Accused Coupon Counterfeiter In $18 Million Case Faces Additional Charges

A Texas woman now faces several new charges in connection with a case first brought last year, in which she was accused of creating and selling nearly $18 million worth of counterfeit coupons. And prosecutors have revealed that she had an accomplice in designing her forgeries, who could potentially face charges as well.

48-year-old Janet Bernal of San Antonio was arrested back in August and charged with three counts of wire fraud. This week, she was indicted by a federal grand jury on two additional counts of wire fraud and an added charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The details in the indictment were largely the same as those in the criminal complaint that was unsealed last summer.

Bernal was accused of running a subscription-only coupon group on the Telegram messaging app for at least four years, where she allegedly offered counterfeit coupons for sale to paying members. For an initiation fee of $75 and a subsequent monthly payment of $50 (later upped to $100), members had unlimited access to all available coupons.

Using the name “Rocky” or one of several similar variations, Bernal allegedly ran the chat group initially called Darkside Jungle and later changed to Perfectly Imperfect. Undercover investigators learned about the group and signed up, buying more than 7,500 coupons, all of which were found to be counterfeit. By then, thousands of other coupons had already been used in at least 156 different stores across the country, causing losses to retailers and manufacturers of approximately $17.8 million.

But prosecutors say Bernal didn’t act alone. New in the indictment are references to a co-conspirator from Michigan, “a coder who provided fraudulent barcodes to Bernal for use on counterfeit coupons” that she then allegedly made available for sale. The co-conspirator has not been named and, as yet, has not been charged. But as the case proceeds, prosecutors could choose to hold Bernal’s alleged accomplice responsible for their role in the counterfeiting crime as well.

If convicted, Bernal faces a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of at least $250,000. The indictment also calls for her to forfeit everything she allegedly earned from the scheme, which would be in addition to any restitution she may be ordered to pay.

Coupons are supposed to save you money. But when counterfeiters let greed get the best of them, they’re likely to find that coupons can actually end up costing them – in this case, dearly.

Image source: cpyles