The incredible true story of how $24 million was stolen from the McDonald’s Monopoly in the 1990s is one that few people may be familiar with.
Perhaps they’ve heard of the case but weren’t privy to the federal investigation that culminated in a sting after the biggest winning tickets and game pieces were being stolen and sold to undeserving winners for more than a decade.
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Thanks to an anonymous tip to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in 2001, a complex web of 53 family members and friends who became co-conspirators was finally taken down.
“McMillions,” a six-part docuseries from HBO, takes viewers on an unbelievable journey of the chain of events through the creative investigative work by special agents that included undercover sting operations and wiretaps to take down the dealings of shifty con men with ties to the mob.
The fast-food fraud, on the surface, looks like an open-and-shut case, however, in order for investigators and prosecutors to peel back the layers and uncover the real-life players responsible for the fix, the Golden Arches corporation had to run one more game of Monopoly.
Fox News caught up with series executive producer Mark Wahlberg at the premiere for “McMillions” on Thursday in Los Angeles, and he opened up about first learning of the jaw-dropping story that he jumped at the opportunity to be a part of, and dished on whether or not he has ever won anything in the beloved McDonald’s Monopoly game.
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“Yeah, I mean, it was one of those days where I had heard about it on the news when it was happening and then something else happens and all the attention shifts to that,” Wahlberg, 48, said of the case. “But I didn't really know any of the details and the nuance until we met with the filmmakers and started to hear the intimate details of what happened and how fascinating it was. And then it was like one of those things where it just sounds so farfetched and unreal."
The “Fighter” performer said he was taken aback at the number of documentation filmmakers James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte had compiled in their nearly three years of investigating the case and going through case files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
“Well, you know what it is -- it's just all in the details. And those guys... I mean, they uncovered stuff that the FBI never even knew about,” Wahlberg said of the two directors, who joked at the two-episode screening that they “share a brain” at this point. “And that's great journalism, great reporting, great storytelling -- all of those things.”
In explaining the depths that they needed to go to in order to tell the complete story, Lazarte said he and Hernandez spoke to countless subjects who were in one way or another connected to the fraud.
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“We sat down, obviously like you, when you discover you never had a chance of winning the McDonald's Monopoly game -- I was interested but wasn't sure what kind of characters would make up telling this story. Is it worth pursuing?” he said. “So on our own dime, we just decided to meet up with some of the federal agents who [James] had already reach out to and the federal prosecutor and we'd been on phone calls with some of the winners or quote-unquote winners and it was obvious immediately that there was a lot here, at least a feature documentary.”
Lazarte said when they finally realized the scope of their investigation and how many people were involved, it was clear there was a lot more to the story that had to be told.
“The more and more we got into it, it just blew up and blew up and when we realized how many people were involved, how do you fit all that into an hour and a half?” he said. “And there are so many incredible characters who have so much to say about their story and their involvement that when we started to break it out into what we felt would be first a three-part series and a four-part landed at six.”
Wahlberg echoed Lazarte and Hernandez’s sentiment, adding that he was incredibly moved and blown away by the wide-ranging personalities associated with the entire story, including the arraignments of the suspects that was ultimately buried by the tragedy of 9/11.
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“There were arraignments that were actually happening on September 11th,” Lazarte explained. “There were actually attorneys who were there who had flown into Jacksonville for the arraignment, then 9/11 happened and they shut down everything... airports. These attorneys couldn't even fly back. It's an amazing story.”
“The cast of characters is absolutely fascinating. You know, there's so much humor in these episodes, but there's also a lot of heartbreak, you know, innocent people or people who didn't think they were really committing any serious crimes,” Wahlberg added. “Thinking it wouldn't harm anybody -- a major corporation that's worth billions of dollars. Somebody is giving them an actual piece. It wasn't like they were counterfeiting or anything -- who then could become complicit in mail fraud. And, you know, looking at federal prison and all that stuff and they didn't get to keep of their money.”
Brian Lazarte, left, Mark Wahlberg, and James Lee Hernandez, right, attend the LA Premiere Of HBO's "McMillion$ at the Landmark Theater on January 30, 2020 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic)
The Wahlburgers owner continued in explaining how those who were complicit in the elaborate scheme could justify their actions -- seemingly casting their morals aside in the name of fast fortune.
“A lot of the people are really bad people who were then saying, 'OK, give us $25,000 and we'll give you a million-dollar ticket.' It's like, 'OK, wow. I'm still up $975,000,’” Wahlberg said. “But then you're paying taxes and then you do you get the buyout over the 20-year period and then they were collecting half of everything that they got. And then they had to come up and create these elaborate stories because once the investigation started happening and that's when they really put themselves in a very compromising position.”
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When asked if he had ever won anything in the decades-long game, Wahlberg said: “I never won anything. I never really got anything free and anything I stole, I always lost or got caught for.”
“So it definitely tells you that crime doesn't pay, that's for sure," he added.
“McMillions” debuts on Feb. 3 on HBO.
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February 03, 2020 at 05:01PM
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'McMillions' EP Mark Wahlberg jokes he 'never won anything' in rigged McDonald’s Monopoly game at HBO premiere - Fox News
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