First, prosecutors went after a major coupon counterfeiter. Now they’re beginning to hold the counterfeiter’s customers to account.
The first of five people to be charged as one of the top buyers of a convicted coupon counterfeiter has agreed to plead guilty to knowingly purchasing thousands of fraudulent coupons, and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
Federal prosecutors have announced a plea agreement with Amber Teague of Louisville, Kentucky. Identified as “a coupon enthusiast,” prosecutors described Teague as “one of the top five purchasers of counterfeit coupons” from Lori Ann Talens.
Talens is currently serving a 12-year prison term for creating and selling tens of millions of dollars worth of counterfeit coupons. Talens used her graphic design skills to create more than 13,000 distinct counterfeit coupon designs with a total face value of nearly $32 million. Prosecutors said she “would locate individual coupon enthusiasts on Facebook and invite them to chat privately on Telegram,” where those “enthusiasts” then became her customers.
And she kept “highly accurate and detailed records of her customers and their transactions,” prosecutors noted. So after Talens was convicted, prosecutors used her records to pursue cases against her biggest customers.
Teague “purchased counterfeit coupons from Lori Ann Talens on numerous occasions,” according to a court document outlining the plea agreement. “Talens documented these transactions in her customer spreadsheet and kept pictures of some of the coupons she mailed to Teague as well as screenshots of their conversations discussing the transactions.”
In total, Teague made purchases on 155 separate occasions, spending $12,332.72 for fraudulent coupons with an estimated face value of $616,636.
Teague and four others were charged back in December with conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. Teague has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud and, as part of the plea agreement, the other charges will be dropped.
Court records indicate that two other alleged Talens customers, Melissa Apodaca of Thornton, Colorado and Jennifer Snyder of Lavon, Texas, have also reached plea agreements, with details to be announced to the court in the coming weeks. The cases against Cindi Swindle of Jacksonville, Florida and Sherise Williams of Palmetto, Florida, who’s described as Talens’s single largest customer, are ongoing.
All “knowingly purchased thousands of dollars of these counterfeit coupons from Lori Ann Talens and used them to defraud businesses and enrich themselves,” the December indictment reads.
Teague is scheduled to be sentenced on December 16th. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars, plus fines, forfeiture and full restitution for the amount of losses she caused.
And you can bet her co-defendants will be watching closely as the judge determines her fate – as they all learn that cutting corners to save some money in the short term can have some serious long-term consequences.
Image source: FBI
