 00:10:24,362
There was, you know,
some invisible ink.
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There was a little,
uh, notches
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00:10:25,712 --> 00:10:27,322
out of letters on there.
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So they--I mean, again, the
process was really pretty good.
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With Simon Marketing,
they had two people
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that would actually go and get
the high-value game pieces.
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They'd then get
on an airplane and fly.
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If they were supposed
to win in Indiana,
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00:10:44,731 --> 00:10:47,037
they'd fly up to Indianapolis
and put one
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00:10:47,124 --> 00:10:49,866
in a fry box and one in,
you know,
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go over to Fort Wayne
and stick it on something.
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00:10:53,478 --> 00:10:55,611
So do you guys work with
McDonald's to figure this out,
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or what are next steps?
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Now we know
a little bit about
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Simon Marketing
and Jerry Jacobson.
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We know, thankfully,
he's not an FBI agent.
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But he's still
a player in this.
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You gotta connect Jacobson
to the winners.
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McDonald's calls us
in April and says,
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00:11:14,064 --> 00:11:16,371
we just had
a million-dollar winner.
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His name is Ronald Hughey.
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00:11:19,983 --> 00:11:23,160
He claimed it in Tennessee.
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We run him down.
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Turns out--
It turns out
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he doesn't live in Tennessee.
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But he had connections
back to, of all places--
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remember this.
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What's the name of the town
in South Carolina?
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00:11:35,956 --> 00:11:37,305
- Fair Game or Fair Play.
- Fair Play.
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00:11:37,392 --> 00:11:38,480
Fair Play, yeah.
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00:11:38,567 --> 00:11:40,134
Fair Play, South Carolina.
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00:11:42,832 --> 00:11:44,878
I mean, you can't make this--
you can't make this shit up.
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So we run these phone numbers
against each other
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00:11:48,751 --> 00:11:50,318
and look for common numbers.
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Eureka moment's here.
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They do the analysis,
and right around
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00:11:55,149 --> 00:11:57,194
the time of the winning--
- From Ronald Hughey.
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00:11:57,281 --> 00:11:59,022
Ronald Hughey's
winning in April,
251
00:11:59,109 --> 00:12:01,459
there's all these calls
to a common number,
252
00:12:01,546 --> 00:12:03,635
also in Fair Play.
253
00:12:03,723 --> 00:12:06,595
A guy named Dwight Baker,
and then his wife, Linda Baker.
254
00:12:10,251 --> 00:12:12,601
Jacobson's calling Dwight.
Dwight's calling Hughey.
255
00:12:12,688 --> 00:12:14,211
Hughey is calling Dwight.
256
00:12:14,298 --> 00:12:16,736
Baker, he's the--
I call it the middle man,
257
00:12:16,823 --> 00:12:20,522
the recruiter,
bringing in winners.
258
00:12:20,609 --> 00:12:22,698
So now we see
there's many more people
259
00:12:22,785 --> 00:12:24,874
involved in this scam than
just the first four
260
00:12:24,961 --> 00:12:27,094
or five
that the source mentioned,
261
00:12:27,181 --> 00:12:30,967
and all the signs are
pointing to Jerry Jacobson
262
00:12:31,054 --> 00:12:34,275
as being Uncle Jerry.
263
00:12:34,362 --> 00:12:36,538
We've moved the ball along,
264
00:12:36,625 --> 00:12:39,062
but we still, you know,
we still
265
00:12:39,149 --> 00:12:41,586
have to make
another big decision on,
266
00:12:41,673 --> 00:12:44,589
how much do we tell McDonald's
to get them
267
00:12:44,676 --> 00:12:47,201
to start being on our team?
268
00:12:47,288 --> 00:12:49,812
We invited McDonald's
to come to Jacksonville.
269
00:12:49,899 --> 00:12:52,336
We're gonna open up the books
a little bit more
270
00:12:52,423 --> 00:12:54,164
at this meeting
to tell them, you know,
271
00:12:54,251 --> 00:12:56,471
you guys got a real problem,
272
00:12:56,558 --> 00:13:00,344
and we're trying
to make a case here,
273
00:13:00,431 --> 00:13:03,826
and we want you
to run another game.
274
00:13:03,913 --> 00:13:07,351
We said,
what do you have planned?
275
00:13:07,438 --> 00:13:10,702
They said, we have a game
planning to be in the summer.
276
00:13:10,790 --> 00:13:14,968
That's a tight deadline,
but it's an opportunity for us.
277
00:13:15,055 --> 00:13:20,147
So we decide if we go up on a
wiretap on Jacobson, on Baker,
278
00:13:20,234 --> 00:13:22,149
we're gonna catch them
in the act on the next game.
279
00:13:36,076 --> 00:13:37,904
The relationship with
McDonald's was almost
280
00:13:37,991 --> 00:13:40,167
like early stages of dating.
281
00:13:40,254 --> 00:13:43,561
You're kind of feeling out,
do I trust this person?
282
00:13:43,648 --> 00:13:44,998
You know, how much
do I tell them?
283
00:13:45,085 --> 00:13:47,739
Well, now we're asking them
to marry us,
284
00:13:47,827 --> 00:13:50,220
and that's a big--
that's a big commitment.
285
00:13:50,307 --> 00:13:51,961
We said, you know,
we need you to run the game
286
00:13:52,048 --> 00:13:53,789
because we're gonna
catch these guys.
287
00:13:53,876 --> 00:13:56,618
I thought they'd say yes
right away at that meeting.
288
00:13:56,705 --> 00:13:58,141
Oh, yeah, of course
we'll run it.
289
00:13:58,228 --> 00:13:59,882
They didn't really respond.
290
00:13:59,969 --> 00:14:01,797
Were you surprised
that McDonald's said
291
00:14:01,884 --> 00:14:03,146
they had to think about it?
292
00:14:03,233 --> 00:14:04,669
This was a big deal for them.
293
00:14:04,756 --> 00:14:07,585
They knew that this was
not--somehow was not
294
00:14:07,672 --> 00:14:09,196
gonna end well for them.
- Sure.
295
00:14:09,283 --> 00:14:11,894
Publicity of something like
this, that the McDonald's,
296
00:14:11,981 --> 00:14:14,244
you know, game is--
- Disaster.
297
00:14:14,331 --> 00:14:15,202
- Is, you know, compromised.
- Oh, yeah.
298
00:14:15,289 --> 00:14:16,768
Yeah.
299
00:14:16,856 --> 00:14:18,118
They came back
and they said, okay.
300
00:14:18,205 --> 00:14:19,597
It was pretty clear.
301
00:14:19,684 --> 00:14:21,121
We'll run this game,
but you do what
302
00:14:21,208 --> 00:14:24,167
you need to do because
it's over right after that.
303
00:14:24,254 --> 00:14:26,953
We make a decision to
go with TIII, a Title III.
304
00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:28,563
So who are the lines
that you got up on?
305
00:14:28,650 --> 00:14:31,392
Two on the Bakers
and one on Jerry Jacobson.
306
00:14:36,397 --> 00:14:39,095
Now we've got the order
to monitor these phones.
307
00:14:39,182 --> 00:14:41,228
Jerry Jacobson's phone,
it's a local
308
00:14:41,315 --> 00:14:42,838
cell phone company in Atlanta.
309
00:14:42,925 --> 00:14:47,843
So we've gotta send the Title
III order to that company.
310
00:14:47,930 --> 00:14:50,280
We fax this thing.
311
00:14:53,022 --> 00:14:55,329
We got a call from a guy.
312
00:14:55,416 --> 00:14:57,505
I'm the, uh, you know,
I'm the CEO of this company.
313
00:14:57,592 --> 00:15:00,682
Uh, something's been
brought across my desk.
314
00:15:00,769 --> 00:15:06,470
Normally, these would go
to my administrative assistant,
315
00:15:06,557 --> 00:15:11,519
who, by the way,
is Jerry Jacobson's wife.
316
00:15:11,606 --> 00:15:13,390
Oh, you're kidding.
So here's your subject--
317
00:15:13,477 --> 00:15:14,957
- What's the chances of that?
- Yeah, here we go.
318
00:15:15,044 --> 00:15:16,045
What's the probability
of that?
319
00:15:16,132 --> 00:15:17,220
About the same--
320
00:15:17,307 --> 00:15:18,352
- I mean, this--
- That's crazy.
321
00:15:18,439 --> 00:15:20,093
- This case--
- That's crazy.
322
00:15:20,180 --> 00:15:21,485
She happened
to be sick that day.
323
00:15:21,572 --> 00:15:23,139
- You guys got lucky.
- Yeah.
324
00:15:23,226 --> 00:15:25,837
You talk about finding
a four-leaf clover that day,
325
00:15:25,925 --> 00:15:27,448
I mean, having her out.
326
00:15:27,535 --> 00:15:29,929
You know, otherwise
we'd have been done.
327
00:15:30,016 --> 00:15:32,061
So before the wire started,
Chris,
328
00:15:32,148 --> 00:15:33,628
what was going on
with the game?
329
00:15:33,715 --> 00:15:34,977
Was there any other winners
330
00:15:35,064 --> 00:15:37,153
that you guys knew about?
331
00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:40,156
Yeah, Ronald Hughey was
a million-dollar winner,
332
00:15:40,243 --> 00:15:43,551
allegedly, from April.
333
00:15:43,638 --> 00:15:48,469
And then, crazy as it sounds,
we got another winner in May
334
00:15:48,556 --> 00:15:53,039
for $500,000 instant winner,
a woman named Brenda Phenis.
335
00:15:56,738 --> 00:15:59,132
Who turns out--
she claimed the prize
336
00:15:59,219 --> 00:16:02,700
in North Carolina,
but she lives in
337
00:16:02,787 --> 00:16:05,529
Fair Play, South Carolina.
338
00:16:05,616 --> 00:16:09,185
And she is the recruiter
Dwight Baker's sister-in-law.
339
00:16:11,753 --> 00:16:15,887
So we start the wire, and we
got two prizes out there,
340
00:16:15,975 --> 00:16:18,325
one million-dollar one,
one $500,000 one,
341
00:16:18,412 --> 00:16:21,676
that have not been paid yet.
342
00:16:21,763 --> 00:16:23,634
The agents are
listening to everything.
343
00:16:23,721 --> 00:16:25,985
Did any smoking gun appear?
344
00:16:26,072 --> 00:16:29,205
One of the calls was
Jacobson and Baker talking.
345
00:16:29,292 --> 00:16:34,080
Let's meet up at 3:00 today at
the place, the exit so-and-so.
346
00:16:34,167 --> 00:16:35,777
So there's a new
million-dollar Monopoly
347
00:16:35,864 --> 00:16:37,735
game piece in circulation.
348
00:16:37,822 --> 00:16:40,347
And we figured they might be
meeting up so Jerry could give
349
00:16:40,434 --> 00:16:42,088
that winning piece to Dwight.
350
00:17:37,621 --> 00:17:40,624
Chateau Elan
is this golf resort
351
00:17:40,711 --> 00:17:45,151
about equidistant between
Atlanta and Fair Play.
352
00:17:45,238 --> 00:17:48,632
This is where you're proud
to be in the bureau
353
00:17:48,719 --> 00:17:55,204
because you can call Atlanta,
you can call Columbia,
354
00:17:55,291 --> 00:17:56,684
and everybody speaks
the same language.
355
00:17:56,771 --> 00:17:58,251
So we said--
- We need surveillance.
356
00:17:58,338 --> 00:18:00,166
- We need surveillance.
- Now.
357
00:18:00,253 --> 00:18:02,342
- Now.
- Quick.
358
00:18:02,429 --> 00:18:04,474
Like, in an hour at
Chateau Elan, off the highway,
359
00:18:04,561 --> 00:18:05,649
and can you do it?
360
00:18:05,736 --> 00:18:08,261
You've got
an hour and a half,
361
00:18:08,348 --> 00:18:10,611
and you tell Atlanta
you need to scramble.
362
00:18:10,698 --> 00:18:13,004
And this was--this was
just an incredible,
363
00:18:13,092 --> 00:18:15,355
incredible sequence
because we got footage.
364
00:18:15,442 --> 00:18:18,358
We got video footage
of Jacobson meeting Baker
365
00:18:18,445 --> 00:18:19,924
in the parking lot together.
366
00:18:28,324 --> 00:18:31,240
Jacobson giving Baker
an envelope.
367
00:18:51,521 --> 00:18:53,828
So what you have, McDonald's
started running the game.
368
00:18:53,915 --> 00:18:56,700
And within three days, four
days after starting the game,
369
00:18:56,787 --> 00:18:59,138
Jacobson's got
the high-value piece,
370
00:18:59,225 --> 00:19:02,967
and he's already working it
to his recruiter, Baker.
371
00:19:03,054 --> 00:19:04,926
We figure out
from the wiretap
372
00:19:05,013 --> 00:19:08,582
that both Jacobson,
the source of the pieces,
373
00:19:08,669 --> 00:19:10,714
and his recruiters
are all getting kickbacks
374
00:19:10,801 --> 00:19:13,935
from the supposed winners.
375
00:19:14,022 --> 00:19:16,764
Do you hear anything on the
wire about those recent wins
376
00:19:16,851 --> 00:19:19,070
from Ron Hughey
and Brenda Phenis?
377
00:19:19,158 --> 00:19:20,768
McDonald's was stalling
on paying
378
00:19:20,855 --> 00:19:24,380
the million-dollar prize
that Ronald Hughey claimed
379
00:19:24,467 --> 00:19:27,862
and the half-million dollar
prize that Brenda claimed.
380
00:19:27,949 --> 00:19:31,561
There's a little bit of angst
on the part of Dwight Baker
381
00:19:31,648 --> 00:19:35,435
and Hughey about, where's--
where's my--where's my money?
382
00:19:35,522 --> 00:19:37,872
So there's questions
in some of these calls
383
00:19:37,959 --> 00:19:40,831
where Jacobson is
asking Baker, you know,
384
00:19:40,918 --> 00:19:42,920
has he got his contract yet?
385
00:19:43,007 --> 00:19:44,835
Or--
- Code word for...
386
00:19:44,922 --> 00:19:47,403
- Code word for the money.
- If he's gotten his money.
387
00:19:47,490 --> 00:19:48,709
They're real concerned
about that.
388
00:20:07,423 --> 00:20:11,035
Jacobson calls Baker, and
he's asking about the status
389
00:20:11,122 --> 00:20:13,386
of Brenda Phenis's money.
390
00:20:13,473 --> 00:20:15,301
Which at this point, she
hadn't gotten the check yet.
391
00:20:33,319 --> 00:20:37,410
And Jacobson
kind of lectures Baker.
392
00:20:37,497 --> 00:20:38,846
I still remember
the Burger King comment.
393
00:20:40,761 --> 00:20:42,415
Like, giving McDonald's
a hard time about
394
00:20:42,502 --> 00:20:44,765
dragging their feet about
paying--paying Brenda.
395
00:21:04,915 --> 00:21:09,877
McDonald's eventually sent
a check to Brenda for $500,000.
396
00:21:09,964 --> 00:21:11,008
And then things
really got crazy.
397
00:21:11,095 --> 00:21:12,880
Yeah.
398
00:21:12,967 --> 00:21:14,360
So this was, you know,
we start picking this up--
399
00:21:14,447 --> 00:21:15,839
Were you worried
that they were going
400
00:21:15,926 --> 00:21:17,406
to go after her or something?
401
00:21:17,493 --> 00:21:18,451
Well, you start
picking up on the wire,
402
00:21:18,538 --> 00:21:20,017
they're not real
happy with her.
403
00:21:20,104 --> 00:21:21,671
Everybody has to
kick money up, right?
404
00:21:21,758 --> 00:21:25,240
So Brenda is not getting
$500,000 for herself to keep.
405
00:21:55,357 --> 00:21:59,056
But Brenda decides
she doesn't like that deal.
406
00:22:22,558 --> 00:22:24,299
Chris walked
into my office and said,
407
00:22:24,386 --> 00:22:26,170
we could have a problem.
408
00:22:26,257 --> 00:22:28,608
These guys
are really mad and, uh--
409
00:22:28,695 --> 00:22:30,436
Dwight's gonna kill Brenda.
410
00:22:34,353 --> 00:22:38,313
Let's create
a fake production company.
411
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:41,011
We're gonna film you
describing how you won
412
00:22:41,098 --> 00:22:43,013
that exciting, great day.
413
00:22:43,100 --> 00:22:45,276
He's sweating and stumbling
414
00:22:45,364 --> 00:22:49,498
and can't go through
the details of how he won
415
00:22:49,585 --> 00:22:51,544
because he's making it up
on the fly.
416
00:22:51,631 --> 00:22:53,807
This Sunday,
as a matter of fact.
417
00:22:53,894 --> 00:23:00,553
Uh, and there wasn't
a whole lot of work to do.
418
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:04,078
We are right at the cusp
of taking this thing down.
419
00:23:04,165 --> 00:23:08,517
We get a call from a small
newspaper in Greenville.
420
00:23:08,604 --> 00:23:11,085
And they say,
we've got this document,
421
00:23:11,172 --> 00:23:13,261
and we don't think
we're supposed to have it.
422
00:23:13,348 --> 00:23:14,654
Oh, shit.