McMillion$, a brand-new six-part HBO documentary series from Executive Producer Mark Wahlberg that chronicles the incredible true story of the $24 million McDonald’s Monopoly game fraud.
From 1989 to 2001, a criminal mastermind named “Uncle Jerry” defrauded the hugely popular McDonald’s Monopoly promotional game of millions of dollars in prize money. By stealing valuable game pieces from McDonald’s, Jerry was able to hand-select winners, hoodwink the authorities and share the ill-gotten gains.
What started as a profitable sham among family and friends, soon expanded to include a cast of ex-cons with ties to the mafia and unsuspecting co-conspirators. But in 2001, an anonymous tip to the FBI triggered a far-reaching chain of events including determined and unorthodox investigative work, undercover sting operations and dirty dealings.
McMillon$ delves into this stranger-than-fiction story and hears directly involved. From the FBI agents who worked tirelessly to uncover Uncle Jerry’s true identity and the workings of the scam, the McDonald’s executives who were themselves duped, the underworld figures drawn into the money-making gamble and the so-called “winners” who dreamed of being overnight millionaires.
Featuring interviews with key players including rookie FBI agent Doug Mathews, members of the infamous New York Colombo crime family including Gennaro “Jerry” Colombo, widow Robin Colombo, her brother- and sister-in-law Frank and Heather Colombo along with several million dollar “winners” all spilling the beans about “the biggest fraud you never heard of.”
McMillion$ is an HBO presentation of an Unrealistic Ideas production in association with Fun Meter, written and directed by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte and executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, Archie Gips, James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte. EPs Wahlberg and Levinson co-created HBO’s hit comedy series Ballers.
