The following story took place over a week in September last year.

The story is set in Las Vegas at the casinos that are owned and operated by

MGM Resorts. Our colleague Bob McMillan sets the scene.

MGM runs about half. And and Mandalay Bay, Luxor, you know, a whole bunch of the really iconic Las Vegas casinos.

This story is about a heist, and it starts on an otherwise typical Friday night.

There's a busiest night for guest checking in, for people gambling, for people being

entertained on the strip, and that makes it a great time to strike.

The main characters are as follows.

MGM Resorts, its CEO Bill Hornbuckle,

and a brash young group of skilled thieves.

It's a true story, the details of which are based on interviews with investigators,

MGM employees, court documents,

and a conversation with one of the alleged crooks.

Our opening scene takes place far from the glitz and glam of the casino floor.

It happens in the bowels of MGM, in the IT department.

This is chapter one. The way in.

Tech Support gets a call. Friday night.

It's a call that people in tech support get many times a day.

Somebody on the other line works for MGM, they say they forgot their password,

can't get into the network.

They need to get their account back.

And what you do is you do an account reset, right?

...