McMillions: The Absolutely True Story of How an Unlikely Pair of FBI Agents Brought Down the Most Supersized Fraud in Fast Food History

by James Lee Hernandez, Brian Lazarte Narrated by Brian Lazarte, James Lee Hernandez

Overview

In this stranger than fiction story of the massive crime network that rigged the McDonald's monopoly game for decades, unlock new, exclusive interviews and stories that couldn't make it into the HBO docuseries, McMillion$. Perfect for readers of Argo, The Wizard of Lies, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

In March of 2001, Federal prosecutor Mark Devereaux cold-called Rob Holm, the head of security for McDonald's Corporation. Without explanation, Devereaux asked that Holm and several other McDonald's senior executives plan a visit to the Jacksonville, Florida, FBI, and tell no one about their intended destination. It wasn't up for discussion. Upon their arrival, Devereaux watched them closely, looking at body language, checking for tells. To him, they were all potential suspects.

Once they were seated in an unremarkable conference room, sealed away in the hyper-secure FBI building, Devereaux began to lay out a shocking conspiracy, one that ran deep into McDonald's most beloved promotions: the Monopoly game. This is where they began to discover from 1989 to 2001, almost every high-value prize winner was actually illegitimate. But how could this happen and who all was behind it? A rookie FBI agent and a brilliant undercover operation led them to one man who brilliantly crafted a near-infallible nationwide conspiracy for fraud.

Expanded from the wildly popular HBO docuseries with major new interviews, McMillion$ traces this massive crime, the intricate web of lies that bolstered it, and the tireless work of the FBI agents that unraveled it all. It is a story littered with tragedy: families torn apart, betrayals, financial ruin, and one suspicious car crash. Yet, there are bright spots in the hijinks of the FBI agents and their co-conspirators. Ultimately, it is a story of what happens when the American dream goes very wrong.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"You will not believe how elaborate, intricate and insidious the McDonald Monopoly fraud of the 90's was. Brian and James weave a story so fantastic you can't believe it's real - but it is! Their HBO series was amazing but here they deliver in a way you can't miss."—Tom Segura, comedian and bestselling author of I'd Like to Play Alone, Please

The McDonald's Monopoly promotional game of the 1980s and 1990s was one of the most successful marketing gimmicks in US corporate history. Millions of Americans played for the chance to win cash, cars, and other big-ticket items. Sales shot up a whopping 40 percent every time McDonald's ran the promotions — but, as exposed in the wildly-entertaining McMillion$ documentary series — the game itself was rigged. For nearly the entire run of the promotion, there were no legitimate winners. Now with this book, all the face-melting details from the documentary series have been expanded with sometimes hilarious behind-the-scenes revelations as a pair of mismatched FBI agents zero in on the criminal mastermind behind the scheme. McMillion$ is a McMasterpiece of the burger crimes genre.—Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill and American Desperado.

Kirkus Reviews

2024-06-15
A twisty tale of a forgotten scam and the devoted FBI agents who brought it down.

Documentary filmmakers Hernandez and Lazarte, who created the titular HBO series, recount the strange story of con artistry taken to the stratosphere. The chief con, known as “Uncle Jerry,” was a blowhard former cop who talked his way into heading security for an ad agency with an unusual account: handling McDonald’s Monopoly game, which readers may remember from a few decades past. For many years, thanks to Uncle Jerry’s machinations, “all of the winners who walked into various McDonald’s restaurants across the country, waving a winning game piece and claiming a victory over the gods of chance, were cogs in a skillfully crafted conspiracy of fraud.” For a time, Uncle Jerry’s chief lieutenant was a near-stereotypical gangster from the Colombo Mafia family. The setup involved finding a mark to take a winning ticket and then kick back half, plus pay taxes on the whole shebang. Millions of McDonald’s dollars later, the perpetrators had burned a few people in their con. Enter an informant, whose surprising identity the authors reveal at the end, and a forensic accountant from an FBI field office who figured out how to milk confessions from the minions by pretending to be a promotional filmmaker working for McDonald’s. The enterprise fell apart thanks to that oldest of destructive forces, greed. “Most of the ‘criminals’ in this story were merely good people who made a bad choice,” the authors write sympathetically; oddly, some paid a higher price for their greed than did the real criminals. In any event, though heavily covered by the media, the scam went into immediate obscurity, overshadowed by the catastrophic attacks of 9/11.

Though most of the bad guys are deeply unappetizing, true crime buffs will enjoy the cat-and-mouse game of catching them.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940160410951
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	08/06/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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