HBO's 'McMillions' Episode 1 sees bored FBI Agent Doug Matthews form bogus film crew to uncover $24M scam
McDonald's wasn't aware of the momentous scam that took place behind their backs as they made a killing with their Monopoly games -- all you had to do was peel a card off a box of fries, a cup of soda, or a magazine advert and you could win a million dollars! It proved to be the company’s most lucrative marketing device since the Happy Meal.
While everyday ordinary customers who feverishly collected Monopoly game pieces won free burgers, the fancy cars and bundles of money somehow made their way toward a closed circle of interconnected people. This happened after someone in their own camp had figured a way to play the system and pulled one of the biggest scams in the history of the food industry.
HBO's 'McMillions' revisits the story of McDonald's Monopoly con job -- a swindle chronicled in The Daily Beast back in 2018. The six-part docu-series first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival held in Park City, Utah.
The documentary brings together a variety of crooks and quirky law figures to retell the extraordinary story, most notably FBI Agent Doug Matthews, whose goofy charm and twangy accent instantly warms you up. Matthews longs for some on-ground action at the sleepy Jacksonville, Florida, branch of the FBI. He wants a big case to drop on his lap and cure his boredom for once.
And so he cannot contain his excitement when the feds get a tip that McDonald’s Monopoly game is rigged, and that someone in the shadows is pocketing all the bigger prizes. Matthews springs into action almost immediately, kickstarting an investigation that would blow the bureau's mind for ages to come.
The feds soon decern that McDonald's -- naturally one of the first suspects in the case -- isn't scamming their own game and that they just reap the benefits of the scheme. It emerges that the fast-food empire joined hands with Simon Marketing Ltd. in 1987 to make the project a reality.
Matthews and his team then find that game pieces and prizes are handled solely by Simon Marketing. And while it's not rocket science to conclude that someone within the company is behind the scam, 'McMillions' attempts to explain the saga across multiple episodes noting every gripping detail about the jaw-dropping case.
Amy Murray, Director of Global Family Marketing at McDonald's, teams up with the FBI to draft a bogus documentary crew so they can get up close and personal with suspects. They subsequently find that the ringleader of the racket is a mysterious figure who goes by the name "Uncle Jerry."
Uncle Jerry would later be unveiled as Jerome Jacobson, a former police officer who served as director of security for Simon Marketing. On August 3, 2001, a "McDonald's" film crew knocked on the door of Michael Hoover, a 56-year-old bachelor who had called their hotline to say he'd won their Monopoly competition. The crew subsequently carried their cameras and a giant cashier's check to Hoover's residence in Westerly, Rhode Island.
Once inside his residence, Amy encouraged Hoover to tell the camera about the luckiest moment in his life. Clutching on to his massive check, Hoover spun a fabricated and well-prepared yarn. He said he had fallen asleep on the beach, only to wake up and realize he had lost a copy of People magazine he was carrying. He then went to a grocery store and bought himself another copy of the magazine, where he claimed to find an advertising insert with the “Instant Win” game piece.
Despite knowing that his rambling story was full of it, the camera crew patiently listened to Hoover. The highly skilled agents were easily able to pick up inconsequential details usually found in stories told by liars. After the so-called McSting, the agents were certain Hoover was not a lucky winner by any means.
The odds of Hoover winning were 1 in 250 million, just like winning the Powerball. Soon, the FBI would later realize that Hoover was part of a major criminal conspiracy aimed at defrauding the fast-food giant of millions of dollars.
After tracing a number of phone calls, the bureau connected the dots and zeroed in on Jerome Jacobson's phone. It was their guy, the mysterious Uncle Jerry out in broad daylight -- or at least they thought he was.
But the agents soon realized it wasn't the end of the line.
After installing a wiretap on Jacobson's phone, it dawned upon them that he was the head of a super-sized conspiracy -- a sprawling network of mobsters, drug traffickers, psychics, convicts, and even a family of Mormons who had scammed McDonald's of more than $24 million in cash and prizes.
Still, it was unclear who among them had betrayed Jacobson and why. But that remains to be seen in the next episode of 'McMillions', which is set to premiere February 10 on HBO.