An Anaheim
male, Boi Quoc Vo, aged 30, pleaded guilty to producing and selling some
thousands of counterfeit Kohl’s coupons which earned him near about $93,000 in
a period of one month- long scheme. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Officials announced that he pleaded guilty on account of trafficking in fake
documentation under a defense agreement for which he faces a reprimand of 20
long years in jail along with a hefty fine of $250,000, or twofold of gain or
loss that he acquired from the scam, whichever may be greater. He is slated to
be sentenced on 3rd March 2014.
Claude Arnold the special agent of ICE’s Homeland Security
Investigations branch in Los Angeles
exclaimed that encountering intellectual property cases allied with phony
products was customary, but such a scheme involving the sell of counterfeit
store coupons was the first time that they confronted with an indictment.
Vo admitted in his plea agreement that he acquired the
electronic coupons which the department used gave away to his customers those who
had signed up for email marketing service and then used some kind of editing
software for changing or removing certain security features that were intended
to avert duplication or replicating the use of discounts.
The agreement says that the finished fake products resembled
to those of the genuine Kohl’s discount coupons and also had security aspects
that forced the Kohl’s store personnel to accept them as genuine ones.
Vo then produced thousand copies of such coupons and sold
them on eBay by using a lot of different accounts and user names for concealing
his identity. The coupons had been marketed in numerous states, including California .
Boi Quoc Vo also informed the authorities that he kept a
record of his expenses and sales, and generated an income of around $93,000 by
selling the phony coupons. But officials haven’t been able to yet determine
Kohl’s loss as it was the number of fake coupons which were accepted was
ambiguous.
ICE authorities said that the investigation began the previous
year after its Virginia
