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McMillions: The Absolutely True Story of How an Unlikely Pair of FBI Agents Brought Down the Most Supersized Fraud in Fast Food History
In the tradition of Argo, The Wizard of Lies, and The Smartest Guys in the Room, a book that expands upon the HBO docuseries, McMillion$, with new, exclusive interviews and stories that couldn't make it into the series. 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 the Monopoly game. From 1989 to 2001, not a single winner of a high-value prize was legitimate. Instead, all were the courtesy of one man who brilliantly crafted a near-infallible nationwide conspiracy for fraud. Expanded from the wildly popular HBO docuseries with major new interviews, MCMILLIONS 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 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.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published August 6, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 21, 2024
A few disclaimers up front. First, I did not see the McMillions documentary before I read this book so I went in totally fresh. Second, I worked at McDonald's as a teenager. What does that have to do with the book? Absolutely nothing. I just wanted to tell you.
The book McMillions is written by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte who were the producers/writers/directors of the documentary. If you don't know the backstory, then I have news for you. If you remember the McDonald's Monopoly game, then you of course remember how huge a deal it was. Well, turns out, you couldn't win. Not unless you were part of the conspiracy to steal the winning game pieces. (Childhood RUINED!)
The book is an easy read and interesting throughout with no dead spots in the narrative. The authors add dialogue whenever they can and the tone is light for the most part (side note: some dialogue may have been embellished, but my review copy did not have sources to directly verify so it might all come from transcripts). That does lead to a bit of tonally whiplash at times. There are some people whose lives were destroyed by this case and the authors treat their stories solemnly. However, the tone might veer quickly back to lighthearted. It's nothing fatal for the flow of the book, but it is noticeable.
The only thing which kept this from being a no-doubt five star book for me was the uneven coverage of some of the main characters. There is a woman who has a heartbreaking story and the authors give her some well-deserved focus in the middle of the book. However, she becomes more of a footnote after that as another character takes over the narrative. I would have liked a bit more time with a few people and for the timeline to stay a bit more linear. These are minor quibbles and should not make anyone shy away from picking this book up.
(This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.)
The book McMillions is written by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte who were the producers/writers/directors of the documentary. If you don't know the backstory, then I have news for you. If you remember the McDonald's Monopoly game, then you of course remember how huge a deal it was. Well, turns out, you couldn't win. Not unless you were part of the conspiracy to steal the winning game pieces. (Childhood RUINED!)
The book is an easy read and interesting throughout with no dead spots in the narrative. The authors add dialogue whenever they can and the tone is light for the most part (side note: some dialogue may have been embellished, but my review copy did not have sources to directly verify so it might all come from transcripts). That does lead to a bit of tonally whiplash at times. There are some people whose lives were destroyed by this case and the authors treat their stories solemnly. However, the tone might veer quickly back to lighthearted. It's nothing fatal for the flow of the book, but it is noticeable.
The only thing which kept this from being a no-doubt five star book for me was the uneven coverage of some of the main characters. There is a woman who has a heartbreaking story and the authors give her some well-deserved focus in the middle of the book. However, she becomes more of a footnote after that as another character takes over the narrative. I would have liked a bit more time with a few people and for the timeline to stay a bit more linear. These are minor quibbles and should not make anyone shy away from picking this book up.
(This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.)
August 17, 2024
Scintillating read! Like a 6 pack of McNuggets, once you start, you won’t be able to put it down until you’re done.
September 2, 2024
Let me start by saying I loved the six episode documentary series and was already very familiar with the story. If you haven’t watched it yet and don’t mind the writing style, you will really enjoy this book. It’s a fascinating and interesting story that’s worth your time. I preferred the show, but I’m sure there will be some who enjoy the book more.
My full thoughts:
The book has a very choppy, stiff writing style which makes sense given it’s written by documentary filmmakers. There are some really cringe things in it (“It slowed his roll” is actually said about someone) including a chapter where they make jokes about of a woman who appears to have OCD. It was an unnecessary aspect of the story for the author’s to focus on (she was not even the suspect, her husband was) and my main takeaway from that chapter was Doug Matthews could really act like an asshole and the authors here showed a total lack of sensitivity. It’s a small chapter, but including it was a mistake.
Moving in! The overuse of names in this was VERY distracting. It felt like they took the documentary transcript and just added in the full name of everyone every time they spoke which added up to a lot. They also switched between using full names (used the most), first names only and last names only which was unnecessarily confusing.
Example 1:
A.J. was easygoing and laid-back. His longtime friends would say that A.J. had always been the kind of guy people were drawn to. A.J. had something that made folks want to be around him. It was hard to describe other than to say that A.J. Glomb was cool.
Example 2:
If Rick Dent had been a fish, this would have been the moment that Mathews set the hook. Rick Dent took a deep breath. "We got something here,' Mathews said. "I think we really got something." Dent could see that, so far, Doug Mathews appeared to be correct.
It was very annoying, especially on audio where I was already annoyed (more on that below).
The book sticks VERY close to the documentary with little added to it. I know the forward mentioned this was a deeper dive, but I didn’t walk away feeling like I learned anything new. If you’ve seen the doc already I’d say skip this. The book felt like a transcript of the documentary, which would explain the over use of news and choppy style. I do want to stress though the story itself is fascinating, so I definitely recommend you either read this or watch the doc, which was really well done.
*A note on the audiobook* This was not great on audio - the authors narrate and it’s very awkward. One has a really strange cadence with odd timing, the other ends every single sentence in a raised voice making everything sound like a question… Everything. 🫠 I switched to the physical book at chapter 8 and it was better. Definitely recommend book/ebook version for this.
My full thoughts:
The book has a very choppy, stiff writing style which makes sense given it’s written by documentary filmmakers. There are some really cringe things in it (“It slowed his roll” is actually said about someone) including a chapter where they make jokes about of a woman who appears to have OCD. It was an unnecessary aspect of the story for the author’s to focus on (she was not even the suspect, her husband was) and my main takeaway from that chapter was Doug Matthews could really act like an asshole and the authors here showed a total lack of sensitivity. It’s a small chapter, but including it was a mistake.
Moving in! The overuse of names in this was VERY distracting. It felt like they took the documentary transcript and just added in the full name of everyone every time they spoke which added up to a lot. They also switched between using full names (used the most), first names only and last names only which was unnecessarily confusing.
Example 1:
A.J. was easygoing and laid-back. His longtime friends would say that A.J. had always been the kind of guy people were drawn to. A.J. had something that made folks want to be around him. It was hard to describe other than to say that A.J. Glomb was cool.
Example 2:
If Rick Dent had been a fish, this would have been the moment that Mathews set the hook. Rick Dent took a deep breath. "We got something here,' Mathews said. "I think we really got something." Dent could see that, so far, Doug Mathews appeared to be correct.
It was very annoying, especially on audio where I was already annoyed (more on that below).
The book sticks VERY close to the documentary with little added to it. I know the forward mentioned this was a deeper dive, but I didn’t walk away feeling like I learned anything new. If you’ve seen the doc already I’d say skip this. The book felt like a transcript of the documentary, which would explain the over use of news and choppy style. I do want to stress though the story itself is fascinating, so I definitely recommend you either read this or watch the doc, which was really well done.
*A note on the audiobook* This was not great on audio - the authors narrate and it’s very awkward. One has a really strange cadence with odd timing, the other ends every single sentence in a raised voice making everything sound like a question… Everything. 🫠 I switched to the physical book at chapter 8 and it was better. Definitely recommend book/ebook version for this.
August 25, 2024
From the makers of the docuseries also called "McMillions" comes a book that includes more detail and interviews. I had only had a chance to watch one episode (I have a huge list of stuff I want to see!) and I will definitely go back and watch the whole series now. I absolutely loved this book. I could not put it down. As I read, I kept envisioning a fictional version of this and was casting it in my mind -- I was drawing on the cast from the film "The Informant" and kept seeing Scott Bakula and Matt Damon in starring roles. The twist with this book and series is that it is about greed -- but not corporate greed, rather a bunch of individuals who were able to use their positions to influence friends and acquaintances to get in on the deal (of course the ringmasters got a huge cut for this favor). We learn how the fraud was committed - a head of security at the Marketing Firm hired by McDonald's to run their Monopoly Game, found a way to steal and replace the winning tiles. The take down happened on August 19, 2001 (and almost got revealed when a fax went to a newspaper instead of the local FBI office!) but as history reminds us, this huge headline-grabbing saga got wiped off the front pages by 9/11. One thing I did not realize is that the individuals who were in on the fraud, had to pay full restitution for the $1 million even though their payments from McDonalds were annual - so not only did they never see the money, they in most cases had to prepay the mobster at the heart of it -- and of course, they were left to pay the taxes on it too. Just an absolute fun read with humor on how the FBI infiltrated the network. Note -- if something sounds too good to be true - it probably is! Remarkably a few of the individuals in their gut knew something did not seem right about the scheme but they went along with it anyway.
Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.
Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.
September 2, 2024
I won this book via a Goodreads giveaway and here's my honest review.
I loved the book! I read it in 2 days, so it was a quick read and captivating! All the characters were super interesting! I could picture what they looked like and understand what motivated them.
I did not see the documentary mini series so this was all new to me. I vaguely remember hearing about the McDonald's Monopoly game fraud but really didn't remember much of the details from the news so all of this was fresh to me and fascinating. The descriptions of all these characters and style of writing left me engaged and wondering what would happen next.
I loved that Monopoly game! All I ever won were some free fries or drinks when I would play it. No wonder! Now I am going to research online and look at the story to learn even more about the history. The book left me wanting to know even more, even though it did wrap up everything neatly with a good summary, including follow-up of the characters. I live in Florida and had no idea about the FBI and Jacksonville and all the connections.
The chapters were easy to follow with the way the timeline was explained and it didn't jump around or leave me confused at all, despite having so many "players". I would recommend!!
I loved the book! I read it in 2 days, so it was a quick read and captivating! All the characters were super interesting! I could picture what they looked like and understand what motivated them.
I did not see the documentary mini series so this was all new to me. I vaguely remember hearing about the McDonald's Monopoly game fraud but really didn't remember much of the details from the news so all of this was fresh to me and fascinating. The descriptions of all these characters and style of writing left me engaged and wondering what would happen next.
I loved that Monopoly game! All I ever won were some free fries or drinks when I would play it. No wonder! Now I am going to research online and look at the story to learn even more about the history. The book left me wanting to know even more, even though it did wrap up everything neatly with a good summary, including follow-up of the characters. I live in Florida and had no idea about the FBI and Jacksonville and all the connections.
The chapters were easy to follow with the way the timeline was explained and it didn't jump around or leave me confused at all, despite having so many "players". I would recommend!!
August 15, 2024
McMillions is an amazing story. It is based on a TV documentary and after just finishing it, I will seek out the series.
I have not eaten at a McDonald's in many years but I do recall the Monopoly contest which awarded prizes, topping off at a cool million dollars(paid over the course of twenty years). Of course a diet of Big Macs would likely kill off the winners in under that time period.
A company was hired to run the contest and an evil genius by the name of Jerome Jacobson figured out a method to rig the outcome of the game. His partner in crime is the most colorful character, a man with Mafia ties named Jerry Colombo of the notorious mob family. The two Jerrys made deals with third parties in order to collect the winnings in exchange for a split.
A single phone call to the FBI got the ball rolling and the author's storytelling chops are entertaining, with enough funny moments to keep the reader engaged throughout. The cast of gullible people looking for a quick buck is a reminder of how easily we can be tempted by one of the seven deadly sins, avarice.
Do not miss this remarkable book.
I have not eaten at a McDonald's in many years but I do recall the Monopoly contest which awarded prizes, topping off at a cool million dollars(paid over the course of twenty years). Of course a diet of Big Macs would likely kill off the winners in under that time period.
A company was hired to run the contest and an evil genius by the name of Jerome Jacobson figured out a method to rig the outcome of the game. His partner in crime is the most colorful character, a man with Mafia ties named Jerry Colombo of the notorious mob family. The two Jerrys made deals with third parties in order to collect the winnings in exchange for a split.
A single phone call to the FBI got the ball rolling and the author's storytelling chops are entertaining, with enough funny moments to keep the reader engaged throughout. The cast of gullible people looking for a quick buck is a reminder of how easily we can be tempted by one of the seven deadly sins, avarice.
Do not miss this remarkable book.
August 27, 2024
Based on the HBO Max series of the same name, McMillion$ follows the decades long fraud of the McDonalds Monopoly game. I hadn't watched the documentary series before reading this book and I'm glad I didn't. Having now consumed a few episodes of the series, I can say I liked the book more. There is more information in the book than in the series. I also liked the formatting of the book vs. how it was portrayed for streaming. The book follows a more linear format whereas the series jumps around a little bit more. I think each format works for the way it's telling the story. I don't mind when stories jump around in fiction, but for nonfiction it makes it harder to read. Keeping with a linear format, the novelization of this story allowed readers to see the story as the FBI agents were finding out information. In addition to the fraud case, I learned a lot about McDonalds that I didn't know before and was giving little tidbits to my husband as I read.
I'm a true crime fan and this is different than others things I've read lately, but in the best possible way.
Thank you to Grand Central Pub for a copy in exchange for review consideration.
I'm a true crime fan and this is different than others things I've read lately, but in the best possible way.
Thank you to Grand Central Pub for a copy in exchange for review consideration.
September 3, 2024
I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for choosing me.
I admit I had no idea there was a series about this case, nor did I know it had even happened before reading this book. I will also admit I was captivated from beginning to end. It's a book with a lot of information and a ton of names that you should pay attention to so that it doesn't confuse you. It's not overwhelming or ridiculously long. The chapters are kept fairly short, and the book is well written.
I don't think it was a victimless crime, but I'm not sure I agree that McDonalds pay anything to anyone. It wasn't their fault. They worked with the FBI, and it doesn't seem right for them to have to pay out just because people feel cheated (that's just my opinion). Sure, it sucks to know you could've won and didn't, but there was never any guarantee that you would win anyway. I definitely believe most people who read this book will enjoy it. I don't see how you couldn't unless you're out there trying to run the same or similar type of scam.
I admit I had no idea there was a series about this case, nor did I know it had even happened before reading this book. I will also admit I was captivated from beginning to end. It's a book with a lot of information and a ton of names that you should pay attention to so that it doesn't confuse you. It's not overwhelming or ridiculously long. The chapters are kept fairly short, and the book is well written.
I don't think it was a victimless crime, but I'm not sure I agree that McDonalds pay anything to anyone. It wasn't their fault. They worked with the FBI, and it doesn't seem right for them to have to pay out just because people feel cheated (that's just my opinion). Sure, it sucks to know you could've won and didn't, but there was never any guarantee that you would win anyway. I definitely believe most people who read this book will enjoy it. I don't see how you couldn't unless you're out there trying to run the same or similar type of scam.
August 22, 2024
This was a fascinating story of a major scandal involving the manipulation of McDonald’s prizes. The authors did a very good job of portraying the people involved, some of whom were crass manipulators and others who were taken advantage of by them.
I listened to this as an audiobook and I would not advise doing so. The authors did the narration and they had no idea of cadence and pace and their constant tendency to end sentences in a questioning tone made me crazy and almost caused me to give up listening more than once.
I listened to this as an audiobook and I would not advise doing so. The authors did the narration and they had no idea of cadence and pace and their constant tendency to end sentences in a questioning tone made me crazy and almost caused me to give up listening more than once.
August 18, 2024
Wow. 5+ stars
This fraud was truly mind boggling. Fascinating that it went on for so long and McDonalds had no idea. Thanks to an eager young FBI agent, desperate to go undercover for the first time, he sniffed the opportunity in a tip that almost went unnoticed, the fraud was broken wide open. The fraud itself was nothing I could have expected. Highly recommended.
I listened to the Audible audiobook.
This fraud was truly mind boggling. Fascinating that it went on for so long and McDonalds had no idea. Thanks to an eager young FBI agent, desperate to go undercover for the first time, he sniffed the opportunity in a tip that almost went unnoticed, the fraud was broken wide open. The fraud itself was nothing I could have expected. Highly recommended.
I listened to the Audible audiobook.
August 23, 2024
Good true crime book that suffers only from the fact that the authors are documentary filmmakers and not writers. But the story in and of itself is so entertaining and with such interesting characters that you are barely aware of the awkward prose.
If you've not heard the story of the McDonald's fraud case, it's because the charges in the case were filed on September 10, 2001. Yes, the day before 9/11.
If you've not heard the story of the McDonald's fraud case, it's because the charges in the case were filed on September 10, 2001. Yes, the day before 9/11.
August 27, 2024
This was excellent! Super dishy! if you were a young adult in the late 80s/early 90s you will remember the McDonalds Monopoly competition. Then, in the early 2000s you may remember hearing about a fraud. But then that was about it. Well, this explains everything surrounding the fraud and it is mind blowing!
August 27, 2024
This was a great, quick read. I finished it in a day and a half because I was captivated. I loved the McDonalds Monopoly game growing up and I never knew ANY of this... of course, it all makes sense when you look at the timeline.
August 19, 2024
This was so interesting and is honestly something that I'd never heard of before coming across this. Definitely worth a read if you enjoy true crime which isn't gruesome for a change.
August 25, 2024
Interesting
August 27, 2024
enjoyed, though not very different from the HBO series
August 31, 2024
This randomly came up on my Spotify so I listened to the audiobook over several runs. I guess you can say I’m in my McHappy era lol. Pretty interesting story I never knew about!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews