The final defendant tied to one of the largest coupon fraud schemes ever uncovered has been sentenced, closing another chapter in a case that began with a Virginia Beach couple making counterfeit coupons from home.
Sherise Williams, 40, of Palmetto, Florida, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison for mail fraud, according to a syndicated WAVY report carried by AOL.
Williams was not accused of creating the counterfeit coupons; prosecutors described her as the top customer of Lori Ann Talens, the Virginia Beach woman who operated online under the name “MasterChef.”
The broader operation caused more than $31 million in losses to retailers and manufacturers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Williams Was Described As Talens’s Top Customer
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WTKR previously reported that Williams bought counterfeit coupons from Talens on 274 occasions and paid more than $19,000 for them. Federal documents cited by the station said those purchases created losses to businesses of more than $900,000.
Coupon-industry reporting later put the estimated loss tied to Williams at approximately $991,067. Coupons in the News reported that Williams paid $19,821.34 for counterfeit coupons, with prosecutors estimating that every dollar paid to Talens generated about $50 in fraudulent coupon value.
The coupons were valuable to buyers because they could be used to get products free or at deep discounts, according to federal prosecutors and WTKR. Bud Miller, executive director of the Coupon Information Corporation, told WTKR that buyers often use counterfeit coupons to obtain products and then resell them.
The Original Scheme Started In A Virginia Beach Home
The Justice Department said Lori Ann Talens operated the counterfeit coupon scheme from about April 2017 through May 2020. She used Facebook, Telegram, and other social media sites and apps to find coupon enthusiasts, then sold counterfeit coupons that prosecutors said were often nearly indistinguishable from real manufacturer coupons.
Talens used a computer at her Virginia Beach home to design the coupons. Prosecutors said the fake coupons were created with inflated values, sometimes far beyond what a real coupon would offer, allowing users to receive products for free or at sharply reduced prices.
The coupons were shipped around the country through the U.S. Postal Service and commercial parcel services, according to DOJ. Talens accepted payment through online methods including Bitcoin and PayPal.
Investigators Found More Than 13,000 Coupon Designs
The scheme was discovered after one of Talens’s customers reported the operation to the Coupon Information Center, according to DOJ. The organization bought coupons from the Talenses, confirmed they were counterfeit, and contacted the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Federal investigators later searched the couple’s home and seized nearly $1 million worth of counterfeit coupons, prosecutors said. A review of Talens’s computer found images for more than 13,000 separate counterfeit coupon designs.
The Coupon Information Center reviewed the designs and compared them with known counterfeit coupons in circulation. DOJ said coupon redemptions tied to those designs caused approximately $31,817,997 in losses to retailers and manufacturers.
The Couple Behind The Scheme Is Already In Prison
Lori Ann Talens was sentenced in 2021 to 12 years in prison. Her husband, Pacifico Talens Jr., was sentenced to 87 months after prosecutors said he was aware of the counterfeit coupon scheme, profited from it, and helped by shipping packages and handling administrative tasks at his wife’s direction.
Lori Ann Talens pleaded guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, and health care fraud. Pacifico Talens pleaded guilty to mail fraud. The health care fraud charge against Lori Ann Talens came from a separate benefits scheme in which prosecutors said she failed to disclose income while receiving Medicaid and SNAP benefits, creating an additional loss of about $43,000.
The five buyer cases came later. WTKR reported in May that Amber Teague received six months in prison, Cindi Swindle received 12 months, Jennifer Snyder received 15 months, and Melissa Apodaca received 18 months. Williams was the last of the top buyers awaiting sentencing at that time.
The Buyer Sentences Sent A Different Warning
Miller told WTKR after the earlier buyer sentencings that there is a misconception that only the “big fish” are prosecuted. The buyer cases pushed back against that belief because prosecutors did not stop with the person who made the coupons or the husband who helped ship them.
“There’s a misconception out there, on the dark side, as they call it, that only the big fish are being prosecuted,” Miller told WTKR. “Now, you can be a customer and not the actual head person of a criminal organization and be prosecuted.”
Miller also gave a simple consumer warning: do not pay money for coupons. He told WTKR that once something normally given away for free is being sold, the risk of counterfeit or stolen coupons rises.