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Breaking News

FBI Makes Arrests in Scheme Involving McDonald's Monopoly Game

Aired August 21, 2001 - 12:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, "BURDEN OF PROOF": To Kelli Arena, justice correspondent, who has breaking news -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Greta, sources tell CNN that the FBI will announce that it has made arrests in an alleged scheme to defraud McDonald's Corporation by rigging its recent Monopoly game.

Now, sources say the FBI will say that at least eight people who worked for a company that McDonald's hired to run the Monopoly game are implicated in the alleged scheme. Seven of the eight are in custody. Sources say the eighth is still being sought. More arrests, though, are anticipated in this scheme.

The investigation involved FBI field offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Memphis, Indianapolis and South Carolina. Again, in a nutshell, the FBI will announce -- they have a scheduled press conference at 2:15. And sources tell us that that will involve a scheme to defraud McDonald's Corporation -- Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: Kelli, for those of us who haven't been playing the McDonald's Monopoly game, at least of recent day, can you give us a little idea -- do we know, at least, at this point, what the rigging was, what the game involved?

ARENA: No details, Greta. I am hot on this story, trying to get as much as I can for you. But there are no purchases involved. If people have been into McDonald's, you get little game pieces, and you have a board. And it's basically like the regular Monopoly board. And you put your pieces on the board. And when you get enough, you win.

Of course, I have a 3-year-old, so I spend a lot of time at McDonald's. But that is -- we don't know exactly how the scheme worked. We don't even know if the company that McDonald's hired -- we don't have a name of the company yet. We're trying to find that out. We don't even know if the company itself is implicated. That's not clear at this point. But we do know that at least eight of its employees have been indicted.

And seven of those are in custody. And one other, I am told, is supposedly on vacation. And the FBI is trying to track that person down.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Kelli Arena, with breaking news, thank you very much for joining us.

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