McMillions
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Narrated by:
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Brian Lazarte
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James Lee Hernandez
About this listen
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$. Perfect for listeners of Argo, The Wizard of Lies, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
In March of 2001, Federal prosecutor Mark Devereaux cold-called Rob Holm, the head of security for McDonald's Corporation. Without explanation, Devereaux asked that Holm and several other McDonald's senior executives plan a visit to the Jacksonville, Florida, FBI, and tell no one about their intended destination. It wasn't up for discussion. Upon their arrival, Devereaux watched them closely, looking at body language, checking for tells. To him, they were all potential suspects.
Once they were seated in an unremarkable conference room, sealed away in the hyper-secure FBI building, Devereaux began to lay out a shocking conspiracy, one that ran deep into McDonald's most beloved promotions: the Monopoly game. This is where they began to discover from 1989 to 2001, almost every high-value prize winner was actually illegitimate. But how could this happen and who all was behind it? A rookie FBI agent and a brilliant undercover operation led them to one man who brilliantly crafted a near-infallible nationwide conspiracy for fraud.
Expanded from the wildly popular HBO docuseries with major new interviews, McMillion$ 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.
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"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
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Great story
- By Viktor on 08-17-24
By: Ron Peterson Jr.
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The Devil Behind the Badge
- The Horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer
- By: Rick Jervis
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Melissa Ramirez, Claudine Anne Luera, Guiselda Hernandez, and Janelle Ortiz were four marginalized women striving to make ends meet as sex workers. They looked out for one another. But they would soon share a connection that none of them could have imagined. When Melissa was found dead, the other three women were on edge but assumed they were safe. Twelve days later, they too were dead and police had detained an unlikely suspect—Juan David Ortiz, a ten-year veteran of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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Too liberally political
- By Teresa on 12-08-24
By: Rick Jervis
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Buried Secrets
- Looking for Frank and Ida
- By: Anne Hanson
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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WHEN ANNE HANSON'S DAD FIRST ASKED her to investigate the secret past of his parents, little did she know what she was getting into. For two decades, despite all her digging, she failed to unearth even the tiniest speck of evidence that the families of her grandparents, Frank and Ida Hanson, had ever existed. If her quest were a detective novel, its title would have been, "The Case of the Missing Ancestors."
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Interesting History
- By Owlchick on 11-19-24
By: Anne Hanson
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Mississippi Swindle
- Brett Favre and the Welfare Scandal That Shocked America
- By: Shad White
- Narrated by: Eric Burgher
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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This riveting exposé details how a small team of auditors and investigators, led by the youngest State Auditor in the country, uncovered a brazen scheme where the powerful stole millions in welfare funds from the poor in a sprawling conspiracy that stretched from Mississippi to Malibu.
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Shad White is the real MVP
- By michael on 08-07-24
By: Shad White
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Guilty Creatures
- Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida
- By: Mikita Brottman
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Mike and Denise Williams had a tight knit, seemingly unbreakable bond with childhood friends, Brian and Kathy Winchester. The two couples were devout, hardworking Baptists who lived perfect, quintessentially Southern lives. Their friendship seemed ironclad. That is, until December 16, 2000, when Denise’s husband Mike disappeared while duck hunting on Lake Seminole. After no body was found, everyone assumed that Mike had drowned in a tragic accident, his body eaten by alligators. But things took an unexpected turn when Brian Winchester divorced his wife and married Denise.
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Mostly Filler
- By Bootless on 08-15-24
By: Mikita Brottman
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Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King
- Bill Gates and His Quest to Shape Our World
- By: Anupreeta Das
- Narrated by: Ulka Simone Mohanty
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Few billionaires have been in the public eye for as long, and in as many guises, as Bill Gates. At first heralded as a tech visionary, the Microsoft cofounder next morphed into a ruthless capitalist, only to change yet again when he fashioned himself into a global do-gooder. Along the way, Gates forever influenced how we think about tech founders, as the products they make and the ideas they sell continue to dominate our lives. Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he also set a new standard for high-profile, billionaire philanthropy.
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Incredibly boring and meandering
- By Aislinn Macintosh on 08-15-24
By: Anupreeta Das
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In the Wind
- The Disappearance of Janice Starr
- By: Ron Peterson Jr.
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1981, detective Kay Schucker was the lead investigator in the high-profile missing persons case of Old Dominion University student Janice Starr. The beautiful co-ed disappeared without a trace from ODU's Norfolk, Virginia campus. Among the only leads was Janice's diary, which included detailed journal entries about her daily activities. As Kay studied the diary—going several years back—she learned that Janice, a US Army veteran, had faced the same challenges in the military that Kay did in law enforcement. They were both women trying to succeed in a man's world.
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Great story
- By Viktor on 08-17-24
By: Ron Peterson Jr.
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Madoff
- The Final Word
- By: Richard Behar
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell, Bernie Madoff
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Some $65 billion evaporated during Bernie Madoff’s epic confidence game. Two people were driven to suicide in the wake of the Ponzi Scheme’s exposure. Others went to prison. But there has never been a satisfying accounting for how Bernie got away with so much, for so long. Until now. Shocking, infuriating, riveting (and at times absurdly funny), Madoff shows us how Bernie ensnared thousands of investors. As Behar’s dogged reporting over the last fifteen years makes clear, however, there aren’t many innocents left standing by the end of this tale.
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Incredible
- By Carole Tillman on 08-08-24
By: Richard Behar
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The Lewiston Shootings
- An All-American Tragedy
- By: Robert Conlin
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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October 25, 2023 was just an ordinary night in Lewiston, a small, working class city of 37,000 in central Maine. Friends and families had gathered to do what they loved to do with the people they wanted to be with at a bowling alley called Just-in-Time Recreation Center and Schemengees, a popular sports bar and restaurant. They felt immune from the violent crime that seemed to wrack the rest of the country in a state that the FBI had just named the safest in America.
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Why Now?
- By Jeccaamato on 08-24-24
By: Robert Conlin
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Gray Matters
- A Biography of Brain Surgery
- By: Theodore H. Schwartz
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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We’ve all heard the phrase “it’s not brain surgery.” But what exactly is brain surgery? It’s a profession that is barely a hundred years old and profoundly connects two human beings, but few know how it works, or its history. In this warm, rigorous, and deeply insightful book, Dr. Theodore H. Schwartz explores what it’s like to hold the scalpel, wield the drill, extract a tumor, fix a bullet hole, and remove a blood clot—when every second can mean life or death.
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Fascinating
- By Barb Freeman on 08-28-24
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The Brothers Kenney
- By: Adam Mitzner
- Narrated by: Stacy Carolan
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Former track star Sean Kenney used to be on top of the world, but that was a very long time ago. Now he’s been estranged from his loved ones for the past two years—until the unthinkable calls him home. While struggling to make sense of the devastating death that has shaken the Kenney family to its core, Sean grasps at the opportunity to seek forgiveness for his past mistakes—from his family and himself—while clinging to the belief that if he can discover what really happened that day, he might somehow be redeemed.
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Adult family drama
- By Sheila S on 09-04-24
By: Adam Mitzner
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Rinsed
- From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Washes Money for the World's Deadliest Crooks
- By: Geoff White
- Narrated by: Geoff White
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Money laundering has been around for centuries. For as long as people have been stealing money, there's been an industry ready to wash it. But recent tech innovations have created vastly complex new systems for laundering that threaten to overwhelm authorities, destabilise economies and disrupt societies. Ranging from the flamboyant luxury of Dubai hotels to quiet coastal Ireland, from the UK to Nigeria and from Indonesia to North Korea, Rinsed is a truly global relevatory investigation into the new army of innovative launderers ... and the consequences for all of us.
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Almost but not quite plagiarism
- By T.T. on 06-19-24
By: Geoff White
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Scam Goddess
- Lessons from a Life of Cons, Grifts, and Schemes
- By: Laci Mosley
- Narrated by: Laci Mosley
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In Scam Goddess, Laci recounts how her scammer instincts have guided her throughout her life—from a religious childhood in rural Texas, to a stint as a city bartender at what might have been a drug front, to swindling her way past the gatekeepers of Hollywood—recounting the greatest true-crime scam stories that inspired her along the way. Whether it’s by the beauty industry, capitalism, or the people we date, we’re all getting scammed. In this book, Laci identifies the secrets to flipping the script and coming out ahead.
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Even better than the podcast
- By Magali R. on 12-04-24
By: Laci Mosley
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I Shouldn't Be Telling You This
- (But I'm Going to Anyway)
- By: Chelsea Devantez
- Narrated by: Chelsea Devantez
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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There are things Chelsea Devantez probably shouldn’t be telling you. Many of them are in this book: some are embarrassing (like when she tried to break her three year spell of celibacy using a guide of seduction tips). Some are confessional (getting sentenced to the “hell hill” at Mormon church camp). Some are TMI (a series of outrageous doctor visits that ended with one doctor misdiagnosing her as “pregnant.” Woopsies!).
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A large missing piece
- By F. Pryne on 06-18-24
By: Chelsea Devantez
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White Robes and Broken Badges
- Infiltrating the KKK and Exposing the Evil Among Us
- By: Joe Moore
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In this shocking memoir, a former FBI informant reveals what he learned from successfully infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the backwoods of the Sunshine State, uncovering details about the hate group’s structure and its modern far-right spinoffs which are operating to achieve the same goal: inciting a second civil war by whatever violent means necessary.
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Honest, historically accurate portrayal
- By Jaime on 08-20-24
By: Joe Moore
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Never Enough
- From Barista to Billionaire
- By: Andrew Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Once a barista in a small cafe making $6.50 an hour, Andrew Wilkinson built a business valued at over a billion dollars by the time he was 36—and yet, his path to success was anything but a straight line. In Never Enough, Wilkinson pulls back the curtain on the lives of the ultra-rich, sharing insights into building a successful business that has been called a “Berkshire Hathaway, but for internet companies,” and a surprising first-person account of what it's actually like to become a billionaire.
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Paying it forward and backward
- By Robert ONeill on 07-28-24
By: Andrew Wilkinson
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Hitler's People
- The Faces of the Third Reich
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Richard Evans, author of the acclaimed The Third Reich Trilogy and over two dozen other volumes on modern Europe, is our preeminent scholar of Nazi Germany. Having spent half a century searching for the truths behind one of the most horrifying episodes in human history, in Hitler’s People, he brings us back to the original site of the Nazi movement: namely, the lives of its most important members. Working in concentric circles out from Hitler and his closest allies, Evans forms a typological framework of Germany society under Nazi rule from the top down.
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Excellent presentation.
- By Arnie on 08-28-24
By: Richard J. Evans
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There Is No Ethan
- How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish
- By: Anna Akbari
- Narrated by: Anna Akbari, Justin Price
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011, three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and charming Ethan Schuman. Unbeknownst to the others, each exchanged countless messages with Ethan, staying up late into the evenings to deepen their connections with this fascinating man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did last minute trip cancellations. After all, why would he lie? Ethan wasn't after money—he never convinced his marks to shell out thousands of dollars for some imagined crisis.
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An instant classic
- By 6catz on 06-07-24
By: Anna Akbari
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The Barn
- The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi
- By: Wright Thompson
- Narrated by: Wright Thompson
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Wright Thompson’s family farm in Mississippi is 23 miles from the site of one of the most notorious and consequential killings in American history, yet he had to leave the state for college before he learned the first thing about it. To this day, fundamental truths about the crime are widely unknown, including where it took place and how many people were involved. This is no accident: the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.
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Evocative
- By Mentally in Paris on 09-25-24
By: Wright Thompson
What listeners say about McMillions
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- charlie tuna III
- 08-19-24
Sounds like a tin can recording
Someone ate too much McDonalds. The story is extremely excellent. However it sounds very tinny. Sounds sometimes like it was recorded in a big empty restroom. Very hard at times to listen to.
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