New York - A medical research expert who tried to extort millions of dollars from McDonald's by saying he found a french-fried rat tail in his son's meal was convicted of fraud by a federal jury on Monday. Michael Zanakis (44), of Harding, New Jersey, faces up to 4 1/2 years in prison after the Long Island jury at the US District Court in Hauppauge found he placed the rat tail in his son's french fries.
The claim led investigators to another case in 1993, when he told Coca-Cola that he had swallowed grease after drinking its product. Zanakis was also convicted of fraud charges stemming from the 1993 scheme. In January 1996, Zanakis, a neurophysiologist who is the director of research for the Kessler Institute of West Orange, New Jersey, a leading spinal care centre, told McDonald's he had found the tail in his son's french fries and his son had bitten into it.