All language subtitles for McMillions - 01x06 - Episode 6

I'm just gonna tell you
the whole story.

So I had the $50,000 debt
because of the taxes.

I was screwed.
Jerry's dead, I'm left holding the bag.

And I don't have 50,000 for the IRS.
I'm not going down like that.

I was just thinking, "Okay, I gotta do
something here. I gotta do something."

I called the IRS and I said,
"Listen,

I know you know I owe 50,000,
but I have a story for you."

So I told the IRS
the whole story verbatim.

Now it might have been a year later,
my accountant, we were talking,

and he said, "You're the reason why all
this went down." I said, "What?"

He said, "Yeah." Because they reported
it to the FBI or whomever,

and it just busted wide open
after that. But I had no idea,

all I was trying to do is
get myself out a $50,000 debt.

And the next thing I knew,
everybody is being investigated.

I was kind of scared coming out
with this.

I didn't want anything to happen to me

because I've come a long way,
I don't wanna ever go back.

And so
I was hesitant about this whole mess,

because when you're quiet for so long
about things that took a turn

and you didn't know why it took a turn,

then you found out that you're
the reason that it made the turn,

I don't know what,
it just made me be more quiet.

But does that make you the informant?

It does, but I don't like that
adjective. I don't like that because

in my mind,
I never even knew that I was the one.

MCMILLIONS

He was not at his Lawrenceville home
today,

the man neighbors here have jokingly
nicknamed...

We called him the Hamburglar.

The FBI says 58-year-old Jerome
Jacobson was the ringleader who kept...

There was a lot of publicity
on this case at the time.

There was
an enormous amount of publicity.

The press was all around the house,
on the streets.

I get phone calls continuously, all
hours of the night, they would call.

Jacobson provided the winning game
pieces to his friends and associates

who acted as recruiters.

We were totally exhausted.

It just took so much energy
to get out in the public.

The FBI believes those recruiters
passed on the tickets to relatives.

So we had this big buildup of the case
in anticipation of the trial.

Eight people who worked for the
company that runs McDonald's games

like Monopoly
and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire...

... the hugely popular Monopoly game...

... people who run
the McDonald's Monopoly game.

If you're just tuning in,
breaking news here on 1010 WINS.

A plane has crashed
into the World Trade Center.

This happening
just a matter of minutes ago.

U.S. attacked

After 9/11 everything changed.
So this McDonald's story just vanished.

It did very quickly get eclipsed.
"All right, we're under attack,"

and you kind of snap out of it.

The world changed.
And what went

from being a case that
the entire office and others

were feverishly working on kind of went
back to primarily just Doug and Rick.

Many, many of us were immediately
changed.

You are now a terrorism agent
and working all day, all night on that.

We didn't put any local stories
on the front page for four months.

So if we had updates,
they were going back of the paper.

So it vanished here and then vanished
off the front pages everywhere.

After 9/11
the McDonald's was a memory.

Everybody forgot about it,

except the FBI and the Justice
Department. They proceeded.

The trial was here in Jacksonville,
here in this building.

It lasted three weeks,

and it was almost like a couple trials
within a trial because

once we have the overall scheme,

then had to place evidence
just upon each of the defendants.

You have those grand hopes of being
a million-dollar winner.

Devereaux says Jacobson pocketed
those pieces,

and in exchange for a cut of the prize,
gave them to friends and relatives.

Mark is at that stage coming on
very strong,

with lots of threats
about the consequence to our client,

and the terrible situation
our client was in,

and how much time it was gonna get.

Generally,
we don't respond favorably to threats.

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

I always love wiretaps because
you just bring in the little recorder

and you push play.

And there's this client,
not only is he making a confession

you are listening live to your client
committing the crime.

Mark was like the bulldog that
bit the tire of the truck

and couldn't let go,

and ultimately I sent Janice on him.
And she eventually brought him around.

Ultimately, it's all up to
how you will define victory.

And in this case, it wasn't trial,
but it was

working through
what was best for him plea-wise.

We ended up working out something that
was definitely waivable

and favorable for our client from a
very difficult position to start with.

Right.
We didn't have much of a defense.

According to federal investigators,
Jacobson has pleaded guilty

to taking those pieces and giving them
to friends and family to redeem.

Once we made our deal
and Jerry pled guilty

then he became kind of the instrument
of the prosecution.

Because Jerry began cooperating,

the prosecutor did agree to do have
motion to the court for reduction

based on substantial assistance.

But you are totally
at their discretion.

They could suck you dry for information
and then not help you.

We had eight original individuals
who are indicted,

which turned into fifty-three people.

And out of the fifty-three
that were there,

everybody pled but seven people
decided to go to trial.

They didn't plead because they didn't
like Devereaux's aftershave.

It's because we had them.
That's why.

They got me on one count of mail fraud,
and I pled to the one count

because... I did it. I did it.

These people that I gave tickets to
did not know I lied to them.

So they really... they got screwed.

But once you plead guilty,
it's too late.

But that's the mentality of people who
never been in trouble.

You get so scared, it's like you're
gonna lose everything you have,

you're gonna go to jail and somebody's
gonna be screwing your wife,

and your kids, they're not gonna know
you anymore, and guys get scared.

So that's why they plead guilty,
to get it over with.

My plan at the time was to enter a plea
of not guilty. So that's what I did.

If you have little knowledge of
a conspiracy or a crime,

you can't be guilty.

Seven went to trial,
two following my opening statement

ended up changing their pleas
from not guilty to guilty

because they didn't realize
the evidence was more than compelling.

The light at the end of the tunnel
was a train coming at them,

and they wanted to get out of the way,
so they pled guilty.

Certainly, it was a crime
when Jacobson stole that game piece.

But then you had the fraudster,

and the fraudster is the one
turning in that game piece

and saying that he or she won it
according to these rules.

Part of the government's theory was
that McDonald's have been defrauded

by folks like George Chandler because
they had violated the game rules.

Game rules in a federal court of law,
the federal statutes apply, mail fraud.

I have never tried a case where
the law

is the game rules
of a hamburger company.

You literally have a federal prosecutor
suggesting that

if you broke the McDonald's game rules,
you must be a criminal.

There were those that would really
question,

"Why are you even prosecuting it?
It was just a game."

There's a difference between a law
and rules of a game.

But even if an individual was tricked,
and their friend was telling them,

"Why don't you do this?
You act like you're the winner."

Well, you committed fraud
because you deceived,

you tricked Ronald McDonald
into letting go of money.

What gave the federal government
the ability to prosecute this

was that
they used the United States mail.

If you have a scheme to trick somebody

out of property or money,

and you use our United States mail,

that's a crime.

The government dug its heels in on that
and took the position that

if someone found that game piece
on the street and cashed it in,

they'd be committing a federal crime.

But the McDonald's witnesses
called by the government

admitted that there's nothing that
prohibits a transfer of a ticket.

So St. Jude could get a ticket
given to them as a gift,

George Chandler can get the ticket by
buying it or having it handed to him.

All of that was perfectly lawful.

Now, of course, the defense made a big
deal of St. Jude saying, "See?

McDonald's didn't even follow the
rules, didn't follow their own rules."

They did follow the rules.

McDonald's gave St. Jude's Hospital
a million-dollar donation

as a gesture of goodwill and fairness.

I don't think the average person

would think if they got a game piece
from somebody else,

but most in these circumstance
that they were doing anything wrong,

even though they would tell him a lie,
it wasn't a crime.

They didn't know though that the piece
was stolen.

It's like the difference of buying
a car that's stolen

versus, "Oh, look, I got a really good
deal," and had they known,

I would suspect many of them, if not,
all of them, wouldn't have bought it.

I was a witness for the US government
for Mark Devereaux.

I remember a question that Devereaux
asked me,

he said, "When did you find out
the game pieces were stolen?"

I said,
"You told me they weren't stolen."

If he could have come up and punched
me at that time, he probably would have.

But he stepped right into it,
because it was the truth.

Jerry had never told anyone.

No one in the whole process knew that
he was stealing the game pieces.

People said, "Well, how?
You got to be kidding me." No.

I knew Jerry has done something wrong.
He said, "I want the game pieces."

But the reality is,

He had right to place them wherever he
wanted. He was taking money for them.

There's only one witness that could say
what George Chandler knew

and that was his foster brother,
Mr. Dwight Baker.

And he told the jury in substance that,

"I heard George Chandler and Dwight
Baker made it clear to the jury

that George was not a member
of the conspiracy." He said that,

sworn testimony.
The FBI did a wiretap for two months.

Hundreds and hundreds of phone calls
and not one word about George Chandler

had in any complicity and knowledge of
tickets being stolen or embezzled.

The judge agreed with us,

and he announced that he
was gonna add a jury instruction that

the juries could not convict unless
Chandler knew the ticket was stolen

or unlawfully obtained.

We knew then we should win the case.

Today, the Lawrenceville man who
admitted fixing the McDonald's Monopoly

a few years ago
testifies in federal court.

Jerome Jacobson
took the winning tickets

while working as head of security
for the company that ran the game.

The obvious question

and one of the things that was
important for us to present to the jury

was how in the world could he,
Jerome Jacobson,

steal winning pieces from the fortress
that was Simon Marketing and Dittler

while he was being accompanied by
a lady from an accounting firm?

How did he do it?

When I put a witness on the stand,
especially like Mr. Jacobson,

I tried to do the defenses job before
I let the defense do it telling them,

"Mr. Jacobson, you're a thief."
And make him admit that.

I don't want the jury to think
I'm some friend to his

because I'm not a friend
of Mr. Jacobson.

Just tell the truth, what'd you do?

The way this would work is that
the airports were big hub for him.

It's how he got around.

And he would utilize
the frequent flyer lounges,

the crown rooms.
He would frequent those a lot.

Hilda Bennett was accompanying
Jerry Jacobson,

but she is not walking in to the men's
bathroom facility with him.

Hilda was supposed to be with him
at all times.

She was never ever
under any circumstances

to give the briefcase full of winning
tickets to Jerry and Jerry alone.

The briefcase had combinations on it.

Jerry had his combination.

Hilda had hers.

And somehow
he found out her combination.

He had to look over his shoulder,
like he did at the vault

and get the combination.

He said he went into a stall
where he had privacy

and he just opened up the briefcase.

The game pieces were in an envelope
that was sealed with a sticker

that if you remove the sticker,
it would show that it was removed.

This is before 9/11.
He'd take a little pen knife,

open it up,
take those game pieces.

He knows one of them is a winning
million-dollar game piece.

He brought commons with him

so that they would have the right
amount of pieces on it

because on the outside of the envelope,
it would say 37 pieces.

So he couldn't take the winners out,
it wouldn't be 37 anymore

so he had to bring some to replace it.

For some reason, no idea why

he got sent the stickers
that went on the envelopes.

He got a sheet of them
sent to him by mistake.

You know, he showed me the envelope,
had that little seal hologram on it.

He said, "Nobody can get them from me
because this is sealed

and it's got special mark on it
if anybody tries to get into it."

So he would close the envelope and put
on a new sticker and nobody knew.

But had he not gotten the stickers,
he never could have done this.

Nobody suspected that
and that's how he did it.

After he stole all the game pieces

he would end up going to these
factories and making a big plague.

"Ladies and gentleman, please see,

here is the seed pack which contains
one of the winning game pieces.

Please everyone, look at it to ensure
that it has not been tampered with.

Look, I take my job so serious,
I even wear a bulletproof vest."

And everybody is thinking, "Wow, this
guy is going rarely overboard."

But it was all a show.

The biggest break in the chain to me
was the security auditor, Hilda.

But I can't totally blame her

because I've seen a lot of people
not stand up to Jerry

that lame take a little pass rather
than go in for a confrontation.

Our first thought was the two of them
had to be in cahoots.

How else could it work? I wanna get
two really good interviewers down here

because I wanna know once and for all,
is she involved, is she not involved.

So we interviewed Hilda Bennett
and the other people from the CPA firm.

They weren't involved.
We had no money, trading hands,

nothing to show that they were
a part of this game.

How could you not be involved?
But she turned out to be an honest lady

and just got had by Jerry like he did
everybody else.

I think he told me at some point,
he goes,

"Yeah, these CPA firms that
we're hiring to follow me

legitimize this process,
a bunch of idiots."

As he coined this, "I'm stupid,
but I was smarter than those guys."

We're near the end of merely six hours
of closing arguments

in which defense attorneys have tried
to convince the jury

that their clients are victims, too.

They said they will play just like
everyone else in this scam.

George Chandler's lawyer insists
his client thought

he was helping his foster father
hide assets during a sticky divorce.

This case goes to the jury next,

and what they have to decide is whether
they have any reasonable doubt

any of these guys intended to be part
of a scam.

Until trial, Jerry had never told
anyone he had went into the bathroom

and changed out the game pieces and was
stealing them. He never told anybody.

In order for it to be a crime, you have
to acknowledge that it's stolen.

No one knew.

When the jury gave their verdict
to the judge,

there was kind of a respectful
but pregnant silence.

And then the judge said, "Guilty."

It confirmed my worst fear.

And that was hard. It was difficult.

When you put 12 people together
in that box, it's something magical.

And I'm not saying
anybody is a lie detector,

but most of us can after a while go...
that just doesn't pass the smell test.

We're very pleased with the verdict.

I think that shows that there's no easy
way to make money but to work hard.

And I think it shows that fraud is not
a game and fraud is just thievery.

Thanks a lot.

George never wavered nor did I
in our belief in his innocence

and we went right to work
to put together

a comprehensive motion
for judgment of acquittal.

We knew we would fail,

but that doesn't change the fact that
you've been found guilty.

I remember coming home and talking to
Russell about the verdict.

I remember Russell asking me

if I was gonna have to go to jail.

And I didn't know how to answer him.

I didn't think he was serious.
I was like, "You're not serious."

All you think about at 10 years old
is going behind bars.

You see all these bars on TV
and that's jail to you.

I was definitely afraid for him.
Am I gonna get to see my dad anymore?

Am I gonna get to see him for the next
10 years? Is he going away for life?

It's heart-wrenching for sure
because you wanna say,

"Daddy, when am I gonna see you?
What do you have to do?" You don't know.

And he loved up to me
and I took him under my arm,

told him it's gonna be all right.
We'll make it through.

And...

I told him not to worry.

That...

That the truth will eventually
win the battle.

Robin Colombo took part in a nationwide
scheme to steal the game winnings.

Maximum penalty of a single count of
mail fraud is five years in prison

and a $250,000 fine
along with restitution.

- And what did you get sentenced to?
- Eighteen months.

Because of my past records they were
throwing out all kind of numbers,

10 years, and when we went for
sentencing, the judge said,

"That was so long ago.
We'll forget about that."

He gave me the year and a day.

The judge gave me six months of ankle
brace and then 12-months' probation.

I wore an ankle bracelet, yes, sir,
for two years.

Two years house arrest and probation.

When I was in the courtroom that day,
I was thinking to myself,

"I'm gonna be going to jail and I got
to make plans for my son

to figure out who gonna be
the best person for him to stay with."

He said, "We're not gonna lock you up."

And I said,
"Well, that's a good thing."

My full sentencing was
I had to pay restitution.

My house still has a lean on it

but it was a sigh relief that
I'll be able to be home with my child.

White-collar crimes notoriously
do not get high sentences.

If they haven't committed
another crime, they have no priors,

and they cooperate, they may only get
two years imprisonment.

Jerry Jacobson got the most severe
sentence to approximately three years.

He pled guilty,
received a 37-month sentence, I think.

And I would consider that a victory.

He should have got more.

It's just done square up to me, but
again, like I said, I'm just an agent.

Most agents probably believe that.
So we're glad we don't wear the robe.

Thirty-seven months in prison,

particularly with somebody who has MS
is not exactly an easy sentence either.

A night is a long time in prison.

The sympathetic heart of
a criminal defense lawyer.

As part of Jerry's sentence
he was ordered to pay I think

somewhere in the neighborhood of
12 million in restitution

and I believe forfeiture as well.

It was more than he could pay.

And so at a certain point,
it becomes irrelevant.

So when I went to jail and meet with
the unit manager, and he says,

"You owe three and a half
million dollars."

I said, "Yeah."
He said, "Do you have it?"

I said, "Yeah. It's in my locker.
I brought it in with me.

Maybe if you come and help me,
we could carry it in here."

To this day, I pay a hundred and sixty
dollars a month.

If you had to do it again
would you do it again?

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

These heels!

I've had a crazy journey really
after Jerry, my husband, died.

I was a shell of a woman.
It was horrible.

I couldn't eat.
I couldn't do nothing.

So, I didn't wanna be here no more.

So, I...

took a lot of pills.

I told Jerry, "I'll see you soon."

That should have killed me.
That didn't.

Long story short, I got in the nut hut.
I'm here.

Jerry had a lot of faults. I know
he cheated on me. I know he lied.

But he was also my mediator,
my middleman that kept me from

the family, from people, hurting me.

He always took my side.

I can't find my...
Where's my lighter?

The Colombos, I know they blame me.
How could you not? I'm the driver.

I would.

You blame everybody. You blame God.
You, blame...

It felt...

When my mother went to prison,
after Jerry died,

it ended up becoming

a big war between
my family and the Colombos.

They ended up keeping my brother,
who's three years old at the time.

Hi, camera.
Hi, camera.

I would call them all the time,
trying to get him.

They would never let me see him.

I was in prison, counting the days
until I'm gonna see my damn son.

And Monopoly put me back in prison.

I lost my son, my husband,
losing my freedom again.

I don't know what else I'm gonna do.

He never once apologized ever
for doing it, first of all.

I don't think he's regretting
anything he did.

He pulled off a twenty-million dollar
McDonald's scam.

He's famous almost, you know.
You're doing a movie about him.

Talking about the consequence,
I remember his remorsefulness and grief

when he realized that other people
were being charged.

He didn't imagine that could happen.

We did not realize what it was going to
do at the time that Jerry was caught.

So our paper were all vilified,
we did nothing wrong.

- We're doing our job.
- We're doing what we're supposed to.

After they announced to close the plant
to everybody, we had no choice.

You didn't get a severance or anything,
you were just terminated basically.

You would be amazed if the reaction
and the emotion you saw

in a lot of the people,
some of them just about crying.

So, we all lost our jobs because
this place disappeared.

There is no Dittler Brothers.

And it just all came crashing to an end
because of one person.

It hurt a lot of people.

I would hope he feels bad,
just because we built friendships.

I remember the joke around. They
wished he would come back up here,

and sent in the lobby, and just wait
everybody as they walk by, slap him.

I think he would need protection
if he came back up to the plant.

Because what he done over 10 years...

He has never once mentioned

all the chaos and destruction
that he caused with his little project.

And he didn't even seem to think
about it.

He has a variety of thoughts about
why he did it.

But, basically, he said it was
utter stupidity on his part.

Jerry and I were married
from 1973 until '76.

Let's put it this way.
It went from worse to unbearable.

When the child was brought up a certain
way, they wind up a certain way.

He never felt worthy of much.
He was raised without money,

and he felt like he'd played
second fiddle to Marvin

because Marvin was getting
the financial support.

We were friends, but

we're not brothers,
if that's a word you wanna say.

No. There were no fun stories.
There are no fun stories. No.

And sometimes in his life,
he decided

"I want
what all these other people have."

He wanted people to look up at him
for his prestige,

the money that he had in the bank,

so it could suppress
all the negative feelings.

And he achieved what he wanted to.
He had money. He had status.

He had everything.

But then paid dearly for it.

He may be remorseful, but he also
may think, "Well, I did have it once."

Scarlet! McKinley!

Russell! Taylor! Pruitt!

What?

Wake up.

- You can't wear that.
- Why?

It's church, Pruitt. It's church,
the Lord's house. Come on.

I knew the odds of winning the appeal
were very, very slim.

I was just sentenced to probation.
So I remember thinking,

"What's the point?"

But I wanted to appeal because
I needed justice to be served.

Okay. We're ready?
Let's roll. Load up.

We wanna head this direction.

When I was convicted, Mark Devereaux
knew the evidence was overwhelming,

that I was not involved
in a conspiracy.

Mr. Chandler certainly didn't have
clean hands.

He was willing to take money from

a lady that should possibly get

50% of whatever the money
is through a divorce.

He was lying to McDonald's,
willing to do that, too.

There was no wife, that was a phantom
story, because the appeal that we wrote

disagreed, and said that type of
approach is standing criminal law.

But the percentage of criminal
convictions to get reversed

by the 11th Circuit
is down around two percent.

So we felt we were right. But being
right doesn't always mean that you win.

The court of appeals agreed with us.
We won the appeal in 2004.

The world was now making sense again.

Yeah, I was eventually acquitted.

The problem was I still
lost a lot of people's trust.

And that hurts.
And there's real damage there,

real and lasting, and permanent damage.

For a long time, I was angry
with Dwight. And I felt violated.

Dwight was my friend. I trusted him,
and I looked up to him.

- Hey, George.
- Hey, Dwight. How are you?

- How's the family?
- Doing all good.

I told Dwight, "I forgive you.

I'm not angry with you anymore."

I would never want anybody to go
through the pain and hell

with the people that have been involved
because of my behavior

have had to go through.

You pay for some bad choices.
And the sad part is

everybody around you
pays for your bad choices.

We all make mistakes.

He shouldn't be faulted
for the rest of his life.

It's hard to move on sometimes.

You can never quite get back to normal,

but you can forgive,
and you can extend grace to people.

I just wanted to do better in life,

and didn't think of all the
repercussions that was involved.

I did a crooked deed,
and I've been knocked down.

Just get up and keep moving.
And that's what I did.

Probation officer told me before,
as far as Robin was concerned,

no contact at all.

Told her that I'm not gonna

associate myself with her,
and I don't need no more trouble.

Just recently...

I saw her for the first time
since all of this happened.

- Hi. Hey, hey. My friend.
- What's up, girl?

First thing I'm gonna get you
is a wireless doorbell.

Night and day, I don't know if we would
be friends for some reason.

And she's a good person. She really is.

- You want a cup of coffee?
- Half a cup.

Once we all got indicted,
I was the asshole.

I was an outcast
because I got them involved.

You start all over.

I started over umpteen times.

He never got any money. Nothing.
And then, he lost his career.

I lost him as a friend.

It's one of the regrets that I have.
I made a lot of regrets in my life,

but Michael was one of my big regrets.

I was put at risk.

I was put at risk of maybe never seeing
grandkids, kids, wife, going to jail.

I'm not a dumb person,
but I did a dumb thing.

And when I thought it was over,
it was over. I never...

And that hurt. That hurt.

We haven't spoken since.

- You cut off communication with Jerry?
- We have not spoken since.

Did I do stupid things? Yeah.
Do I regret it? Of course.

The only thing is though, I met you,

that was a real benefit out of the
whole thing, of the whole thing.

I did it. I could've got a real dick
as a prosecutor.

I end up making a personal friend.
So there's always a benefit in life.

I think one of the funniest was
when you invited my wife and I

to your 60th birthday.

And then when you said, "Well,
this is the guy that prosecuted me."

Everybody's like,
they didn't know what to say.

You learn to live with everything.

I've learned to live with cancer, so.

Your life changes.
Your priorities change.

I was excommunicated from the church.
And still am.

I hope to change that someday.

Because I have a lot to still
contribute. Yeah.

They always say you gotta fall
before you can rise.

And I seen my dad grow
so much stronger over time because of

the adversity he had faced.

I know McDonald's was victimized.
But they didn't lose anything here.

Who you gonna say, their sales dipped?
That's a loser.

But it's all the people that
participated in this contest,

and thought that it was legitimate.

And then, the byproduct victims,
Simon Marketing was one.

Ditler Brothers. Some of these people,
they lost their job in a day.

I'm gonna go onto the next case.

But the people that depend on that job,
they're gone.

All because of

one man's greed, Jerry Jacobson.
He's by himself on that.

If somebody said to me that what he did
was a victimless crime,

I would tell them they've lost
their mind. How can you say that?

You wrecked so many people's lives.

If he said that,

honestly, it would just be...

It would just be an excuse.

Yeah, he definitely wants to put it
in his past.

And when's the last time
you guys spoke?

Probably about a month ago.

Now he doesn't wanna think about it,
don't wanna talk about it. Nothing.

So when I tease him, I said,
"You got any tickets?"

He didn't even respond.

He violated the law, he went to jail,
he's got 12 million in restitution.

He's testified. He's been on the news.
This case keeps now 18 years later,

getting attention, and all they wanna
do is live their life.

He wants to live his remaining life
in peace,

without having to answer for this
to everybody around him again.

I think he got off pretty easily.

You talked about he got a slap
on the wrist.

Because he still has his life. He still
has his nice house. He still has cars.

Plus, they find the money that
he's kept buried probably someplace.

- Do you think so?
- Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Contingency plan.
Come on. It's him.

I would have money buried someplace.
Come on.

The truth of the matter is the vast
majority of these winners,

they're good people.
They just said something stupid,

and there's not anybody that doesn't do
something stupid.

Many didn't recognize
the severity of it.

And probably had no idea that they were
committing a federal crime.

"It's so easy, this is all you have
to do. You're not hurting anybody."

They just wanted some free easy money.

To do something
that we all know is wrong.

The McDonald's case was what we call
a career case.

Not all agents get a career case.

You're doing something that it seems
like they will make a movie about it.

I'm really happy that everything
ended how it did.

That we were able to put the game back.

It's still today at McDonald's
in a very fun game.

Much more secure, and we just wanna
make sure that justice was served.

And I do feel that it was.

John Ashcroft,
who was the attorney-general,

thanked me for the service
to the country.

And that was a really proud moment.

I have no letters from Doug.

When you look back now,
which I don't really do much...

For whatever reasons,
you're just like,

"This minefield of shit that we went
around. And somehow, we were golden."

I could've looked at that sticky note
and said, "Whatever. What is that?"

But without the informant on this case,
never would've happened.

It started right there.

So, you said that you had called
the IRS.

But at no point did you ever call
the FBI directly, did you?

No. And why would I call the FBI?

I have no idea that
that was even gonna be a factor.

I never heard from anyone again. IRS,
detectives, FBI, McDonald's,

Jerry, nobody. It was like,
I never even was involved.

Can you imagine the IRS
giving something to the FBI

that turns out to be a case,
that we didn't already know about?

Holy shit,
I hope we're better than that.

My understanding was,
it was a complaint duty call.

Some disgruntled nonparticipant,
but bystander,

sat and burned the whole house down,
and called the FBI.

I'll tell you this,
this is how you know.

If the IRS had even, even tidily,

just a minute scratched the surface of
this case,

would've been a joint takedown, they
would've been right there beside us,

so go back and look. It's Ashcroft,
and there's no IRS there.

So I'll promise you
that did not happen that way.

Can you tell us who the informant is?

Yeah, no, not in a million years.

So good try. No sale.

I don't think anybody thought that
it was gonna get as big as it did.

And it got really big,
and it got really big really fast.

But I told them if it ever goes south,
I don't wanna be caught up in this.

Had I taken that McDonald's ticket
and cashed it in,

I honestly, in my heart, believe
she still would have called the FBI,

and I would be in prison right now.

- Hello.
- Hello, Francesco.

- The informant was, who?
- The informant was Frank's mother.

After Jerry passed,
and I seen all the nonsense going on,

and all the manipulation,
and people backstabbing each other.

There was a lot of things back then
that happened.

At that point, Frank's mother
had custody of Francesco.

But it became more and more evident
that when Robin got out of prison,

Robin was going to have her son.

And that didn't go over well
with Frank's mother.

So because her son was dead,
and because she blamed whoever,

for whatever occurred to her son,
she then turned into the vengeful mode.

I'm going to now take the one thing
that Robin has away from her.

And that's her son.

So she called the FBI.

She's the one that decided to break it.

Her son's dead, there was no link back,
she called the FBI.

And rat everybody out.
That was the way it had to be.

Laugh. Laugh.

I went from living with my mom
and I've lived with my mom's parents.

I've lived with my dad's parents.

That's the biggest struggle of my life,
being torn between the two families.

I felt like a pawn because a lot of it
was pointing fingers at that point.

It was a battle of them back and forth,
and I was caught in the middle of it.

Hey. Birthday girl!

At this point in life,

I wanna avoid conflict.
I had so much of it in my childhood.

I don't wanna hear any negativity
from anybody anymore.

My mom and my grandma,

surprisingly now,
they have a pretty good relationship.

In the long run, I ended up being
their favorite daughter-in-law...

I don't know if it's because
I stood up to them.

- A big change from all those years.
- Yeah.

She tells me everything, and she wants
me to be the one, if papa goes first,

to be the one she takes care of her.
And I would be.

No matter what, I would be there
for them. They know that.

That's who I am.

She only gave them information on
Robin,

Robin's father, and Gloria.

If she could get rid of Robin,
maybe not death, but disappear,

then there was no one to take care of
Francesco.

But then there still remained Robin's
parents, whom could have raised.

So, they all had to go,
to be able to have Francesco.

And she was gaining her grandson.
That was the reward.

The reward was her grandson.

My mother didn't realize that
the FBI was gonna go after Jerome

and wiretap his house,
and so forth and so on.

And then make another Monopoly game,
and started connecting the dots.

Then, the Texas and then Rhode Island,

then he did all these other tickets
for a couple of years.

So, this story has got revenge, it's
got everything all wrapped up into one.

Now you guys are the only people
outside of us that knew that one.

- We have not told anyone.
- Anyone. No one on this planet.

We just figured it was time to tell
the truth.

- That's my youngest.
- That's Vinny.

Hey, bud.

My son just came home from work.

This is Vintonio. And he just happens
to work for McDonald's now.

Holy shit.

So McDonald's has treated the family
very well.

Jerry Jacobson was released from prison
in 2006.

He currently lives with his 7th wife,
Linda, near Atlanta, Georgia.

He stole more than $24 million in cash
and prizes over a 12-year period.

He still pays $370 per month
in restitution.

In response to the scandal,

McDonald's gave away $25 million in
prizes to randomly selected customers.