Dane Cook opens up on brother stealing $12 million from him and the 'humiliation' that followed
Nearly two decades after discovering his brother had stolen millions of dollars from him, Dane Cook is set to tell his story in a new documentary.
The famed comedian has spoken out about the devastating family betrayal, in which his half-brother Darryl McCauley had funnelled $12 million into his own accounts, in his new film Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story.
Cook, who hails from Massachusetts, was a trailblazer for using social media to rocket launch a career as a performer, first finding fame as a teenager on MySpace in the early noughties.
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The 54-year-old's career went from strength to strength, and at the height of his success saw him earning many millions of dollars while selling out arenas like Madison Square Gardens.
It was around this time that the comic decided to hire his older half-brother Darryl McCauley as his business manager, though in truth the hiring was more about supporting a loved one.
McCauley was incredibly well paid for the role, taking in more than $100,000 a year and things seemed to be going great for the siblings until Cook made a horrifying discovery in 2008.
The comedian had brought in a new business manager in preparation for a move to California and not long after taking up the post, the new employee found a number of suspicious transactions, including a $3 million cheque made out to McCauley.
After Cook confronted his sibling and alerted the authorities, an investigation uncovered that McCauley and his wife Erika had stolen at least $12 million over a four year period.
In 2010, McCauley pleased guilty and was sentenced to five to six years in jail, but it wasn't until 2019 that the comedian ever spoke publicly about his brother's crimes and the horrific betrayal that came with it.
Now, he has finally spoken in depth about how the ordeal affected him and rest of his family, revealing they are now all better off for what happened.
He told Deadline: "I believe that nothing’s falling apart, it’s only ever falling together. Without giving too much away, in the doc, you sort of see my philosophy — my personal constitution — and I’m a firm believer in, take the things that happened to you and make them a part of your winning formula, and don’t let them cause you to sputter. You’ve got to use it as fuel."
When asked about the press coverage of McCauley's crimes, Cook revealed: "When I talk about what really was I feeling at that time, the humiliation was worse than the theft. The humiliation went back to the kid on the playground that felt like I didn’t want kids looking and making fun of me because I felt ugly and I had acne and I was a wallflower and I had all this insecurity."
Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story will premiere at the New York Comedy Festival in November.
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Emma Rosemurgey