Great Reality TV Swindle

The Great Reality TV Swindle (also known as Project MS-2) was a con perpetrated in 2002 by Nik Russian, a British man who, at the time, was working at an entry-level position in a branch of the UK book chain Waterstone's. Russian placed advertisements in major publications that invited people to audition for a year-long reality television programme where they could potentially win a prize of GB£100,000. After receiving hundreds of responses, he auditioned some of them on Raven's Ait in London, then selected 30 successful auditionees to take part, without informing them that no actual programme had been commissioned. Telling them that the show would last for an entire year, Russian instructed the participants to leave their homes, quit their jobs and then meet him in London on 10 June, where they would be divided into teams of ten and set their challenge for the next twelve months.

The challenge was to make £1 million in a single year. Realising that they would essentially be making their own prize money, most contestants quit the show within two days. One group stayed together for slightly longer: sleeping on the floor of their cameraman's flat, they attempted to create their own TV show about themselves. Having also given up his flat and job, Russian was also homeless, and was forced to stay with the contestants he had manipulated. After the programme failed, Russian went into hiding, and was unable to be contacted. He was eventually tracked down by one of his victims to an address in Richmond upon Thames, where he was forced to apologise on camera. As he had not taken any money from his victims, a criminal case against Russian was not pursued—a civil case was also not pursued due to a lack of funds.

Nikita "Nik" Russian was born Keith Anthony Gillard in Surrey in 1977. Raised in Farnham, he legally changed his name to Jack Lister in his early twenties, then changed it again to Nikita Russian. He studied English at Goldsmiths, University of London, but dropped out before the exams. He had set up businesses and written unpublished novels before taking a job working at a branch of Waterstone's in London—he subsequently decided that he wanted to produce his own reality television programme.

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