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Lunchtime Long Reads: How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions (1 Viewer)

I wonder if the guy actually wore the clown makeup while making the phone calls. If so, extra credit for the extra effort.

 
rockaction said:
:lmao: :lmao:

Oh, man, I don't know sad this ends but you made me laugh on a bad day. Thanks, Tobias. 
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The clown bit is an extraneous detail. The whole (unrelated) story is great though. There's a mafia boss, corporate intrigue, an elaborate FBI sting, sidenotes about 9/11 and gray M&Ms, pretty much everything. If I was a Hollywood producer I'd be on the phone with the journalist about movie rights ASAP.

 
Apparently this very long article is now the most-read Daily Beast story of the year, pretty surprising in the era of Buzzfeed.

 
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Amazing how little time that anyone involved got for such a massive deception.

Guy who rigged a lottery for a mountain lion was executed. These guys and gals did a few months. Oh wait, I forgot the $50 a month restitution.

 
What blows me away is that it lasted for so long. I remember when it came out that it was rigged and McDonalds did essentially an apology contest, but I never realized that it was rigged for years and years, and that it was ALL of the major prizes. Crazy.

 
FTA: "The judge sent him to jail for 37 months. He did not pass go."

The trial started on 9/10/2001.  As the article points out, it obviously became an afterthought the next day so it's no wonder why this never made big news.

 
GroveDiesel said:
What blows me away is that it lasted for so long. I remember when it came out that it was rigged and McDonalds did essentially an apology contest, but I never realized that it was rigged for years and years, and that it was ALL of the major prizes. Crazy.
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What blew my mind was McDonald's running one contest as an overt FBI sting operation.

 
Gawain said:
Amazing how little time that anyone involved got for such a massive deception.

Guy who rigged a lottery for a mountain lion was executed. These guys and gals did a few months. Oh wait, I forgot the $50 a month restitution.
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And apparently tons of other cheaters never got caught, the last few paragraphs of the article detail some past winners that had obvious ties to the ringleader and dubious claims but were never charged.

 
Buckna said:
And apparently tons of other cheaters never got caught, the last few paragraphs of the article detail some past winners that had obvious ties to the ringleader and dubious claims but were never charged.
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I can get why some folks couldn't be charged. Lack of evidence, statute of limitations, what-have-you...but the folks that they had dead to rights, people who had cleared six and seven figures for selling and receiving stolen property and probably violating a whole host of interstate commerce laws received basically a slap on the wrist. 

There are people doing hard time for stealing 1% of what this guy did. $24,000,000 and was sentenced 37 months. He paid 12.5M in restitution. Lots of folks would do three years in the hole for a tenth of that difference. Just sticks in my craw.

“You know what it is about this case? It’s Americana that got ripped off,” said FBI special agent Tom Kneir. “For every kid or person who came through a McDonald’s hoping that, ‘Hey, maybe it’ll be my day and I’ll win $1 million,’ it wasn’t going to happen.”
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TobiasFunke said:
The clown bit is an extraneous detail. The whole (unrelated) story is great though. There's a mafia boss, corporate intrigue, an elaborate FBI sting, sidenotes about 9/11 and gray M&Ms, pretty much everything. If I was a Hollywood producer I'd be on the phone with the journalist about movie rights ASAP.
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and strippers. Don’t forget the strippers. 

 
Gawain said:
I can get why some folks couldn't be charged. Lack of evidence, statue of limitations, what-have-you...but the folks that they had dead to rights, people who had cleared six and seven figures for selling and receiving stolen property and probably violating a whole host of interstate commerce laws received basically a slap on the wrist. 

There are people doing hard time for stealing 1% of what this guy did. $24,000,000 and was sentenced 37 months. He paid 12.5M in restitution. Lots of folks would do three years in the hole for a tenth of that difference. Just sticks in my craw.
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we've got to keep kids who sold an ounce of weed off the streets

no amount of time is too much to protect the children, i say

 
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Wait, are you telling me all those ####### Monopoly pieces me and my kids collected were never going to win me anything - just make me fat and give me the runs?

#### YOU RONALD!

 
I just heard about this story.  Pretty crazy.  I was in military boot camp when this all broke, so I never knew.  I think the movie should be pretty interesting.  They have a lot of story line to go off of.

Does McDonalds still do the monopoly thing?  I hardly go there anymore. 

 
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