Cipriani is a gambler known for giving his winnings to the less fortunate. A chance encounter with an ex-girlfriend unwittingly plunges him into a money laundering operation that eventually leads to one of the largest cases in FBI history and more than 1,000 arrests around the world. The series follows the gambler, known to the FBI as "Jackpot," as he navigates a deranged web of characters who could well kill him and his family unless he catches them first. The series has been described as part Donnie Brasco and part Ocean's Eleven.
Cipriani was instrumental in the FBI's dismantling of former USC football player and drug kingpin Owen Hanson's violent empire that spanned the US, Central and South America, and Australia. Hanson began trafficking recreational drugs and steroids to his teammates in the early 2000s, which grew into a global network. Cipriani was instructed by Hanson to gamble $2.5 million through the drug lord's money laundering program.
EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Television is putting the limited series ‘Jackpot’ into early development inspired by the hardscrabble life of Philly high-stakes gambler-turned-FBI confidential source RJ Cipriani (aka Robin Hood 702). Nicholas Stoller will EP https://t.co/NFLDABsJf5
— Deadline Hollywood (x-on:DEADLINE) January 30, 2023
The gambler lost all the money - on purpose - playing blackjack, prompting Hanson to send death threats, including photos of his late mother's damaged tombstone, photos of his wife with her personal information, and a video of beheadings.
Hanson was arrested in September 2015 and sentenced to more than 21 years in federal prison in late 2017. The drug lord was ordered to pay a criminal forfeiture of $5 million, which included $100 million worth of gold coins, luxury vehicles, jewelry, vacation homes, a sailboat, and interests in several companies.
One device used to apprehend Hanson was the Phantom Secure mobile phone, which was designed and sold to criminals around the world. Hanson purchased several of these phones and mistakenly gave one to an FBI undercover agent, causing the case to explode into thousands of criminals under FBI surveillance in multiple jurisdictions around the world, inside and outside the FBI's case. drug lord. The use of the ANOM phone led to the arrest of 800 criminals in a single day in an operation by the FBI and global law enforcement. Later on, the FBI had the great idea to release their own coded phone and call it ANOM.
The disintegration of Hanson's criminal circle led to two competing documentaries in development, one at Netflix and another at Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Archie Gips' Unrealistic Ideas with producer Van Echeverri.
