If you've worn out LuLaRich, try these 7 documentaries about grifters, scammers, and Fyre fraudsters

Alex Gibney’s The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley documents the rise and downfall of Theranos, a multibillion dollar healthcare tech company, and its eccentric founder, Elizabeth Holmes. Founded in 2003, the company was valued at $10 billion by 2014, thanks to its claims to have devised cheaper, more conveniently available blood tests that draw only small amounts of blood. Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, whose 2018 book Bad Blood is seen as a companion piece to the doc, conducted a secret months-long investigation after being tipped off that the company’s claims were fraudulent. Theranos was defrauding investors and was using regular blood tests instead of their purportedly inventive one called Edison. Gibney traces the aftermath of the investigation and includes never-seen-before clips and interviews from insiders, including Theranos whistleblowers Erika Cheung and Tyler Shultz. It might not overtly denounce Holmes’ and her then-partner Ramesh Balwani’s actions, but The Inventor is a detailed overview of the shocking Theranos story. Its popularity has even prompted Hulu to create . [Saloni Gajjar]Availability:

Two American “institutions”—McDonald’s and Monopoly—are at the center of this six-episode docuseries from directors James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte. The fast food giant’s Monopoly game, which was launched in 1987, turned each purchase of a Big Mac into a potential winning ticket, er, mini-property deed. (A $1 million prize AND a large fry? Now, that’s a Happy Meal.) But some people weren’t content to pin their hopes of a big payout to their lunch order, which led to an elaborate scheme, complete with mob connections. Between 1989 to 2001, a man named Jerome Jacobson (“Uncle Jerry” to the family members and friends he bestowed with cash-winning game pieces) scammed McDonald’s out of $24 million. That’s quite a feat, as it effectively meant there were no “legitimate winners” of the restaurant chain’s Monopoly game for much of its first 20 years in existence. Using archival footage, contemporary interviews, and a light hand with reenactments, McMillion$ giddily reconstructs one of the juiciest fraud stories of the last 50 years. [Danette Chavez]Availability:

As many of these fraud-focused documentaries demonstrate, it’s thrilling to watch a well-executed heist unfold. But it’s even more rousing to watch some good old-fashioned payback. Showtime’s Love Fraud has scams aplenty, but ups the ante with another killer storytelling element: revenge. Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, this 2020 docuseries follows a group of women who band together after learning they’d all been romanced and defrauded by the same man. This aging lothario and con man has left a trail of broken hearts and emptied bank accounts across several states, accumulating new wives and aliases just about everywhere he goes. But the women, as they’re called throughout the four-part series, are determined to put an end to his schemes—whether it’s by warning others away from him through an online message board, or teaming up with a wisecracking bounty hunter. In its commendable aversion to re-victimizing its subjects, Love Fraud ends up giving them a bit of the short shrift (we don’t need nearly so many animated scenes of the con artist’s childhood). But the series also affords them catharsis and compassion. [Danette Chavez]Availability:

In 2019, in a criminal conspiracy to commit fraud to gain undergraduate college admissions for their children at top universities. Thirty-three parents were accused of collectively paying more than $25 million to William “Rick” Singer, who, as chronicled in Chris Smith’s 2021 documentary, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal, crafted an elaborate, seven-year scheme to inflate test scores and bribe college officials. that it re-frames the story in unexpected ways: “While it doesn’t let the Huffmans and the Loughlins of this whole sordid saga off the hook, the movie does suggest there’s more to be upset about here than just the coddling of some undeserving rich kids. Operation Varsity Blues, Smith and his writer/editor/producer Jon Karmen combine some rigorous reporting with some daring storytelling choices, shaking up the common documentary conceit of the ‘dramatic reenactment.’ Relying mostly on the official transcripts from FBI wiretaps, the film has a cast of accomplished actors—including Matthew Modine as Singer—treating the telephone conversations like a script, which they imbue with real energy and nuance.” [Saloni Gajjar]Availability: