Original subtitles

This morning, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested eight individuals

their involvement in a nationwide scheme to defraud McDonald's and its

customers.

The question was still ongoing.

How did he get the game pieces?

He did not cooperate for the fact that his lawyers would not allow him to. We

were preparing for a war.

We didn't know if... Dittler Brothers was involved. There might be somebody

there inside.

The FBI shut everything down and started gathering evidence.

Jacobson was not a McDonald's employee. He was, in fact, an employee of Simon

Marketing. The FBI showed up and shut us down.

One bad apple wrecked the lives of so many people.

The only reason he got caught was because he pissed somebody off and

went to the FBI.

I know who broke the case.

I'm not sure if I feel comfortable saying who broke the case.

Do you know who the informant is?

I do.

Next question.

I'm just going to 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.

I mean, I don't have $50 ,000 for the IRS.

I'm not going down like that.

I was just thinking, okay, I got to do something here. I got to 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 know, 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 flushed it wide open after

that. But I had no idea. All I was trying to do was get myself out of $50

debt.

And the next thing I knew, everybody was 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, and I

want to ever go back.

I mean, so.

I was kind of 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.

That really, you know, I don't know, it just made me be more quiet.

You know what I mean?

Did that make you the informant?

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

I never even knew that I was the one.

Not at his Lawrenceville home today. The man neighbors here have jokingly

nicknamed. Called him the Hamburglar. The FBI says 58 -year -old Jerome

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.

You get phone calls.

tenuously 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 believed those recruiters passed on the tickets to other friends and

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 are under arrest. McDonald's, including the

hugely popular Monopoly game.

Prosecutors say it appears McDonald's Monopoly game. If you're just tuning in,

breaking news here on 1010 Winds. A plane has crashed into the World Trade

Center. That's happening just a matter of minutes ago.

After 9 -11, you know, everything changed.

So this McDonald's story just vanished.

It did very quickly get eclipsed. All right, we're under attack. And you kind

snapped 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

Doug and Rick.

Many, many of us were immediately changed.

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

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

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

So it just kind of vanished here and then vanished off the front page of

everywhere.

After 9 -11, the McDonald's was a memory.

Everybody forgot about it.

Except the FBI and the Justice Department.

They had how 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 I had to place evidence just upon each of the

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

Devereux 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 he was going to get. And 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 sick 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 livable and favorable for

our client from a very difficult position to start with. Right. We didn't

much of a defense.

According to federal investigators, Jacobson has pleaded guilty to taking

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 a motion to

court for a reduction based on substantial assistance.

But you are totally at their discretion.

suck you dry for inflammation, and then not help you.

We had eight original individuals who were indicted, which turned into 53

people. And out of the 53 that were there, everybody pled, but seven

people had decided to go to trial.

They didn't plead because they didn't like Devereux's, you know, aftershave or

some crap. 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've never been in trouble. You just

scared. It's like you're going to lose everything you have.

You're going to go to jail and somebody's going to be screwing your

you know, your kids are not going to know you anymore and stuff like that.

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 no 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 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 had been defrauded by folks

like George Chandler because they had violated the game rules.

Game rules?

You know, in a federal court of law, federal statutes apply, mail fraud and

whatnot. 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, well, why are you even

it? It was just a game. There's a difference between a law and rules of a

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 become a federal

crime.

But the McDonald's witnesses, called by the government, Admitted on cross

-examination that there's nothing that prohibits the 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.

that was perfectly lawful.

Now, of course, the defense made a big deal of St. Jude's, 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, by most any circumstance, that they were doing anything wrong.

Even though they were telling 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 U .S. 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 were 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 say, well, Hal, you've got to be kidding me. I mean, you know that, you

know. No.

I knew Jerry was doing something wrong. So I wanted the game pieces.

But the reality is.

I think he had the right to place them wherever he wanted. He was just taking

money for them.

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

his foster father, Mr. Dwight Baker.

And he told the jury in substance that I hoodwinked George Chandler, and Dwight

Baker made it clear to the jury that George was not a member of the

He said that.

Sworn testimony.

The FBI did a wiretap for two months, hundreds and hundreds of phone calls.

Not one word about George Chandler having any complicity in knowledge of

being stolen or embezzled. The judge agreed with him, and he announced that

was going to 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.

Well, today, the Lawrence Oman, who admitted fixing the McDonald's Monopoly

a few years ago, testified in federal court. Jerome Jacobson took the winning

tickets while working as head of security for the company that ran the

that he hired recruiters. 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, winning pizzas from the fortress that was Simon Marketing and

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 try to do the defense's job before I let the defense do it, telling

them, basically, Mr.

Jacobson, you're a thief, and make him admit that.

I don't want the jury thinking that I'm some friend of his because I'm not a

friend of Mr.

Jacobson. Let's tell the truth.

What'd you do?

The way this would work was that, you know, the airports were a big hub for

That's how he got around.

And he would utilize the frequent flyer lounges, the crown rooms, you know. He

would frequent those a lot.

Hilda Bennett was accompanying Jerry Jacobson, but she is not.

walking into the men's bathroom facility with him.

Hilda's supposed to be with him at all times.

She was never, ever under any circumstances to give the briefcase full

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, get Simon 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

removed 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...

It 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

the stickers that went on the envelopes.

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

Now, he showed me the envelope. It had that little silver hologram on it. He

said, nobody can get into these because this is sealed. It's got a special mark

on it. Everybody tries to get into it.

So he would close the envelope and put on a new sticker, and nobody was alive.

But had he not gotten those stickers, he never could have done it.

I mean, 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

making a big play. Ladies and gentlemen, 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 seriously,

I even wear a bulletproof vest.

And everybody's thinking, wow, this guy is like going really overboard.

But it was all a show.

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

But I can't totally blame her because I've seen a lot of people not stand up

Jerry. They'd let him take a little pass rather than...

than go in for a confrontation.

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

else could it work? I want to get two really good interviewers on here because

want to 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, trade in hands, nothing to show that they were, you know, a

part of this game.

I'm thinking, my God, 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, man, these CPA firms that

hiring to follow me and, you know, legitimize this process are such idiots.

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

We're near the end of nearly six hours of closing arguments in which defense

attorneys have tried to convince the jury that their clients are victims,

They say 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 that he had actually went into the bathroom and

changed out the game pieces and was still in the damn place. He never told

anybody. In order for it to be a crime, you have to have knowledge 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.

Then the judge said, guilty.

It confirmed my worst fear.

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's a lie detector.

But most of us can, after a while, go, you know, that just doesn't pass the

smell test.

We're very pleased with the verdict. I think this shows that there's no easy

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

together a comprehensive motion for judgment of acquittal. We knew we would

appeal, 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 going to 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.

You know, all you think about at 10 years old is going behind bars. You see

these bars on TV, and that's jail to you.

I was definitely afraid for him.

Am I going to get to see my dad anymore? Am I going to get to see him for the

next 10 years? Is he going away for life?

It's heart -wrenching for sure because you want to say, well, Daddy, when am I

going to 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 was going to

all right, and we'd get through it.

And I tell him not to worry

that time.

But the truth would eventually win the battle.

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

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?

18 months.

Because of my past record.

You know, they were throwing out all kind of numbers, 10 years and this. But

when we went for sentencing, the judge said, that was so long ago, we'll forget

about that.

He gave me the year and the day.

The judge, he gave me six months of ankle brace and then 12 months

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 going to be

going to jail, and I've got to make plans for my son to figure out who's

to be the best person for him to stay with.

He said, we're not going to lock you up.

I said, well, that's a good thing.

My full sentence was I had to pay restitution.

My house still has a lien on it.

But it was a sigh of relief that I'd be able to be home with my child and take

care of my own 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, approximately three years.

He pled guilty.

He received a 37 -month sentence, I think, and I would consider that a

He should have got more. It just doesn't 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.

37 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

neighborhood of $12 million in restitution and, I believe, forfeiture

It was more than he could pay.

And so at a certain point, it becomes irrelevant.

When I went to jail, you meet with the unit manager.

He says, you owe $3 .5 million.

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

help me, we could carry it in here.

To this day, I pay $160 a month.

if you had to do it again would you do it again tomorrow

tomorrow

Ah, 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 want to be here no more.

So I took a lot of pills.

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

That should have killed me. That didn't.

Long story short, I got in a hut.

I'm here.

Jerry had a lot of fault.

I know he cheated on me. I know he lied.

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

family, from people hurting me.

He always took my side.

I kept coming.

He's a liar.

Columbo's. I knew they blamed me. How could you not?

I'm the driver.

I would.

You blame everybody.

You blame God. You blame, you know.

So.

When my mother went to prison, after Jerry died, it ended up becoming a

big war between my family and the Columbos.

They ended up keeping my brother.

He was three years old at the time.

I would call them all the time, trying to get them. They would never let me see

them.

I was in prison counting the days until I'm going to see my damn son.

And Monopoly put me back in prison.

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

I didn't know what I was going to 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 $20 million McDonald's scam.

He's famous almost, you know.

They're doing a movie about him.

Talking about the consequence, I remember his remorsefulness and grief

when he realized 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.

Our people were all vilified.

We did nothing wrong. We were doing as we were supposed to.

That's it.

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

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

You would be amazed at the reaction and the emotion you saw in a lot of the

people. Some of them just busted out crying.

We all lost our jobs because the place disappeared.

There is no Dittler Bros.

It 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, you know, they wished he would come back up here

sit in the lobby and just let everybody as they walked by slap him.

I think he would need protection if he came back up to the plane because he was

just, he, what he done over 10 years?

He is 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 worth to unbearable.

When a child is 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 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 want to say.

No, there are no fun stories.

There are no fun stories, no.

Yeah, sometime 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 he 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.

You can't wear that.

It's church.

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 ready? Let's roll. Load up.

We want to have this direction.

When I was convicted, Mark Devereaux, he knew that 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.

Of course, there was no why. That was all a phantom story.

The appeal that we wrote disagreed and said that type of approach is really

standing criminal law on its head.

But the percentage of criminal convictions that get reversed by the

is down around 2%. So we felt we were right, but being right doesn't always

that you win.

The Court of Appeals agreed.

We won the appeal in 2004.

You know, the world was now making sense again.

You know, 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, you know, real and lasting and

permanent damage.

For a long time, I was angry with Dwight.

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?

They're 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 in hell that 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 it the rest of his life.

You know, it's hard to move on sometimes.

You can't ever 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, as far as Robin was concerned, no contact at all.

Told her that I'm not going to associate myself with it and I don't need no more

trouble.

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

We were like night and day. I don't know if we just would be friends for some

reason, you know. She's a good person.

She really is.

You want a cup of coffee?

A half a cup.

Once we all got indicted, I was the asshole.

I was an outcast because I got them involved.

You start over.

You know, 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 mean, I have a lot of regrets in my

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 mean, 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.

So you cut off communication with Jared?

We have not spoken since.

Did I do a stupid thing? 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 mean, I did it. I could have got a real dick as a

prosecutor. I ended 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. Yeah. And then when you said, well, this is the guy that prosecuted

me, everybody's like...

They didn't know what to do.

You learn to live with everything.

I've learned to live with cancer.

So, I mean, you know, 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've got to fall before you can rise.

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

that he had faced.

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

What are you going to say, their sales dipped?

That's a loser.

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

was legitimate.

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

I mean, some of these people, they lost their job in a day.

I'm going to go on to the next case.

But 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 know?

I mean, you wrecked so many people's lives.

If he said that...

Honestly, it would just be... It's a good excuse.

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

My lifetime, you guys, look.

Probably about a month ago.

He doesn't want to think about it, don't want to talk about it, nothing.

So when I teased him, I said, you got any tickets?

And, you know, he didn't even respond.

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

testified.

He's been on the news.

This case keeps now, 18 years later, getting attention, and all they want to

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.

He 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.

Unless they find the money that he's got 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 pretty easy money to do something that we all know is

wrong.

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

Not all Asians get a career case.

You're doing something that it seems like they would 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, you know, we just want to 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

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 reason, you're just like this minefield of shit that we went

around. And somehow we were golden.

I could have looked at that sticky note and said, yeah, whatever.

What is that?

So without the informant on this case, never would have happened.

Never would have happened. It started right there.

And you said that you had called the IRS, but at no point did you ever call

FBI directly, did you? No. Why would I call the FBI?

I had no idea that that was even going to 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.

non -participant but bystander, does that burn the whole house down and call

FBI?

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

If the IRS had even tidily, just a minute, scratched the surface of

this case, it would have been a joint takedown. They would have been right

beside us. So go back and look. It's Ashcroft.

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, not in a million years.

So good try, no sale.

And I don't think anybody thought for a second that it was going to get as big

as it did.

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

But I told him if it ever goes south, I said, I don't want to 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. Hey.

The informant was who?

The informant was Frank's mother.

After Jerry passed away and I seen all the nonsense going on and all the...

manipulation and people backstabbing each other and 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.

He's the one that decided to break it. Her son's dead. There was no link back.

She called the FBI and ratted everybody out.

That was the way it had to be.

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

with my dad's parents.

Honestly, that's been the biggest struggle of my life, is being torn

two families.

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

And it was just a battle of them back and forth, and I was just kind of caught

in the middle of it.

At this point in life, I just, I want to avoid conflict.

I had so much of it in my childhood.

I don't want to 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.

That's a big change from all those years.

Yeah, 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

whom could have raised.

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

She was gaining her grandson.

Yes. That was the reward. Yes. The reward was her grandson.

My mother didn't realize that.

The FBI was going to go after Jerome and wiretap his house and so forth and so

on, and then make another Monopoly game and started connecting the dots, and

then to Texas and to Rhode Island, and 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 anybody.

No one on this planet.

We just figured it was time to tell the truth.

That's Vinny.

Hey, Vin.

My son just came home from work, and this is Vintonio, and he happens to work

for McDonald's now.

Holy shit. So McDonald's has treated the family very well. Yep.

have to talk all night.

I'm a man who can't say no.

You don't have to twist my arm.

Just call me where you want to go.

Take me through the action. Take me through the track.

Take me to a party. It's a threaten in the back. I've been working all my life.

Can't afford to wait.

Let me call my wife so I can tell her I'll be late. I want you easy.

Easy money. Easy money. I could get lucky.

All things could go right. I want it easy.

Easy money. Easy money.

Maybe this one time.

Maybe tonight.