McMillions (2020): Season 1, Episode 5 - Episode 5 - full transcript

You know, you might not be
interested, but...

(CASH REGISTER DINGS)

One of the early middle men
was Jerry Colombo.

In order to do this scam,

Jerry Jacobson started finding
other middlemen.

AJ Glomb, then Dwight Baker.

DOUG MATHEWS:
We were up on Dwight's phone.

We start to figure out

is there anything with
this person George Chandler?

Yeah, there might be
something there.

Dwight came to me with
the million‐dollar



winning ticket.

He asked me would I be
interested

in buying the ticket from him
and then redeeming it.

So, I did it.

He didn't need to have
any knowledge of anything.

I tried to protect him
from the truth of it.

Then on one day,
Jerry told me there was a

half‐a‐million‐dollar game piece
and I wanted it.

Made arrangements with my wife's
sister, Brenda, to split it.

She turned in the game piece

and decided that she was gonna
run with the money.

INTERVIEWER:

Yeah.

CHRIS GRAHAM:
So, we found out



that Dwight Baker made
a phone call to Brenda Phenis.

Didn't quite disconnect
the phone.

WOMAN: He's following her
to the airport.

There was a lot of concern
on that.

What are we gonna do if they
are really gonna harm her?

You have to intervene,

but one little slip up
could shut it down.

[bright tone]

[wind blowing]

[birds chirping]

[dog whining]

‐ My name is Jared Jacobson,
and my father is

"Jerry" Jerome Jacobson.

[dramatic music]

‐ Come here, boys.

Come here.

Bailey, come here.

♪ ♪

‐ I grew up in Miami, Florida.

Once my mom got divorced
from him,

uh, he cut all ties.

I was three years old
when they got divorced.

So this is a picture of me
as a baby with my dad

and my mom's dad.

My mom called
and had him arrested

for back child support
when I was 13,

and that's when he popped
on the radar.

That's when I really met him
for the first time.

During the summer,
I would go fly up to Atlanta

and go spend,
you know,

three or four weeks
up there with him,

kind of getting to know him
a little bit.

I believe he was living
with Alison.

This is actually a picture
of the wedding party

when my dad and Linda
got married.

That's my mom in the picture
with me and him.

I think it's one
of the only pictures I have

with the three of us together.

My mom is Carol Cody.

‐ I was his third marriage.

Really, I was his fourth,

out of‐‐I think
we counted seven.

Wait a minute.

Phyllis, Carol,

Daryl, me...

Um, Alison, and Linda.

He's been married six times,

and if he was married with that
marriage license down in Miami,

it's seven.

‐ The very first time
I got the first text

about the possibility
of a documentary series,

within two minutes,

I get a phone call saying,

"Hey, if anybody calls
or talks to you

"or wants to talk
about this thing,

don't do it."

♪ ♪

Obviously
I'm not gonna call him

and ask permission
to do this with you guys.

I think this is my way
of, um...

My way of having maybe
a little bit of closure.

♪ ♪

This is definitely gonna put
the nail in the coffin

for our relationship.

Um, and you know what?
I'm okay with it.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[indistinct PA announcement]

♪ ♪

‐ I tried to, uh,
keep her mouth shut,

but it didn't work.

I knew that I had
to do something.

She was gonna run
with the money.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

[baby crying]

♪ ♪

‐ [laughing]

‐ No, I didn't threaten
to kill her.

I just told my wife,
I says,

"We can't do this
in the airport."

[laughs]

I meant we can't confront her
in the airport.

I didn't mean anything other
than we cannot confront her

in the airport.

♪ ♪

‐ Turned out to be
a misunderstanding.

I mean, but‐‐but you
still have to run it out

to make‐‐you know,
to make sure,

and you know,
the long and short of it is,

it wasn't a valid threat.

‐ Right after that,

my wife took her sister
to the bank to cash the check

and was attached at the hips,

with her until she did
the right thing with the money.

Yeah.

‐ So after that airport drama,

we started to focus on Dwight
even more.

So we're up on these wiretaps,

and Rick and I hear
something's happening

with Uncle Jerry.

‐ A phone call was intercepted
between Jacobson

and Dwight Baker.

‐ The conversation was
that Jacobson and Dwight

were going to meet
for the exchange

of a winning piece.

That exchange was going
to happen

somewhere in Georgia.

‐ And they say on the phone,

"I'll be there in an hour,"

or an hour and 15 minutes,
or something like that.

We had that window.

‐ They didn't name the place
where they were gonna meet,

but they gave hints.

‐ "The usual place?"
"You mean along the highway?"

"Yeah, along the highway."

‐ So we hurried up,
we got on the maps,

and we figured out
that it was somewhere

along 85 near Atlanta.

‐ We had a certain area,
but we didn't know.

I mean, we thought,
but we weren't sure.

‐ So I got on the phone
with Atlanta to tell them,

"Hey,
this is what's coming up,"

so they were cued up
and ready.

‐ They mobilized quick.

They had to get there
and get visual,

and we had air support...

[helicopter whirring]

Surveillance group down
in their cars.

We're looking at rest areas,

places on the side
of the road, everywhere.

It was on.

‐ I remember looking
at this golf resort

north of Atlanta.

It's got to be this place.

Seems to be about halfway.
It's got to be.

♪ ♪

‐ At his house one time.

Uh,

Chateau Elan,
a winery,

between here and there
is halfway.

Sometimes we'd eat.

Sometimes we'd just sit
in the car

and trade money
and game pieces.

Yeah.
[chuckles]

‐ We actually had
an FBI pilot

up in the air
and could actually see

Mr. Jacobson handing Mr. Baker
something in a folder.

‐ There it was,

and off they go.

♪ ♪

‐ The video evidence
speaks volumes

of the illegal acts
that they were doing.

It's pretty short but sweet.

We got you now.

[wind blowing]

‐ It was about the end
of the summer,

and the game is ending.

We weren't gonna
have another game.

We already
have identified Jerry.

We had identified Mr. Baker
in Fair Play.

We had identified Mr. Glomb.

We had identified
and videoed Mr. Hoover,

and we had several others.

♪ ♪

‐ All right, Devereaux's good.

He's laying out
the indictment,

the arrest warrants.

We're gonna take this
through the grand jury,

get the true bills,
which is the indictment,

and we're gonna go out
and effect these arrests.

‐ In this case, the charges

were conspiracy and mail fraud.

If you use
the United States mail

in furtherance of a scheme
and artifice to defraud,

that's penalized
by up to 20 years in prison.

♪ ♪

‐ The initial stage
was the indictment

of the first eight,

so the first thing
that was gonna make the news,

that was gonna alert
all the other winners that,

"Hey, the gig is over,"

was the end of August,
August 21st.

‐ Everybody was spread
across the country,

and so we ended up having
to request the assistance

of numerous offices

spread entirely
across the United States.

You have to provide
those agents

enough information
to make arrests.

‐ So in anticipation
of the takedown,

we had prepared a very,
very lengthy communication.

‐ So it's our whole plan.

It's the background
of the investigation.

I mean, this communication
was probably

20 or 30 pages long.

Very, very specific,

in‐depth,
puts you right there.

Like, everything.

♪ ♪

‐ We faxed it,

and I'm not going
to say who did it.

I'll say I didn't,

but there may have been
somebody I know very closely

that did it
that would deny it.

‐ It doesn't matter who it was,

but on the speed dial‐‐
which I never use speed dial‐‐

but the agents
sending that plan thought

that the speed dial on the fax
said "Greenville FBI"

when in fact it said
"The Greenville News."

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

‐ It ended up being probably
the worst person in the world,

a news agency.

‐ Now, this is a big issue now,
right?

Like, all the stuff's
out there.

Now you got people
that might be waiting on agents

to come arrest them
and all this.

It's bad, bad, bad.

Rick Dent's big head
was sweating bad.

Devereaux was sweating it.

Chris Graham was losing weight
over that.

‐ I remember being really,
really angry about it.

Like, you know,
how in the world, you know?

How could this happen?

‐ You know, now it's,
"How do we fix it?"

How do we keep them
from going with this story?

After all this work,

this could really
screw things up.

[birds chirping]

[keyboard clacking]

‐ My name's John Boyanoski.

In 2001, I was a reporter
for "The Greenville News."

I had been there about six
or seven months,

and I was the crime
and courts reporter,

so anything that, you know,
kind of bad happened,

you know, anything
that had anything‐‐

official‐looking document
that came across the fax

would come to my desk.

So I came in on Monday morning,

and there was a stapled thing
on my chair,

and I picked it up,
and I saw FBI on it.

Three paragraphs in,
I'm thinking,

"This‐‐this doesn't
sound right."

This is an open investigation.

Like, you're talking about
surveillance in here,

and I'm like‐‐
so at first, like,

"Oh, it's the background."
I'm like, "No, they're‐‐"

and I start flipping through,
and it's all surveillance stuff

and, like,
background information.

I'm like, "I don't think this
is supposed to be going

to John Boyanoski
and 'The Greenville News.'"

I remember I turned around
my chair and I go to my boss.

I'm like,
"Dave, did you look at this?

Like, where'd this come from?"

And he's like, "Yeah,
I kind of looked at it."

I'm like, "No, you didn't.

Dave, I‐‐I think we have
an open FBI investigation."

He's like, "What?"
And we start looking at it.

His eyes kind of go like this.

I'm 24 years old.

I'm trying to make
a name for myself,

and I want to write a story.

I'm like, we have, you know,

exclusive, you know,
McDonald's investigation.

FBI looking into
a big fraud case.

‐ So Mark Devereaux's
first response was,

just jump in the Bureau plane

and slide down
to South Carolina.

‐ Each office
surveillance squad

has usually a Cessna 160
or something.

If you were ever
in a Volkswagen Bug

in the early '70s,

it's like a lawnmower
in the sky.

‐ I look at that going,

"No way in hell I want to be
part of that again. Shit."

And Devereaux being in that
controlled‐ass environment

with him and a Tide bottle.

That's the only way
you've got to pee.

Can you imagine that?

I mean, that's an awful
situation to be in.

‐ Literally we get
in the plane,

fly from Jacksonville
to South Carolina that night

to do our best to ensure that
that, um,

faux pas didn't cause us
significant embarrassment.

‐ That plane sucked.

[keyboards clacking]

‐ I can tell you
at that point in time,

that news agency
had no requirement

to keep it quiet.

We did beg, plead,

asking if they would
be kind enough

basically to keep that
to themselves.

‐ There was a little bit of,
you know,

"What are we gonna get
for it?"

‐ Can't say we bribed them,

but I will say that
we gave them an opportunity

to, uh, be able to take
a photograph, possibly,

following the arrest
in connection

with the investigation.

‐ Their thing was,

"If you could just give us
the exclusive."

‐ It was something at least
to sweeten the deal

and thank them for covering up
the mistake that, uh,

Special Agent Mathews‐‐
I mean, I didn't say that‐‐

may have made.

‐ So I want to say,
now that I'm saying it

and remembering all this,

that was not me that faxed
that freaking thing over.

[laughs]
It was somebody else.

‐ I can promise you, every time
I use a fax machine,

I check it not once,
not twice,

but at least three times.

‐ If anybody ever knew how
close this was just to‐‐

[mimics explosion]
Blowing up, right?

I know that those subjects who
are‐‐who may see this would go,

"Damn it,
how did that not happen?"

And, like,
too bad, right?

Didn't.
We were the good guys.

It always works better
for the good guys.

We always find a way,

which is what I'm saying
happened there. [laughs]

‐ The night before,
Attorney General Ashcroft,

he gave us the go‐ahead
to take the action.

♪ ♪

‐ Day of the takedown,
it's a very early morning,

probably anywhere
from 5:00 in the morning.

You're getting up, you're
making sure everybody's ready.

Regardless
of whether you believe

the person is violent or not,

you still have to be
very careful

as to the tactical approach
any time that you engage

in the arrest of an individual,

because you're taking away
their liberties,

and they pretty much know that.

‐ The arrests were scheduled

to all go down
at the same time

so that there
wouldn't be conversation,

and Jacksonville sent agents
to each location

so that somebody that's
familiar with the case

will be able to be there
to help with the arrest.

‐ My role that day
as the supervisor

of the squad
in the command post

was really kind of
coordinating,

and if there was problems
out in the field,

any decision about how
to handle it for the most part

is gonna come to me.

‐ I was in charge
of the arrest

of Brenda Phenis in Indiana.

‐ I had the takedown
of Dwight Baker.

‐ My duty on takedown day
was Gloria Brown

here in Jacksonville.

‐ So I sit in the FBI's office
as we can hear them,

"Okay, we're making
the moves now."

It sounded like, you know,

a mid‐'90s Michael Bay
kind of thing

and you're hearing, you know,
"Go, go, go!"

‐ So I got Glomb,

by far the nastier,

more potential danger
of anybody else,

and then,
you know with me,

it's always a contest
no matter what,

so, you know, I'm gonna get
my guy before anybody else.

My guy, Glomb,
was behind a fortress.

A legitimate, big‐time,
cameras everywhere,

big gates.

Chances are he's not gonna
open the gate.

At the same time,
I wanted to be first.

So we had to find a way

to get Glomb to come out.

The thing
we came up with was,

he has to come out
and get his paper.

So that gate opens up.

Who do you think walks out
and gets the paper?

[dramatic music]

The wife, right?
Not him.

So I'm going, "Oh, God.

I'm gonna ram this car
through the front gate."

♪ ♪

‐ I had got ready,

was getting ready
to leave the house,

and I see somebody walking by
the kitchen window.

I look out the door,
and it's the FBI.

They haven't knocked
on the door yet.

So I went and ran upstairs,
told my wife.

I said,
"The FBI's out front."

♪ ♪

So when they knocked
on the door,

it was Astralaga.

‐ We show him
the arrest warrant.

We gained access
to the property,

and he is taken into custody.

‐ In the command post,
we kept hearing,

"So‐and‐so's been arrested.
So‐and‐so confessed.

"Can't find this person.
So‐and‐so's arrested.

They're denying everything."

♪ ♪

‐ And so Rick Dent
went to Atlanta

to get Uncle Jerry,

Jerry Jacobson.

‐ The arrest of Jerry
was in the early morning

at his house, you know.

Knock, knock, knock.
"FBI, open up."

♪ ♪

‐ I remember Jerry initially,
you know,

doing what you would expect
a former police officer to do,

was, you know, clam up.

You know, he realized
his goose was cooked,

so to speak.

‐ Eventually he received
his jewelry,

silver handcuffs.

‐ At Jerry Jacobson's arrest,

he had some Honda
sports car thing

that he was riding around in
that we seized,

and just cash in a trash bag
in the truck of his car.

Who does that shit?

Who carries that crap around?
Really?

♪ ♪

‐ My first interaction
with Jerry Jacobson

was at the federal courthouse
in Atlanta.

I was in Atlanta
because Jerry Jacobson

was the head of the snake,

and I wanted to personally
advise him

of the charges against him.

‐ Sources say that
the FBI will announce

that it has made arrests
in an alleged scheme

to defraud
the McDonald's Corporation

by rigging its recent
Monopoly game.

Now, the FBI would only say
that it has scheduled

a news conference
for 2:15 this afternoon,

but sources tell CNN
seven of the eight people

are in custody.

Sources say the eighth
has been indicted,

not arrested yet,
still being sought.

‐ I'd laid out,
"I'm gonna be the first."

I was the last.
The last one to get their guy.

So we needed
to draw Glomb out,

and then I came up with what
I thought was a great idea.

‐ A Broward County sheriff
comes to the gate and says,

"Do you guys mind
coming down here

"and identifying these guys?

"They were robbing a house here
and they want you

to identify them."

I says, "Uh, I don't care."

They didn't bother me.

He said, "It'll only take
a couple minutes."

So I said, "Okay,"

and then I went outside,

and of course
they grabbed me outside

and they says, "You're under
arrest for mail fraud."

I said, "Mail fraud?
What's that?"

[laughs]

He says, "On the McDonald's."
I said, "Oh, okay."

[laughs]

Didn't have a clue that
they were onto this case.

Nothing.

And so he didn't say
nothing else.

I says, "Can I get you a cup
of coffee or something?"

Mathews was one
of the original people

who arrested me.

‐ We had some snippets
of the phone calls

just to let him know
we had what we had,

and he decided
not to cooperate.

One of the very few.

‐ I remember we were arguing
in the car.

He said, "You think you're
some gangster or something?"

I said, "Yeah, and you think
you're Don Johnson."

You know, from "Miami Vice."

And at the end, he was okay.

In the front, he was
a little bit of an asshole.

‐ I did. I'm that way.

I'm very friendly.
[chuckles]

[coffee maker gurgling]

♪ ♪

‐ It wasn't just the takedown.

There were a number of people

on the initial indictment
that we charged.

On top of that,

I needed to have agents
going out

to interview
all these other winners.

‐ What we didn't want
to happen

was somebody who is a "winner"

to be sitting at home
and see this takedown

and then have two
or three weeks

to think about it.
[chuckles]

Think about
what they're gonna say,

or worse yet,

hop on a plane and,
you know,

move to South America.

‐ If you've played the popular
McDonald's Monopoly game

and thought you'd never win
the top prize,

you may have been right.

In Washington,
the Attorney General and FBI

announced eight people
were arrested

for defrauding McDonald's
and its customers...

‐ My work said to me,
"The FBI's looking for you."

I'm like, "What?
Oh, shit.

This is the FBI."

My friends were, like,
from Louisiana‐‐

from the swamp,
they go,

"We want to hide you out
in the bayou."

I mean,
but then they were like,

"You can never contact
anybody anymore."

It was like a TV script.

"You can't talk to anybody.
You can't contact your family."

I go, "Oh, hell no.
I can't do that."

And finally they caught up
with me.

They finally found me at home.

They were very nice to me.

They were just straight
to the point

and they got what they wanted
to hear from me.

♪ ♪

‐ I decided I was gonna be
the one to go down the street

and interview Buddy Fisher.

He was a little surprised,

but really didn't try
to tell us anything

other than what
really happened.

Nice guy.

♪ ♪

‐ So through the course
of the interview I had

with Dwight Baker,

he implicated George Chandler,

his foster son, in the scheme,

in the illegal activity.

At that point we made
a determination

to reach out to George Chandler
and talk to him

about his involvement.

♪ ♪

‐ I was on I‐20,
and my cell phone rang.

My secretary came on the phone
and said,

"George, there's two guys
in the office here from the FBI

who would like
to speak to you."

"Put them on the phone."
[laughing]

Who don't want to talk
to the FBI, you know?

So this guy comes on the phone,

and his name
is Special Agent Astralaga,

and he said,
"Mr. Chandler,

"we've arrested this morning
Dwight and Linda Baker

"for their involvement
in the McDonald's

"Monopoly games scam,

"and we would like
to speak to you

about your involvement in it."

And the first thing out
of my mouth was,

"If you've arrested Dwight
and Linda Baker,

you've got the wrong people."

[phone ringing]

[receiver clicks]

‐ [indistinct speech]

‐ For some reason,
I was home that day,

and my sister called me.

‐ So I picked up the phone
and called her

and just said, "Are you
watching television?"

She said no,
and I said, "Well, turn it on."

‐ William Fisher
and Gloria Brown

both live in Jacksonville.

Prosecutors say the plot...

‐ And there was my name
on the screen.

"Gloria Brown indicted."

I just kind of, like, folded
up in the kitchen by myself.

Again, there I was alone.

I'm like, "Okay, God."

Before I can get to even listen

to what was on the television
about me,

my doorbell rang.

[doorbell rings]

Open the door, and there was
this detective there.

I went, "Oh, my God."
[inhales sharply]

‐ Initially she was denying
being involved with anything

and I kind of really sped up
to the fact of,

"We're not talking about
whether you did it or not.

"We're just talking about
how much time in prison

"you're gonna serve,
so, you know,

you might want to go ahead
and start cooperating now."

♪ ♪

‐ And I had decided it's time.

The lie's fixing to be over,

and I just told him.

There was no need for me
to lie anymore.

‐ She basically told us
what we needed to know,

and we already knew, again,
because we knew the scheme,

and we knew
the recruiting formula

and how it happened.

‐ I saw her shoulders
kind of sink a little bit.

‐ I'm saying to myself,
"Do I need a lawyer first?"

You know, that's
the kind of stuff,

"Am I doing the right thing?"

You know, I just didn't know
what to do.

I never thought about
what to do

once I got caught,

and I was not sure if they
was gonna take me with them.

I was waiting on a police car
to pull up out front.

When they walked to the door,

I walked to the door with them.

When they said that we'll be
getting back with you,

I was so happy
right in that moment.

I said, "At least that way
I get a chance

to make some arrangements
right quick."

‐ The deal was,
if they didn't cooperate,

we were gonna arrest.

If they did cooperate,

we were gonna take
their statement

and then go ahead
and document it

and then refer, you know,
to the case agent

who would then take it
to the federal prosecutor.

♪ ♪

[indistinct PA announcement]

‐ I was almost done
with my prison time

for doing the fraud
that I did,

and I see there's
two tall gentlemen in suits.

They said, "We're here
for McDonald's Monopoly,

and they had this poster
laid out,

and Uncle Jerry was
the middle bubble.

They had all these bubbles
all around,

and then they had
these size bubbles,

and I was that size bubble
connected to him,

and it was Jerry Colombo,
deceased.

There's my picture,
Robin Colombo, incarcerated.

[sniffs]

You know,
and I'm looking over it,

and I go, "Mm, okay."

And I said,
"I tell you what.

"Give me your card,
and if I can think of anything,

I will get in touch with you.
How about that?"

And they said, "No, that's not
how that works, Mrs. Colombo."

I said... [sniffs]

"That's how this
is gonna work right now."

I said,
"Let me tell you something.

"I have a little boy out there
and a daughter

"and you don't know
who you're messing with,

and I'm not gonna put
their lives in jeopardy."

I got the card,
they go to leave,

and I'm going to leave.

I'm thinking, "Okay,
I'm going back down

to the girls' part, right?"

Well, here come officers
from the prison.

They go, "Colombo,
come back up here."

And they wanted to shackle me,
and I go, "Wait, wait, wait.

What are you doing?"

They said, "Well, your
custody level has changed now

because you're
under investigation."

I said, "No, I'm not."

I said, "So whether I talk
to them or not,

whatever, this is all‐‐"

And they said, "Yeah."
I said, "Hold this."

"No, Mrs. Colombo."

I said, "Leave me alone.
I'm calling the feds."

I ran to the double doors

and I kicked
the double door open.

I said, "Hey, come here!"

They said,
"Oh, you want to talk?"

I said, "Yeah, come on in.
Come on.

"Hey, Mike,
can I have some coffee?

Can we have coffee?
I think they want coffee."

[chuckles]

I said, "You really know more
than I do, honestly."

And of course they're like,

"Well, why don't you
humor us?"

I said, "Well, let's do this."

I need a cigarette, so let's
take a cigarette break."

And I was taking them out
every ten minutes.

They're like, "You really
got to smoke that?"

I said, "I really do.
You got my nerves wracked."

As a matter of fact,
I need one now,

talking about it.

And, um, "You really
should quit those things."

I said, "Yeah,
today is not the day."

6:00 came,
and they took me in

where the TV room was.

John Ashcroft came
on television

and my knees‐‐I just kind of
got weak

and knew it was over.

‐ This morning, the agents

of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation

arrested eight individuals

in several states
for their involvement

in a nationwide scheme

to defraud
McDonald's Corporation

and its customers

by fraudulently manipulating

McDonald's promotional
prize contests.

We want those involved
in this type of corruption

to know that breaking the law
is not a game.

‐ That day, everything went,
you know,

really literally according
to plan.

‐ It made for a very fun,
interesting day

and, uh, one I'll never forget.

‐ I want to commend
the fine work of the FBI

and the Jacksonville division

of the United States
Attorney's Office

for the Middle District
of Florida.

Everyone involved
in this investigation

has worked hard to break
this conspiracy.

‐ How'd we miss this?

There's like seven winners
in the 864 area code

in the last four years.

Like, how did we never put two
and two together ourselves

if they kept coming
from the same darn area?

And we had done stories‐‐
like, big stories

on two or three of the winners,

like the $1 million winners
too,

and we had never
put it together,

so that was one
of the things.

There was a little bit
of kicking ourselves

for journalism like,
"Oh, yeah.

We just never put
that one together,"

so there's a little bit of egg
on our face on that one.

‐ Well, this story is going
to make a lot of people angry.

‐ Prosecutors say it appears
McDonald's customers

never really had a chance
to win the biggest prizes.

‐ Frankly, the odds
of your winning

that $1 million jackpot
at McDonald's

weren't that good
to begin with.

The FBI said the odds were
really about one in zero.

‐ They need to serve time
for that, definitely.

‐ Many of the winners were
from the same family

or were closely related.

‐ At the center
of the fraud ring,

prosecutors say
Jerome Jacobson,

assigned to place the winning
big cash game pieces

into circulation.

Instead, the FBI says,
he stole them.

‐ Passing winning game pieces
to his friends,

who then recruited others
to come forward

and claim the big prizes.

‐ Jacobson has been given
a Go to Jail card

for keeping the winning
high‐end tickets.

‐ And says the FBI today‐‐

‐ They had a confidential
informant

who tipped them off at first.

‐ Someone who had knowledge
of the scheme.

‐ McDonald's was devastated
by the news,

while a stunned spokesperson
for Parker Brothers

had only this reaction.

[laughter]

‐ We want you to have
the opportunity

to see who Mr. Jacobs is.

He's 58 years old,
and he's married

and has a family.

He knows the seriousness
of these charges,

and he also knows
that he faces

very serious potential
punishment in prison

if convicted of these charges.

We know many of you
have attempted

to contact him,
his wife,

and his family

and have been
in his neighborhood,

and we are asking you

to allow there to be
some privacy

for his family
and for his neighbors.

‐ Jerry Jacobson had retained
counsel fairly quickly,

an attorney by the name
of Ed Garland,

and so my involvement
was then

talking to the attorney.

‐ Once he has
retained counsel,

I've instructed him that
I should analyze the case

before he speaks further
with the government.

‐ Are you gonna share
your motto?

‐ We follow the motto,
"A fish wouldn't get caught

if he kept his mouth shut,"

and that that's what
a defendant needs to know.

Stop the music.

Stand behind us.

We do the fighting
and the talking for you.

‐ We're saying that you have
a rogue employee

that embezzles a piece‐‐
steals it, bottom line.

‐ It was pretty clear that Mark
was coming full force.

The first conversation was,

plead straight up
to the indictment

and bring every penny
you have and your wife has.

It was the threats of,
"I'm gonna take everything

down to her engagement ring."

‐ Mark is a very
effective lawyer,

a very talented lawyer,

and uses his power
in a very assertive way

on behalf of his client,
the United States.

‐ Ed and I had many
cases together,

and he's a very
experienced attorney,

but I told him that the chances
for Mr. Jacobson

to go to trial and come out
without a conviction was zero.

‐ When you deal with
a lawyer like that,

you've got to let him know
you're unintimidated

and unintimidatable,

so it became tense

and confrontational
immediately.

Mr. Jacobs will not be making
any statements

about this case
until he appears in court.

‐ Yeah, that was
a very interesting day.

I sit down in front of the TV,

I turn on CNN Headline News,

boom,
picture of my dad,

and, uh, it was like, "Wow."

Um, in the back of my mind,

I was like, I knew it.

My mom and I always knew
there was something wrong,

and here it is right here
in front of us

now right here on TV.

It's not a surprise.

He was good
at manipulating people.

He was good at it.

That's my dad.
[laughs]

♪ ♪

I guess I was always
questioning

the legitimacy of everything.

It was always something new.

It was always trips
and it was always doing,

you know, always just spending
things extravagantly,

it seemed like to me.

My mom and I always joked
that we always thought

there was something
not right about him.

‐ I knew he kept secrets
from me.

Ask me no questions,
I'll tell you no lies,

and that's how
I dealt with him.

If I didn't ask him
any questions,

he didn't have to lie to me.

For instance,

he said that he had
this swampland.

He might go out
and buy me something,

and I would say,
"Jerry, that's a lot of money."

He would go, "I sold
a piece of swampland."

♪ ♪

Jerry was always trying
to figure the easy way.

How do you get a free lunch?

The moral of the story is,
there are no free lunches.

♪ ♪

But there may be some brownies
hidden somewhere.

Does that make any sense?

‐ Mr. Jacobson was not
helping us,

and so the question
was still ongoing.

How did he get
the game pieces?

We know he did,

but how did he do it?

‐ We didn't know if
Dittler Brothers was involved.

‐ I mean, there was no details
to anything.

We don't know
if it's just Jerry.

We don't know if it's,
you know, everybody in there,

so...

‐ I was furious that Jerry
did what he did

because he put all
of those people at risk.

♪ ♪

‐ And we took a trip
and actually went

to Dittler Brothers because

there might be somebody
there inside.

‐ When the FBI came in
and shut everything down

and started gathering
their evidence,

and somebody came by and said,
"The FBI's here.

"You got everything shut down.

You don't go anywhere
near there."

[machine whirring]

Somebody's in trouble.

Somebody's in trouble,
but I don't know what it‐‐

what effect it's gonna have.

Don't know.

♪ ♪

‐ Well, Roger, first
let me underscore the fact

that, um, Jerome Jacobson
was not a McDonald's employee.

He was in fact an employee
of Simon Marketing,

which was the firm
that McDonald's had contracted

to administer its games.

‐ McDonald's says tonight

it has fired
the Georgia company

that ran the contests,

and now the FBI
is investigating

how many other instant winners
weren't so instant after all.

♪ ♪

‐ The deception
by Simon Marketing

was unacceptable.

We really trusted them
to run the game for us.

We had to end the relationship

to gain the trust back
with our customers.

‐ Pretty much,
I'd say McDonald's was

98% of our business.

♪ ♪

The FBI showed up one day
at the front door

and shut us down.

♪ ♪

‐ When the information
came out,

their stock went
from approximately $100

to basically 50¢.

‐ God, these‐‐
these layoffs are bad.

‐ It was the largest
one‐day drop

on the American Stock Exchange.

‐ Ensuring that these games
are secure,

that is how
they make their living.

‐ Two days after McDonald's
fired Simon Marketing

from all future promotions,

a second major company
has also pulled the plug.

‐ A couple of days later,

Kraft came out
and canceled their contract.

‐ There's nothing left.

♪ ♪

‐ So it affected the Chicago,

LA, Atlanta offices
here in the States.

We had an office in London,
Paris, Hong Kong,

and several manufacturing
facilities in China.

‐ The people at Simon Marketing
were good people.

They were professional.

We really loved working
with them.

So it was devastating

when one bad apple
wrecked the lives

of so many people.

‐ They're gone, man.
They're gone.

♪ ♪

‐ We spent one night in jail.

For my bail,
they asked for $1 million.

The judge said, "For this,
you want $1 million?"

He said, "Set it at $200,000."

♪ ♪

I mean, the Lord
really blessed me

in a bad situation,

because I had three lots
that were free and clear.

♪ ♪

The tax value was exactly
$200,000 on those three lots.

So that was‐‐
that was just a miracle.

These three lots here,

the lake is over on this side,

but these three lots here
are the three lots

that I put up as collateral
for my property bond.

♪ ♪

‐ I understood
at that time, obviously,

that something was amiss
with Dwight's story.

And I immediately
called Dwight,

and I remember being

incredulous with him.

Who is the guy that was
going through the divorce?

Where'd you get this ticket?

What's going on?

He said, "George, I can't talk
about it right now.

"Don't worry. You don't have
anything to worry about.

You didn't do anything wrong.
It was me."

And...

and I wasn't gravely
concerned about it.

‐ The thing that surprised me
is they gave me bond.

They never should have
gave me bond.

I'm telling you that I was
a fugitive back in the '80s.

So that was a mistake.

So I'm home about two days.

There's two guys at the gate
with suits on.

I said,
"Oh. They came back.

"They came back for me.

That's the marshals
coming to get me."

♪ ♪

Here's Jehovah Witnesses.

[laughs]

I was‐‐I was never so happy

to talk to a Jehovah Witness
in my life.

‐ I was in my maternity shop
in Coral Gables,

and we have a TV going there
all the time.

And they broke in the news
that the McDonald's thing

had just been busted.

I was fuckin' floored.
Fuckin' floored.

Two seconds later,
two FBI agents

walked in my store,

Doug Mathews and Rick Dent,

and they said
they'd like to talk to me

about the McDonald's case,

and I knew I was fucked.

I knew I was fucked.

I'll be honest with you,

I don't know if Jerry
turned me in or not.

Right after it happened,
I flew to Atlanta, Georgia.

I said, "Jerry, how the fuck
could you do this?"

I says, "How the fuck‐‐
I thought we were done,"

and I was really pissed,

because I had thought
that night, we were done.

‐ I had hired a local attorney

to go with me to the meeting
with the FBI.

And he called me and said,

"George, you've been indicted."

♪ ♪

I was in shock.

♪ ♪

Yeah, you don't know
how to react,

because you're being charged
with a federal crime.

My name appears in the text
of major newspapers

and on major
television stations

all across the nation.

Friends are calling me,

family's calling me,

business acquaintances
are calling me,

customers are calling me,

employees are calling me.

I didn't know
what to tell them.

♪ ♪

I didn't know
what to tell my son,

who's eight years old
at the time.

Every kid in the school

has a question for my son,

and I don't know
how to help him.

It was...

devastating.

♪ ♪

‐ George was, uh...

He was very angry,
upset, hurt.

But I tried to explain to him

that I did everything in my
power to protect him from this.

Um...

‐ At some point
in time, though,

and it was
in fairly short order,

you‐‐you snap out.

I snapped out of it,
and I took action.

I went down to Jacksonville

and started making phone calls,

looking for what I termed

the best criminal lawyer
in town.

[phone ringing distantly]

‐ I'm Curtis Scott Fallgatter.
I'm an attorney.

Been an attorney
for about 40 years.

I was a federal prosecutor
here in town for 17 years,

and I've been
in private practice

for some 20 years,

and I've been blessed
to have been selected

one of the top
criminal defense attorneys

in northeast Florida
for the last couple of decades.

In 2001,
I met George Chandler.

He was 29 years old.

Ninth grade education,

but he's a brilliant
young man.

I was very impressed
with his candor,

and he explained
how he had been hoodwinked

by his foster father,

which of course
demonstrated his innocence.

I thought, "Well, we can
probably make this case go away

pretty easily."

So I picked up the phone
and called Mr. Devereaux.

‐ Mr. Fallgatter
interviewed me

in January of 1989

when I got hired
in this office.

He's been to my house
many times.

I've been to his house
many times.

At one point in time,
we were very sociable.

Not so much anymore.

‐ I explained to him
how George had been hoodwinked,

did not know the tickets
had been stolen or embezzled,

and Mr. Devereaux's
response was,

"Well, if I drop
Mr. Chandler's case,

I'd have to drop
several others."

♪ ♪

‐ I was the first person
to turn themselves in.

I mean, they had me.

I was scared as shit,

because just the name
Mark Devereaux

just reminded me of those
old southern gentlemen.

♪ ♪

I mean, I'll never forget
the first time I met him.

♪ ♪

The only thing he said to me:

"Don't ever lie to me."

He said,
"Just don't ever lie to me."

I says, "Hey, man,
I did whatever I did,

"and I'll tell you
everything I did.

I ain't gonna lie."

Because I've never believed
in lying anyhow.

I wasn't gonna start then.

‐ The plan is to find
a path to victory

if it is there,

to protect the client,
to help the client.

So you‐‐if you start out,
"I'm just gonna plead guilty,"

you never go through
the mental discipline of,

"Can I find a way?"

We probably started out, said,
"If you want him as a witness,

give him immunity,"

something like that.

And that would have met head‐on

with the 180‐degree
opposite position.

‐ A plea is always
a possibility.

The issue of how he will
address these charges

is being evaluated.

♪ ♪

‐ When you talk about
what Jerry was facing,

it gets complicated.

If you start adding up
all of the different counts

that he was charged with,
he was facing a lot of time.

And I know it was
well over ten.

♪ ♪

‐ I remember it being‐‐

having a sense of just
huge sympathy

for the ordeal
that was being imposed on him,

and the way
it was being imposed.

‐ Prosecutors say this is
the man who started it all.

Jerome Jacobson faces
nine counts of conspiracy

in a plot they say involved
20 million dollars' worth

of McDonald's
winning game prizes

stolen and then sold
to friends and relatives.

‐ If he could cooperate,
it would provide us

just so much information

to find all these
other winners.

And winners turned
into recruiters,

and most importantly,

to show exactly how he did it.

‐ We could not quite
figure it out.

And now we knew
he was doing it.

We just didn't know the details

and how he was doing it.

‐ The government always
wanted to know how he did it,

and he did not cooperate
from the beginning.

He would have, but
for the fact that his lawyers

would not allow him to until
we worked everything out.

It was the, you know,
talk peace but prepare for war.

And...

We were preparing for a war.

♪ ♪

‐ I don't think there ever was
an exit strategy to stopping.

He'd been perfecting it
for 13 years.

It had just gotten better and
probably easier for him to do.

And I mean, the only reason
he got caught

was because he pissed
somebody off

and somebody went to the FBI
and said,

"Hey, guess what's happening."

♪ ♪

‐ "Informant key
to unlocking scam

behind the golden arches."

Of course they never named
who the informant was,

but that's how
it all came apart.

‐ Nope.

I think it's the FBI.

Before this ever went down,
there was a box

across the street from my house
on a pole,

placed there
by Blue Ridge Electric.

I'd always questioned
what it was.

I've developed a lot
of property.

I'd never seen that box.

I suspected they were
eavesdropping on me,

not because of McDonald's

but because of
a fellow developer

here on the lakes.

The FBI came in,

the drug enforcement people
came in,

everybody came in,
tied up all of his shit.

And they‐‐and I was
on the peripheral of that.

Within a week after my arrest

and after this went down,

Blue Ridge Electric trucks

came into the field
across my street,

and that box is gone.

So that's why, to me,

I've always felt like their
story of how an informant,

or how somebody came forward,

I felt like it was bullshit.

‐ Uh, I do.

[chuckles]

‐ Uh, are we‐‐are we‐‐
‐ Next question.

[laughs]

♪ ♪

‐ Without the informant...

Telling the FBI where to go,

who to look at...

♪ ♪

This case would have never
been broken.

‐ Never broken.
‐ Never.

♪ ♪

‐ I will never tell you
who the source was.

You will never get that
from me.

If I was a dead body,

you could not get that
off my corpse.

That's how much I think
about the bureau's program.

It has to work like that,
right?

‐ Well, I don't think
it was anybody in mind.

If it is, I'd be
very surprised, real surprised.

If you're gonna surprise me,
go ahead and surprise me.

‐ I know who broke the case.

I‐‐at this moment right now,

I'm not sure
if I feel comfortable

saying who broke the case.

I need to talk to some people

and make sure
that I'm not in danger

if I say who broke the case,

because right now...

♪ ♪

I don't know if it's gonna come
back and bite me in the butt.

‐ Frank Colombo.

We had this big build up
of the case in anticipation

of the trial.

‐We had him.
‐♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

We wanna make sure
justice was served.

We're feverishly working on

how could Jerome Jacobson
steal winning pieces?

‐♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪
‐How did he do it?

♪ (MUSIC RESUMES) ♪

Jerry Jacobson, tell the truth.
What did you do?

No one knew.

There's real permanent damage.

Without the informant, this case
never would've happened.

INTERVIEWER:

Time to tell the truth.

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES, FADES) ♪

Nobody suspected that.

‐♪ (FINAL NOTE) ♪
‐(CASH REGISTER RINGS)