One woman’s counterfeit coupon scheme cost stores $31 million in losses, feds say
Federal investigators said they found $1 million worth of counterfeit coupons strewn about a home in Virginia Beach while executing a search warrant last year.
But the real cache was on the computer.
Lori Ann Talens, 41, is accused of designing more than 13,000 fake coupons that ultimately cost retailers and manufacturers at least $31 million in losses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said. She and her husband, 43-year-old Pacifico Talens, pleaded guilty to the scheme this week.
“Counterfeiting coupons harms the entire retail industry and causes financial loss to consumers, businesses, and the economy,” U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh said in a news release. “As this case demonstrates, those who use illegal get-rich-quick schemes to deceive others will be brought to justice.”
Defense attorneys representing the couple did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Friday.
Pacifico and Lori Talens waived their right to an indictment and pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday and Thursday, court documents show. Lori Talens also pleaded guilty to wire and health care fraud.
At her sentencing on Aug. 31, she faces up to 50 years in prison, prosecutors said. Pacifico Talens faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 19.
The coupon scheme lasted from April 2017 to May 2020, according to statements of fact accompanying their plea deals.
During that time, prosecutors said Lori Talens targeted “coupon enthusiasts” on Facebook and the instant messaging app Telegram to sell them counterfeits. She reportedly went by the name “MasterChef.”
“These counterfeit coupons were virtually indistinguishable from authentic coupons and were often created with inflated values, far in excess of what an authentic coupon would offer, in order to receive items from retail for free or for a greatly reduced price,” prosecutors said.
Customers reportedly paid the couple for the fake coupons using Bitcoin and PayPal. According to court documents, Pacifico Talens tested the coupons at stores, sold them to his coworkers and helped ship them to his wife’s customers.
But not long after the scheme began, prosecutors said a suspicious coupon enthusiast reached out to the Coupon Information Center to report Lori and Pacifico Talens.
The Coupon Information Center is a nonprofit association made up of consumer product manufacturers “dedicated to fighting coupon misredemption and fraud,” according to its website. The person told the center they were invited to a private messaging group offering counterfeit coupons for sale.
The executive director later relayed the report to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, prosecutors said.
For the next two years, the person reportedly agreed to buy counterfeit coupons from Lori Talens and send them to the Coupon Information Center and federal investigators. Prosecutors said the packages always came from “MasterChef Designs” or “MasterChef Artwork” with a return address in Maryland.
Investigators traced “MasterChef” to an address in Virginia Beach where the couple lived using the metadata in a photo of she sent to the informant.
Agents conducted a search of the house in May last year and found $1 million worth of counterfeit coupons “scattered throughout her house,” prosecutors said in court filings. They also searched her computer, where they reportedly found the designs for 13,315 counterfeit coupons.
With the help of a company that helps process redeemed coupons for major coupon manufacturers, investigators ultimately determined the estimated losses totaled $31.8 million.
Lori Talens was also accused of defrauding Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, by filing applications without mentioning her husband’s income or the illegitimate income she earned from the counterfeit coupons.
Prosecutors said the total losses to Medicaid and SNAP were $43,000.
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 1:26 PM with the headline "One woman’s counterfeit coupon scheme cost stores $31 million in losses, feds say."
