Another “Coupon Enthusiast” Pleads Guilty To Fraud

There’s nothing wrong with being a “coupon enthusiast,” as prosecutors described Melissa Apodaca of Thornton, Colorado. It’s when that enthusiasm crosses the line into criminal activity, that authorities take notice.

Apodaca has become the second customer of an incarcerated coupon counterfeiter to plead guilty to criminal charges of her own.

Prosecutors said Apodaca was among the top five customers of Lori Ann Talens. Back in 2021, Talens was convicted and sentenced to 12 years behind bars for creating and selling thousands of counterfeit coupons with a total face value of nearly $32 million.

Often, in such cases, the mastermind of a counterfeit coupon scheme is ordered to cover all of the losses themselves, with a multimillion-dollar restitution order they can never realistically afford to pay in full. And their customers claim ignorance, saying they had no idea the coupons they were buying were fake.

But Talens kept detailed records of her transactions. And investigators used them to track down her most loyal customers, at least two of whom have now admitted they knew full well what they were doing.

“Apodaca became part of Lori Ann Talens’ private Telegram counterfeit coupon community and purchased counterfeit coupons from Lori Ann Talens on numerous occasions,” her plea agreement reads. Investigators found that Apodaca made 94 separate purchases from Talens, spending a total of $9,311.42 for an estimated $465,571 worth of counterfeit coupons.

Since the counterfeit coupons Apodaca purchased were sent through the U.S. mail, Apodaca was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, mail fraud. The maximum penalty at sentencing is 20 years imprisonment, plus fines, forfeiture and restitution to the companies who suffered losses.

Last month, Amber Teague of Louisville, Kentucky reached her own plea agreement, pleading guilty to the same charge. Prosecutors said she, too, was one of Talens’s top customers, making 155 purchases of $12,332.72 in total, for fraudulent coupons with an estimated face value of $616,636.

Both are scheduled to be sentenced on December 16th. And they could end up sharing that date with at least one other, as another of Talens’s “top customers” has her own plea hearing scheduled later this week. The cases against the remaining two to be charged are ongoing.

As for Talens herself, she’s nearly four years into her 12-year prison sentence, during which time she has made several attempts to challenge her conviction, her sentence and the amount of restitution she was ordered to pay. None of those efforts has so far been successful.

Apodaca, Teague and perhaps others will soon learn the lesson that Talens already has – counterfeit coupons may pay off in the short term. But the long-term consequences can be hard to shake.

Image source: FBI