All language subtitles for FBI True Season - 5 episode 6

- The game Monopoly has
come to life at McDonald's.

Win a McDLT, Coca-Cola,
or $1 million.

- Remember the McDonald's
Monopoly games?

The game was big
back in the '80s and '90s,

and McDonald's was giving away

$1 million game pieces
around the country.

- Well, we had a source.

This guy kept talking about

McDonald's, McDonald's,
McDonald's.

And he said, the McDonald's
Monopoly games are fixed,

and this guy Uncle Jerry
is the person behind it.

The source gave us names
and said,

these people are
million-dollar winners.

- They're all either relatives
or live close by one another.

That's not how this game
would probably work.

Can't make this shit up.

- There had to be over 100,
maybe 150 people

that had been
in this huge conspiracy.

- Good grief, this is big.

- At least $24 million
was put out.

How in the world do they do it?

- In the FBI, we make
a lot of headlines.

# #

Drug busts,

mob stings,

terrorist takedowns.

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.

- Freeze!
- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

- But they don't know
the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking
agent-to-agent.

# #

This is "FBI True."

# #

- This was one of the most
unusual cases in all my career.

- So you guys are in
the Jacksonville office.

And if I remember correctly, in
2001, you guys get a big tip.

- I remember it
like it was yesterday.

Into my office walks Rick Dent.

And he said a source,
that they had been operating

mostly on insurance fraud says

that McDonald's Monopoly
promotion games

are compromised.

- During his 26-year career
with the FBI,

Chris Graham investigated
complex white-collar crimes,

supervised the Jacksonville
Joint Terrorism Task Force,

and opened the FBI's office
in Milan, Italy.

- The game was big.

Back in the '80s
and '90s, you know,

McDonald's was giving away
$1 million game pieces

around the country.

- Tom Kneir is a 29-year
veteran of the FBI.

He served as
the special agent in charge

of the Albuquerque,
Jacksonville,

and Chicago offices
before retiring in 2004.

- People were flocking to the
stores to buy their Big Macs

or fries, to pull that--

pull that winning ticket
off of there.

- Monopoly has come
to life at McDonald's

with over $40 million
in food, prizes, and cash.

- Just order any of these
McDonald's food favorites

to get your game piece.

Win instantly
or collect and win.

Cruises, Dodge Vipers,
cash, a million bucks.

- Wow!

- So the source gave,
like, names?

What did Rick say
the source said?

- Cindy Coppola is a 23-year
veteran of the FBI.

She worked on cases
that included

organized crime and terrorism

and took part in multinational
investigations

into drug trafficking
and money laundering.

- The source gave us,
like, four names--

Robin Colombo, the recruiter,
bringing in winners,

Gloria Brown,

Buddy Fisher...

And uh, Stacy Breegle...

And said these people
are million-dollar winners,

and it was all fixed.

They were given
the million-dollar

Monopoly game pieces.

They didn't win legitimately.

And this guy Uncle Jerry
is the person behind it.

Robin Colombo was married
to Jerry Colombo.

He won a car, I think,
back in '96,

was on a TV commercial
for McDonald's.

- People everywhere
are winning big

playing the Monopoly game
at McDonald's.

Jerry Colombo
won a Dodge Viper.

And there are two
$1 million prizes left.

- Jerry Colombo had
also been a recruiter.

Was this Uncle Jerry?

- Jerry Colombo was dead.

He had been dead
for three or four years

by the time we got
into the case.

- But the source kept talking
about an Uncle Jerry.

Is there another Jerry
out there who's doing this?

Are they talking in the past
tense about Jerry Colombo

and it's a historical thing?

The source, he said this Uncle
Jerry was a former FBI agent.

- Oh, shit.
- And we're like--

- Not good.

- Hopefully that's--
that's not the truth.

- Yeah.
- Hopefully it's not.

- But--
- You never know.

- Right.

# #

What were your first steps?

- We got subpoenas.

We got some phone records
that tied those initial four

or five people in together.

You start digging in.
They all live in Jacksonville.

- All these winners,
they're all either relatives

or live close by one another.

That's not how this game
would probably work.

- Turns out, Buddy Fisher

is Robin Colombo's
biological father.

By the time you have Robin,
her father,

her best friend Gloria Brown,
her cousin Stacy, all related,

all winning within
a year or two--

is statistically
impossible, right?

If there is such a thing as
impossible, it would be that.

- You would be hit by lightning
before this happened.

- Numerous times by lightning.

- But now--now we've
kind of hit an impasse

because we need to confirm
that they're winners.

And there's no published list
of winners

that you can look up.

- Then you get into,
do you have

McDonald's employees involved?

In most fraud type of cases,
you'd go to the victim

company or victim--
- Sure.

- And say, hey, you know,
we need your help.

With this one, we were
a little bit babes in the woods

on how the game even worked.

- There was this assumption
that McDonald's is running

this game,
and somebody on the inside

has got to be getting
these pieces, if this is true.

By calling them,
are we tipping our hand?

- So lots of discussion on,

we need to contact
McDonald's...

- McDonald's directly.

- To take this thing further.

At some point in time,
you can't just

keep going in circles here.

You've gotta make
some hard decision,

and I think
we made the right one.

It was contacting
their security department.

- But that initial contact
was not,

hey, we've got
source information

that your game is compromised.

You got a big problem
on your hands.

No.
- What did you tell them?

- It was, hey, can you confirm
that a few people

are winners in this game?

Good grief, they were.

They said these people won.

They gave us dates
and times when they--

places they claimed it from.

It was unbelievable.
Like, wow. Holy crap.

- Did they claim them all
in Jacksonville, or no?

- New Hampshire, Tennessee,
South Carolina.

We knew at that time
most of them

lived in Duval County, Florida,

but they gave McDonald's fake
addresses in these states

that they claimed
to have won in.

- McDonald's would,
for whatever reason,

have to have winners
in different regions.

So they would say,
we need a--we need a winner

in the Southwest, or we need
a winner in the New England.

- Sure.

- New Hampshire,
to use that example.

Which answers the question,
why would they claim

to win in another part
of the country?

Robin Colombo, she was in jail
for some sort

of insurance fraud
when we opened this thing up.

- Oh, really?
- Oh, yeah.

And we look at jail logs,
and look who's name shows up.

Oh, my God, it's Gloria Brown,
winner of a million dollars.

- And so we knew the source
was on to something.

Okay, we need more
from McDonald's.

- So we go back to McDonald's
again, to their security folks,

and said, can you tell us

how these games are produced
and where?

And they revealed
they contracted out

to Simon Marketing,
a marketing company in Atlanta.

And then there was also a
printing company that would--

that would do
the secure printing,

named Dittler Brothers.

When McDonald's went
to Simon Marketing,

they said, oh, by the way,
the head of security,

the guy who handles
all the high-end pieces,

his name is Jerry Jacobson.

- Of all things,
he was a police officer

somewhere in South Florida
and went out on a disability.

- So you start, as they used
to say, connect the dots.

Now we're--we're--
wait a minute.

Now, is this--we heard about
uncle--is this Uncle Jerry?

- What do you guys
do next, then?

- We're, like,
March, April of 2001.

McDonald's is starting
to get wind

that there's a problem here.

Why is the FBI
asking about winners?

- We never told them
the whole story.

- McDonald's went
to Simon Marketing

and did essentially
an onsite audit

of how this process worked
and came back and said,

it's tight. It's secure.

We can't figure out, you know,
anything fishy about this.

- That million-dollar piece
had some different markings

on there that you couldn't
just, you know,

go home and print
your own piece.

There was, you know,
some invisible ink.

There was a little,
uh, notches

out of letters on there.

So they--I mean, again, the
process was really pretty good.

With Simon Marketing,
they had two people

that would actually go and get
the high-value game pieces.

They'd then get
on an airplane and fly.

If they were supposed
to win in Indiana,

they'd fly up to Indianapolis
and put one

in a fry box and one in,
you know,

go over to Fort Wayne
and stick it on something.

- So do you guys work with
McDonald's to figure this out,

or what are next steps?

- Now we know
a little bit about

Simon Marketing
and Jerry Jacobson.

We know, thankfully,
he's not an FBI agent.

But he's still
a player in this.

You gotta connect Jacobson
to the winners.

McDonald's calls us
in April and says,

we just had
a million-dollar winner.

His name is Ronald Hughey.

He claimed it in Tennessee.

We run him down.

Turns out--
It turns out

he doesn't live in Tennessee.

But he had connections
back to, of all places--

remember this.

What's the name of the town
in South Carolina?

- Fair Game or Fair Play.
- Fair Play.

- Fair Play, yeah.

- Fair Play, South Carolina.

I mean, you can't make this--
you can't make this shit up.

So we run these phone numbers
against each other

and look for common numbers.

Eureka moment's here.

They do the analysis,
and right around

the time of the winning--
- From Ronald Hughey.

- Ronald Hughey's
winning in April,

there's all these calls
to a common number,

also in Fair Play.

A guy named Dwight Baker,
and then his wife, Linda Baker.

Jacobson's calling Dwight.
Dwight's calling Hughey.

Hughey is calling Dwight.

Baker, he's the--
I call it the middle man,

the recruiter,
bringing in winners.

So now we see
there's many more people

involved in this scam than
just the first four

or five
that the source mentioned,

and all the signs are
pointing to Jerry Jacobson

as being Uncle Jerry.

- We've moved the ball along,

but we still, you know,
we still

have to make
another big decision on,

how much do we tell McDonald's
to get them

to start being on our team?

- We invited McDonald's
to come to Jacksonville.

- We're gonna open up the books
a little bit more

at this meeting
to tell them, you know,

you guys got a real problem,

and we're trying
to make a case here,

and we want you
to run another game.

- We said,
what do you have planned?

They said, we have a game
planning to be in the summer.

That's a tight deadline,
but it's an opportunity for us.

So we decide if we go up on a
wiretap on Jacobson, on Baker,

we're gonna catch them
in the act on the next game.

# #

- The relationship with
McDonald's was almost

like early stages of dating.

You're kind of feeling out,
do I trust this person?

You know, how much
do I tell them?

Well, now we're asking them
to marry us,

and that's a big--
that's a big commitment.

We said, you know,
we need you to run the game

because we're gonna
catch these guys.

I thought they'd say yes
right away at that meeting.

Oh, yeah, of course
we'll run it.

They didn't really respond.

- Were you surprised
that McDonald's said

they had to think about it?

- This was a big deal for them.

They knew that this was
not--somehow was not

gonna end well for them.
- Sure.

Publicity of something like
this, that the McDonald's,

you know, game is--
- Disaster.

- Is, you know, compromised.
- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah.

- They came back
and they said, okay.

- It was pretty clear.

We'll run this game,
but you do what

you need to do because
it's over right after that.

- We make a decision to
go with TIII, a Title III.

- So who are the lines
that you got up on?

- Two on the Bakers
and one on Jerry Jacobson.

# #

Now we've got the order
to monitor these phones.

Jerry Jacobson's phone,
it's a local

cell phone company in Atlanta.

So we've gotta send the Title
III order to that company.

We fax this thing.

We got a call from a guy.

I'm the, uh, you know,
I'm the CEO of this company.

Uh, something's been
brought across my desk.

Normally, these would go
to my administrative assistant,

who, by the way,
is Jerry Jacobson's wife.

- Oh, you're kidding.
So here's your subject--

- What's the chances of that?
- Yeah, here we go.

- What's the probability
of that?

- About the same--

- I mean, this--
- That's crazy.

- This case--
- That's crazy.

- She happened
to be sick that day.

- You guys got lucky.
- Yeah.

You talk about finding
a four-leaf clover that day,

I mean, having her out.

You know, otherwise
we'd have been done.

- So before the wire started,
Chris,

what was going on
with the game?

Was there any other winners

that you guys knew about?

- Yeah, Ronald Hughey was
a million-dollar winner,

allegedly, from April.

And then, crazy as it sounds,
we got another winner in May

for $500,000 instant winner,
a woman named Brenda Phenis.

Who turns out--
she claimed the prize

in North Carolina,
but she lives in

Fair Play, South Carolina.

And she is the recruiter
Dwight Baker's sister-in-law.

So we start the wire, and we
got two prizes out there,

one million-dollar one,
one $500,000 one,

that have not been paid yet.

- The agents are
listening to everything.

Did any smoking gun appear?

- One of the calls was
Jacobson and Baker talking.

Let's meet up at 3:00 today at
the place, the exit so-and-so.

- So there's a new
million-dollar Monopoly

game piece in circulation.

And we figured they might be
meeting up so Jerry could give

that winning piece to Dwight.

- Chateau Elan
is this golf resort

about equidistant between
Atlanta and Fair Play.

This is where you're proud
to be in the bureau

because you can call Atlanta,
you can call Columbia,

and everybody speaks
the same language.

So we said--
- We need surveillance.

- We need surveillance.
- Now.

- Now.
- Quick.

- Like, in an hour at
Chateau Elan, off the highway,

and can you do it?

- You've got
an hour and a half,

and you tell Atlanta
you need to scramble.

- And this was--this was
just an incredible,

incredible sequence
because we got footage.

We got video footage
of Jacobson meeting Baker

in the parking lot together.

# #

Jacobson giving Baker
an envelope.

So what you have, McDonald's
started running the game.

And within three days, four
days after starting the game,

Jacobson's got
the high-value piece,

and he's already working it
to his recruiter, Baker.

- We figure out
from the wiretap

that both Jacobson,
the source of the pieces,

and his recruiters
are all getting kickbacks

from the supposed winners.

- Do you hear anything on the
wire about those recent wins

from Ron Hughey
and Brenda Phenis?

- McDonald's was stalling
on paying

the million-dollar prize
that Ronald Hughey claimed

and the half-million dollar
prize that Brenda claimed.

- There's a little bit of angst
on the part of Dwight Baker

and Hughey about, where's--
where's my--where's my money?

So there's questions
in some of these calls

where Jacobson is
asking Baker, you know,

has he got his contract yet?

Or--
- Code word for...

- Code word for the money.
- If he's gotten his money.

- They're real concerned
about that.

- Jacobson calls Baker, and
he's asking about the status

of Brenda Phenis's money.

Which at this point, she
hadn't gotten the check yet.

- And Jacobson
kind of lectures Baker.

I still remember
the Burger King comment.

- Like, giving McDonald's
a hard time about

dragging their feet about
paying--paying Brenda.

- McDonald's eventually sent
a check to Brenda for $500,000.

And then things
really got crazy.

- Yeah.

So this was, you know,
we start picking this up--

- Were you worried
that they were going

to go after her or something?

- Well, you start
picking up on the wire,

they're not real
happy with her.

- Everybody has to
kick money up, right?

So Brenda is not getting
$500,000 for herself to keep.

# #

- But Brenda decides
she doesn't like that deal.

- Chris walked
into my office and said,

we could have a problem.

These guys
are really mad and, uh--

- Dwight's gonna kill Brenda.

- Let's create
a fake production company.

We're gonna film you
describing how you won

that exciting, great day.

He's sweating and stumbling

and can't go through
the details of how he won

because he's making it up
on the fly.

- This Sunday,
as a matter of fact.

Uh, and there wasn't
a whole lot of work to do.

- We are right at the cusp
of taking this thing down.

- We get a call from a small
newspaper in Greenville.

And they say,
we've got this document,

and we don't think
we're supposed to have it.

- Oh, shit.