This Netflix documentary explores the true story of the world’s richest dog

Houses in Italy, yachts, a personal chef, Madonna’s mansion in Miami, a riverball club and gold leaf steaks – Gunther has every luxury imaginable. And that, even though Gunther is a dog. In the 2000s, the four-legged friend made headlines as the richest dog in the world. Gunther’s great-grandfather belonged to a German countess who had no family left and therefore left her entire fortune to her dog – or so the legend goes.

But how can a dog own houses and yachts? This is where Maurizio Mian comes into play. He is Gunther’s supervisor, manager of the money and the mastermind behind the story.

At the beginning of the Netflix documentary, Maurizio tells Karlotta’s story. She became wealthy through her husband’s pharmaceutical business, and she and his mother were good friends. They shared a love of animals, so it was no wonder that Maurizio’s mother – and eventually himself – took care of Gunther after Karlotta’s death. In her will she laid down everything very clearly about how she should handle the money.

Until now, so invented.

Maurizio’s family was the one with the successful pharmaceutical company and uses Karlotta to deposit money on their behalf in Liechtenstein, where – unlike in Italy – they did not have to pay taxes. Gunther is a successful PR joke.

But that is not everything. Gunther is famous. Very famous. One of his highlights came in 2000 when he bought Madonna’s mansion in Miami. What more could a German Shepherd want? Gunther lived in this building with a group of five young and attractive people. These were cast by Maurizio and were supposed to be a singing, dancing pop group called The Burgundians, because Gunther loves music – according to Maurizio.

The group, consisting of three women and two men, had to follow a list of rules. They had scheduled time each day to exercise, eat, sing/dance, and have sex. They lived the perfect life. Suddenly men in white coats appeared and watched the group around the clock and took notes. Since Karlotta’s son, who was apparently Maurizio’s best friend, suffered from depression and committed suicide, he wanted to know what makes people happy. He started his own social experiment.

That’s still not enough. Maurizio started such a group not only in Miami, but also in Italy. This time, however, bigger: celebrities were involved and nightclubs were opened. Because where better to study the behavior of young people than in clubs? The Pisa football club was bought and porn actresses were installed as presidents. The empire grew and grew.

And all in the name of a dog. A dog who has no idea what money is and how important it is in society.

The house of cards that Maurizio – and in part his mother – has built is about to collapse and the true story, unexpectedly crime thriller or even cultish to watch, unfolds in this four-part investigative documentary from Netflix. The documentary gets crazier from episode to episode as the makers slowly but surely expose the absurd story like an onion layer by layer through interviews with those involved and archive footage. Started as a documentary about the richest dog in the world, the series evolves into a true crime documentary about status, sex and power.

“Gunther’s Millions” is now available to watch on Netflix.