TJ Noel-Sullivan’s 2024 thriller Midas is about Ricky, a college dropout, who told a bunch of lies to get a job at Gregory Brent’s titular company. However, the mystery around the titular company began to unravel as soon as Ricky joined the office. He found out that he wasn’t the only person who had lied about his resume. Ricky, along with his friends, Sunita and Victor, tried to hack into the system to commit insurance fraud, when they came across some disturbing secrets about the company which completely changed their perspective about Gregory Brent. So, through this explainer, let’s find out if Ricky, Sunita and Victor are able to expose their boss’s shady schemes, or will they get caught by Brent before they can pull it off?
Spoilers Ahead
How did Ricky get a job at Midas?
Ricky had to drop out of college to look after his sick mother and his little sister. And even though Ricky didn’t want to leave his studies, he didn’t have any other option as someone had to earn the bread for the family. To make ends meet, Ricky started working as a food delivery guy and left his dreams behind. But his life took a turn for the better when Ricky heard about how his friend Sunita, who had bagged a job at Midas, a prestigious company, where she’d started as a mailroom worker.
Sunitawas invited to a fancy, glitzy party at her boss Gregory Brent’s house, and she didn’t want to go alone. So, Sunita asked Ricky to accompany her, along with her boyfriend Victor. Ricky’s mother, Mia, used to work at Midas too, so he had a tad-bit idea about the company’s background. Ricky wanted to make a good impression on Gregory Brent, so he decided to wear a Harvard t-shirt to blend in with the crowd, after all, Ricky thought there was no harm to be a bit flashy for one day, right?
At Brent’s party, Ricky met Claire, Gregory Brent’s daughter, and they hit it off immediately. But then came the big boss himself, Gregory, who started asking Ricky about his time at Harvard and which house he belonged to, and even though Ricky did not know too much about the Harvard houses, he just blurted out “Adams House,” and to his surprise, Gregory was thrilled about this coincidence as it turned out Gregory had been in Adams House during his time at Harvard, class of ’87. Things escalated when Ricky lied about how he had majored in Healthcare Administration, which made Gregory even more excited, since Midas was all about health insurance policies and Gregory was even more pleased when he heard Ricky’s mother, Mia, had once worked for him. But Ricky made up another lie—he told Gregory that his mother had passed away, as he just wanted to cover his tracks, and to make sure they believed whatever he said so as not to jeopardize the job opportunity. The next day, as Gregory had suggested, Ricky went to the Midas office and was hired as a Claims Department Coordinator under the supervision of Gregory’s nephew, Tom. The pay was fantastic—forty thousand dollars, plus benefits. Ricky’s job was simple: approve or deny people’s insurance claims after reviewing their backgrounds and purposes. Ricky was happy, as he knew with this job and the salary, he could finally take care of his family pretty well.
What Did Ricky Find Out?
For Ricky, the job wasn’t just about day-to-day comfort. His mother’s surgery and deteriorating health required her to go for surgery which would cost forty-four thousand dollars and as you know already, Ricky obviously didn’t have that kind of money lying around, as he had just started at the company. One day, when he was at work, he discovered that his mother Mia’s name was still in the company’s policy system from when she used to work there, however, she had been fired before she could use the insurance. Ricky thought of a plan: if he could reactivate her policy with the help of his friends Victor and Sunita, it would be perfect. Essentially, he suggested they commit insurance fraud. At first, Sunita and Victor weren’t thrilled with the idea, but Sunita had student loans to pay off, and Victor had a mortgage on his house: therefore, they realized they could also benefit from it and agreed to form a team.
On Tom’s birthday, the three of them devised a plan to distract Tom and the other employees during the lunch break so that they could manage to reactivate Mia’s policy. The plan was a success. However, Victor also uncovered something else about a project called Project Foresight, which Midas was a part of in partnership with a company named Genetic Tree. This project involved them to conduct DNA ancestry tests using policyholders’ biodata, with access to patient diagnoses and DNA risk factors, they could predict high-risk, costly diseases years before the official diagnosis. The project was essentially a scam—to identify people with genetic risks to terminate their policies or raise premiums to avoid large payouts. This was exactly what had happened in Mia’s case, as Midas had discovered her cancer risk and fired her to terminate her policy to avoid covering her treatment. This was essentially a murder scheme if you think about it. Ricky had no idea about this, but the next day, after they committed the fraud, Gregory suddenly offered him a job to become the project manager under this very Project Foresight. Sunita and Victor knew the truth about how Midas and Genetic Tree had scammed Mia and many others and realized that this “promotion” was likely a trap. Gregory either suspected their involvement in the embezzlement or had made the massive mistake of taking Ricky into this fraudulent project.
How did Claire help Ricky And His Friends?
Ricky, Sunita, and Victor all decided that they had to get into Gregory’s office and gather all the information about Project Foresight to bust him before he could expose them. And they were right: it was all part of Gregory’s plan, as he knew that Mia had worked for him and was aware that she was still alive, so, to trap Ricky, he invited Mia to the office gala, where Ricky was also invited. Ricky was shocked to see how cunning Gregory was, always one step ahead of them. Brent then threatened Ricky and warned him that he could never speak about the project or go to the police, or else he would send Ricky and his friends to jail for their fraudulent activities and would demote Ricky to working in the mailroom on minimum wage if he tried to cross him. Ricky wanted to expose Brent, but now, trapped by his own actions, he felt helpless, and it looked like this was the price he would have to pay for his lies and schemes. Ricky was obviously frustrated, but his girlfriend Claire was even more upset. She had no idea why Ricky hid so many things from her—like the fact that his mother was still alive or his false claims about his education. On the other hand, Ricky realized that taking down Gregory wouldn’t be easy, and to outsmart him, he took Gregory to the riverside to threaten to call the FBI as they had managed to take all the evidence from his computer. Brent was not ready to listen to his threat, but before things could escalate, Claire had gone to her father’s office to collect all the documents about Project Foresight. She sent it to Ricky and his friends as Claire was also tired of her father’s shady deals and how he prioritized his business over his own daughter and saw this as the perfect way to get revenge.
In Midas’ ending, with Claire’s help, Ricky, Sunita, and Victor finally had all the pieces of evidence to expose Gregory Brent’s illegal schemes once and for all. In the end, both Gregory and Tom were sent to jail after the FBI came to investigate Project Foresight. As compensation for scamming Mia, Ricky and his friends got $300,000; so, they ended up quite rich. As for their own insurance scam? They didn’t get caught—at least not yet. But who knows what tricks Gregory might pull in the future? Luckily, with Claire by Ricky’s side, she could probably provide him with the perfect alibi if anything came up. I think, now, Ricky can go back to school, finish his studies, and take care of his mother with that money, and not have to worry too much about what comes next.
