Pretty Generous For A Thief
Jacobson was cheating on the system that he was placed in charge of! But it was not his intention to simply make a lot of money. It was always his goal to look after his family. He gave a game piece worth $25,000 to Marvin Braun, his stepbrother. Since they had different last names, he did not think that it would cause any suspicion when redeemed. This plan worked! After this, Jacobson must have gotten more confident because he repeated the scheme, occasionally to his profit. Aside from family members, he also gave them to acquaintances who paid him and had a different person redeem the prize. His local butcher gave him $2,000 for a $10,000 piece. Meanwhile, his nephew paid $45,000 for a $200,000 one.
Pretty Generous For A Thief
How He Reached New Heights
The scheme started to go beyond his inner circle as other conspirators started to join in on the fun. The scheme reached new heights when he met a man called Gennaro Colombo at the Atlanta airport in Georgia in 1995. He said that he was a part of the Colombo crime family in New York and went on to be the main co-conspirator. Colombo was the one who brought the scam to a new level altogether. Colombo was also the one to recruit many “winners” and gave Jacobson the “Uncle Jerry” nickname. Does that sound familiar to you? In case it has not dawned on you just yet, “Uncle Jerry” from McMillions is none other than Jerome Jacobson!
How He Reached New Heights
