A mother of three has been sentenced to spend more than a decade in prison after committing what could be the largest coupon scam.
Lori Ann Villanueva Talens of Virginia Beach is an entrepreneur and mother of three who ran a scam coupon business out of her Glenwood area home alongside her husband, Pacifico Talens Jr. From April 2017 until May 2020, the couple designed and printed realistic coupons from Lori Ann’s home computer.
According to court documents, the couple operated their business under the name “MasterChef,” printing the coupons out on high-quality, glossy paper and even adding real-life company logos and product images to the coupons, Yahoo! News reports. The couple reportedly scammed about 100 retailers and manufacturers, leading to them losing more than $31 million. The couple pocketed about $400,000 from their scheme.
On top of that, Lori Ann even pasted barcodes on the coupons that scanned as legitimated at stores. The mother would rig the coupons to offer deals that were equal to or sometimes greater than the value of the item in question. This would lead to the customer getting the item for free. In other instances, the value of the coupon was worth more than the item, and in the end, the retailer would have to pay the shopper for “purchasing” them, Yahoo! News reports.
But on Tuesday, a U.S. District Court judge in Norfolk sentenced Lori Ann to 12 years in federal prison. Her husband, who mainly managed the shipping portion of the business, was sentenced to seven years and three months. The news outlet reports that they both admitted to the fraud charges.
