that told the story of an intricate fraud committed against McDonald’s Monopoly game.in West Hollywood, Calif.“We’re fascinated with unique stories that have these twists and turns, and have a layer of depth to it, but also a degree of humor and levity,” Lazarte tells Deadline. “The stakes in. But a big part of what really drew us to the story was being able to tell it and include Eric’s point of view.
“Conn created doctored, falsified templates that a doctor would just sign off on and say, ‘This person is disabled, they can’t work.’ The judge stamps and approves it. And they just pumped so many people through the system,” Lazarte explains. “The kickbacks and the money that Eric got in each case would be the equivalent of 25 percent of their back benefits or up to $6,000. So it was a volume game for him.
“We really find that idea fascinating of the rationalizations that people put on to do certain things… There is a person out there [Conn] that rationalized the idea of stealing $550 million from the U.S. government,” Hernandez comments. “But the reason that the person is doing it–you could rationalize they’re trying to help someone because normally it would take around 18 months for people who needed these benefits to get them. And this person found a way to do it in six months at maximum.
“With Damian it was really fascinating because he’s a reporter, but he ends up being part of the story,” Hernandez points out. “He really signifies exactly why the news exists. An article he wrote forces changes to happen all the way up to a U.S. Senate level.”abounds with colorful characters, including Mason Tackett, a musician and rapper who wrote jingles for Conn advertisements .