McDonald's communications manager Amy Murray was sweating, and not just because of the weather. It was a muggy August morning in 2001, and she stood on the porch of Michael Hoover's nondescript townhome in Westerly, Rhode Island. The casino pit boss waiting inside was the latest winner of a promotional game that enticed customers to collect Monopoly "pieces" from the sides of the fast food chain's signature red boxes and in magazine inserts. Winners were promised "big time prizes!" like tropical vacations and free fries.

But Hoover hadn't found a free McFlurry. The piece he peeled out of a People was the whopping $1 million grand prize.

Only, he hadn't really won. Not fairly, anyway. Murray—there under the guise of filming a public relations video—was actually part of a top-secret FBI mission to prove Hoover's involvement in a scheme to cheat the country's second largest fast food chain, and its 69 million customers, out of the game.

She took a deep breath and knocked.