Told entirely from the perspective of FBI investigators, an anonymous tip taken and forgotten on a Post-it note quickly unfurls into a million-dollar fraud case reliant on the crazy popular McDonalds Monopoly game. And then you meet the people that actually did this, and you realize theyre humans, just like we are," Hernandez says. ", 2020 TV premiere dates:When your favorite show returns, and your next one starts, HBO's 'The Outsider'is a Stephen King adaptation like you've never seen before, To cope with an "extremely boring" part of the investigation,he donned a gold suit for a meeting. Photo courtesy of HBO. 1. For the amount of time McMillionsbuilds up the question "who is Uncle Jerry?" The McDonalds's Monopoly Scandal | A 24 Million Dollar Sweepstakes Episode 2. His absence is arguably the biggest issue with Episode 2, as the filmmakers introduce a new set of talking heads none are as charismatic as the fun-loving FBI agent, but they are much more eccentric, character-friendly roles; the type of real people who make for perfect sketch comedy fodder. Rihanna Says Her Super Bowl Performance Doesnt Mean an Album Is Coming, Super Bowl is one thing. Couturier liked to give his Monopoly pieces away at parties while Glomb, who had done prison time for transporting cocaine on a flight, gave his pieces to people he said were in dire need of funds. Who Will Die in 'The White Lotus' Season 2? The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. Privacy Policy and If theres a downside to McMillions, its that viewers might need a conspiracy wall complete with a corkboard, red string, and index cards to keep up with whos who, whats what, and how it all relates to the scheme and the investigation. 'The Crown' Weighs Too Heavily in a Dismal, Drawn Out Season 5, Brendan Fraser and Colin Farrell Stand Out Among New Batch of Best Actor Contenders. Upcoming HBO series McMillions will explore the bizarre real-life . But credit to Daniel Radcliffe for committing to the bit. A new HBO documentary series chronicles the plot that siphoned off $24 million in McDonald's prizes. The clown-fronted fast food corporation is enlisted to help. McMillion$: McDonald's Monopoly Fraud Revisited - YouTube The documentary implies that the winners all claimed their prizes in-person by entering a McDonalds restaurant and filling out a form. McMillions, HBO's six-part docuseries about the million-dollar scam in which a former cop rigged the McDonald's Monopoly sweepstakes in the '90s, premiered last Monday (Feb. 3), and in light of the Mark Wahlberg-produced series airing, Delish has published a new piece about the fallout from the scandal.. Published Jan 09, 2020. In 'McMillions' HBO, McDonald's Monopoly scam is must-see TV - Los The object was to collect various Monopoly properties that could be redeemed for cash prizes, with some instant-win pieces ranging from free food to cars, vacations, and millions of dollars. Influencers: Profiles of a Partnership 2022, How to Pitch Stories and Articles to IndieWire. Then, he mistakenly received a package full of those tamper-resistant seals, allowing him to swap out game pieces and close the envelopes again as if nothing happened. A 1998 Miami New Times News of the Weird piece mentions his divinely inspired effort to get around an ordinance against stripping: In January Ladsons Jerry Colombo converted his Club 2010 into the Church of the Fuzzy Bunnys [sic], featuring Bible-reading followed by a procession of pastie-wearing dancers., In a tragic twist, while Colombo was trying to save his marriage to Robin that same year, he was injured in a car accident along the GeorgiaSouth Carolina border and died in a hospital two weeks later. A detailed account of the McDonald's Monopoly game scam during the 1990s as told by the participants in the case, including the prizewinners and the FBI agents involved. TORONTO, ON (October 5, 2021) - Canada's favourite Coast to Coast Monopoly game is back at participating McDonald's restaurants, running from October 5 through November 8.The game offers a one in five chance to win over $80 million worth of prizes, including food, cash, gift cards, cars, and more. As seen in McMillions, the safeguards Dittler and Simon created for the game were incredibly complex: The high-value pieces were held in a vault that could only be opened by two people simultaneously entering a key code, while the stickers themselves were created with intentional imperfections and watermarks that were only visible under black light to prevent forgery. HBO's documentary series "McMillions" details the Monopoly scandal that gripped McDonald's in the 1990s. 2022 Vox Media, LLC. And Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Maria Dizzia are their latest castmates. In 2019, British Labour Party politician Tom Watson wrote to the company to ask that it cease the campaign and its encouragement to buy more fast food, saying, It is clear that McDonalds Monopoly is a danger to public health. McDonalds ran it anyway, citing the fact that people could get puzzle pieces from their carrot bags and salads, and saying, Customer choice is at the heart of everything we do.. Mathews and his colleagues went undercover, posing as crew members of"Shamrock Productions" to interview supposed "winners" about their good fortune. She often watches movies sometimes she reviews them too. Terms of Service apply. From 1989 to 2001, there were almost no legitimate winners of the high-value game pieces in the McDonalds Monopoly game. Fresh off of stage-bombing Quinta Brunsons Emmy moment. And now, there's an Feb. 3 HBO documentary all about it: McMillions. Now, the most recent developments are the release of McMillions and the possibility of a movie adaptation of the story. Baker was excommunicated by the Mormons, but his foster son, George Chandler, had his conviction overturned when a court agreed that it couldnt disprove his claim that Baker conned him into the conspiracy. Unfortunately for McDonalds, that man was . New HBO documentary McMillions aims to lift the lid of the fraud case of the early 2000s that saw a criminal ring try to benefit using stolen McDonald's Monopoly tokens. You feel for the winners, their family members, and more. 'McMillions' (HBO) Review: One Wild McDonalds Monopoly Scandal Doc The docuseries interviewed a colorful cast of people involved in the original scandal; furthermore, McMillions revealed some shocking details of the Monopoly scam, and the work that went into uncovering it. 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More important, where can I get Alices nail polish? * Things you buy through our links may earnNew Yorka commission. HBO'sMcMillionsgives a lot of screen-time to charming FBI agent Doug Mathews, who claims to have been the driving force behind the whole Monopoly scandal investigation, dubbed Operation 'Final Answer'. Yes, Lin-Manuel Mirandas in the series. And next, he met the co-conspirator whod recruit multiple winners and give him the Uncle Jerry honorific. How McDonalds Monopoly Works. McMillions (stylized as McMillion$) is a documentary miniseries about the McDonald's Monopoly promotion scam that occurred between 1989 and 2001. Brad Pitt's career started with McDonald's tripto find audition listings in a newspaper. Dent did not appear in the documentary. He gained the moniker "Uncle Jerry" from his co-conspirators in the mafia. 'McMillions' HBO reveals McDonald's Monopoly scam informant - Los The publication points out that after Jerome Jacobsen, the head of security at a . In all, 51 people were indicted in the case, mostly on fraud and conspiracy charges. Before bed, all I want is a broadcast I can drift off to. Over 1,000 Burger King franchises filed a class-action suit against McDonalds for false advertising and unfair promotion for knowingly running the Monopoly game while it was compromised, though they ultimately dropped the suit. Gloria Brown's connection to the scheme is revealed, as the Colombos diversify the ticket operation under building pressure. Created in Chaos: The Cinematography of Blonde, 60 Must-See New Movies to Watch This Fall Season, Fall TV Preview: The 20 Shows Youll Want to Watch, White Lotus Season 2 Sets Premiere Date: All the Details for the Series Italy-Bound Return. Why was McDonald's Monopoly canceled? | The US Sun McMillion$ Season 1 | Official Website for the HBO Series | HBO.com Jacobson was the man at the heart of the scam; he was the one who would obtain the winning pieces, which he was able to do because of his security position with Simon Marketing. The scheme really took off in 1995, when three things happened that would take the scam to new heights (or, depending on your moral compass, sink it to new depths). HBO's 'McMillions' docuseries shows how cheaters scammed McDonald's McMillions builds audience engagement quickly, thanks to fantastic talking heads and an inherently exciting story, but the six-part docuseries from writers and directors James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte is smart enough to slow down and even back up when it should. And so he turned to . All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. Robin Colombo, who claimed that her late husbands parents tipped off the FBI as revenge for her trying to keep her son away from them and the Mafia, got 18 months in jail. Fox Business And the plane? Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Whether it was out of the kindness of his heart or because he thought it would help his case if he ever got caught, Jacobson even anonymously sent a $1 million ticket to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in 1998, a stunt that made the national news. How did McDonald's, Monopoly and the US Mafia get tangled up in scandal All Rights Reserved. The move resulted in Simon Marketing filing a lawsuit against McDonald's for a breach of contract which the marketing company won. Some accompliceswho turned in the game pieces were required to split the cash awarded with the plotters of the operation but were stuck with huge tax bills. Photo: HBO. McMillionsdramatizes the events of fake winners claiming their prizes at McDonalds, drawing out the experience of Gloria Brown, McDonalds' first African American $1 million "winner," in order the build suspense. The sham interviews with the schemers including Robin Colombos father and Michael Hoover, a Florida man who used his money to buy a boat he named Ruthless Scoundrel were full of obvious lies and gave the agents plenty of evidence to move the case forward. (One of them just happened to be a man who was convicted of dealing 400 pounds of coke in 1999. He was also related to Joseph Colombo, the head of the New York Mafia family whose 1971 attempted assassination at an Italian Unity Day rally is dramatized in The Irishman. Colombo lived lavishly and invested in strip clubs, fighting local governments in South Carolina that tried to prevent them from opening. "Anything that usually comes easy is probably too good to be true," he says, but he understands how tempting a game-winning piece could be:"If somebody comes to you and says, 'Here, have a $1 million game-winning ticket,' its pretty hard not to think, 'Well, Im not hurting anybody.' She is a writer, editor, and folk musician. The event would still have been suspenseful for those involved, especially for people like Brenda Phenis, the sister-in-law of Dwight Baker, one of Jacobson's recruiters. The accused went to trial in early September 2001, and initially the story was all over the news until the terrorist attacks on September 11 completely eclipsed the story. Mathews, who says in the series that he's "always looking for another fun ride," may spark entertaining memes and tweets. HBO's McMillions Trailer Exposes the Truth Behind the McDonald's Having learned nothing about showing off from GoodFellas, Colombo even appeared in a McDonalds ad waving the key to the Viper, though in actuality he took the cash equivalent because the sports car was too small for him. First, Jacobson discovered that Simon had rigged the game so nobody in Canada could win it. 'McMillions' review: HBO recaps McDonald's scandal, and we're lovin' it In July 2018, I posted about the FBI investigation into the multi-million dollar McDonald's Monopoly fraud. It didnt take long for us to really see that our (subjects) were incredibly rich and provided so much context and color," he says. However, according to theDaily Beast's article, the process actually had an option to call a hot-line and then mail-in a form with a photocopy of the winning piece which explains how the FBI were able to charge the scammers with the federal offence of mail fraud. 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