On The Verge Of Freedom, Former Coupon Executive Will Remain A Convicted Felon

Weeks before he officially becomes a free man, a former coupon company executive convicted in one of the industry’s most notorious fraud cases has failed in what was most likely his final attempt to clear his name before completing his sentence.

A federal judge in Wisconsin has denied a petition filed by 71-year-old Chris Balsiger, the former CEO of coupon processing company International Outsourcing Services, to vacate his sentence.

In his 2016 trial, prosecutors argued that Balsiger orchestrated a $250 million scheme to defraud coupon-issuing manufacturers. As the head of a company that collected coupons from retailers and submitted them to manufacturers for reimbursement, Balsiger was convicted of masterminding an effort to clip millions of coupons that were never actually used in stores, getting manufacturers to pay for them, and pocketing the proceeds.

Balsiger denied he did anything wrong. But he was sentenced in 2017 to serve ten years behind bars. He ended up serving about four and a half years before he was released to home confinement, and was scheduled to be free from federal custody by October 2025. Federal prison records now show that release date has been moved up to October 11th of this year. No explanation was provided, but federal inmates are eligible for a sentence reduction as part of the federal First Step Act, which allows them to earn up to a year off their sentence for good behavior and for participating in recidivism reduction programs.

Even with full freedom fast approaching, though, Balsiger has never let up in his effort to prove his innocence. He appealed his conviction, and lost. He filed a request for compassionate release for fear of contracting Covid in prison, and was denied. And he asked the court that sentenced him to vacate the sentence due to a number of alleged legal mistakes and misdeeds, which that court has now denied as well.

Many of his claims were already denied by the appeals court, the judge ruled last week, and Balsiger’s latest effort “provides no basis for this court to reconsider.” Among his complaints were that his attorneys were ineffective, that prosecutors improperly made a plea deal with a co-defendant he said could have exonerated him at trial, that the court incorrectly calculated the amount of losses he was said to have caused and subjected him to a harsher sentence as a result, and that prosecutors “knowingly used and presented false evidence, tampered with and influenced witnesses… and committed fraud on the court.” These allegations, the judge ruled, “are directly contradicted by the record, wildly speculative, or palpably incredible.”

As the appeals court had earlier noted, the judge pointed out, Balsiger’s trial included “testimony from 32 witnesses, including nine IOS employees who identified Balsiger as the mastermind behind the fraudulent scheme to deceive manufacturers,” which left little question as to his culpability. Balsiger, it should be remembered, was found guilty of “invoicing unused coupons as if shoppers had legitimately redeemed them,” the judge went on. “To avoid detection, Balsiger directed employees at IOS’s plants in Mexico to make new coupons look as if they had been used by causing them to become wrinkled and tattered,” at least once putting them “in a cement mixer to deceive manufacturers and their agents into believing the coupons had been redeemed.”

“Therefore,” the judge concluded his 34-page decision on the case brought by Balsiger, “it is ordered that petitioner’s motion is denied, and this case is dismissed.”

With Balsiger’s sentence due to end soon, the benefits of continuing to fight for his innocence are fewer, but not nonexistent. He may choose to continue trying to restore his reputation by wiping away the stigma of having been a convicted felon. More importantly, proving he was wrongfully convicted could eliminate the $65 million restitution order that’s hanging over his head. The last time prosecutors updated the court a few years ago, they said Balsiger had paid all of $550 toward that total. In his order last week denying Balsiger’s motion, the judge approved a separate government motion to seize the bond money Balsiger had put up, and apply it toward his restitution.

That will still leave him with a long way to go before he’s fully paid off that eight-figure sum. He may not agree to do so quietly, though. The coupon industry has changed a great deal from the time when Chris Balsiger was one of its most prominent figures. But if the past several years of appeals and petitions are any indication, the courts and the industry are unlikely to have heard the last from him.