VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The top five buyers involved in a Virginia Beach woman’s multimillion-dollar coupon scheme have now all pleaded guilty to their roles in the operation.
WTKR News 3 has been covering this story since it broke several years ago.
In 2021, Lori Ann Talens and her husband were indicted and locked up for running a $31 million coupon scheme from their Virginia Beach home.
Lori Ann Talens received a 12-year sentence and Pacifico Talens got seven years.
Previous coverage: More arrests made in $31M coupon fraud scheme started by Virginia Beach couple
Experts say it’s one of the largest coupon fraud schemes ever discovered in the country.
According to documents, Lori Ann Talens was the mastermind behind the operation and used her computer to design, create and produce counterfeit coupons, then find groups of coupon enthusiasts online to sell them to.
Prosecutors say her fake coupons had inflated values and looked just like real ones. Documents state the coupons were for places like Kroger, Target, and Safeway. The coupons were for several kinds of products from Dove, Arm & Hammer, Pampers, Bounty, Tampax, Frito-Lay and Pepsi, among many others, according to documents.
Federal documents say investigators determined that for every dollar paid to Lori Ann Talens, her customers received approximately $50 in counterfeit coupons.
Earlier this year, we reported how prosecutors charged five women who they say were the top five buyers. We then reported in July that two of them pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges for their role in the operation.
Previous coverage: Women plead guilty to roles in multimillion-dollar Virginia Beach coupon fraud scheme
Now, the other three women have also pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges:
- Sherise Williams of Florida bought coupons on 274 occasions and paid Lori Ann Talens over $19,000, making the total loss to businesses over $900,000, documents state.
- Cindi Swindle of Florida bought coupons on 42 occasions and paid $4,700, which created a loss of over $238,000, documents state.
- Jennifer Snyder bought coupons on 120 occasions and paid $4,800, which created a loss of over $243,000, documents state.
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Bud Miller, the Executive Director of the Coupon Information Center (CIC), played a key role in the investigation. The CIC is a group that works to combat coupon fraud.
He says he's glad prosecutors went after both the Talens and the top buyers.
“It should be a warning to other people who are currently participating in counterfeit coupon scams that they are subject to prosecution,” said Miller.
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Miller says they originally found out about the scheme through an informant who did test purchases. They worked with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI on the case.
Experts say you people should never be paying money for coupons.
All five women are scheduled to be sentenced in December at the Norfolk Federal Courthouse.
