The charges stemmed from a Jan. 11, 2006 state grand jury indictment. Sentencing is scheduled for June 29.
At the guilty plea hearing, the defendants admitted that between October 1999 and July 2004, they contacted at least 54 stores and/or retail outlets in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland soliciting participation in a coupon redemption promotion which would purportedly qualify the store owners to receive cash payments by redeeming manufacturer coupons. The defendants admitted that they did not work for a coupon company and that the stores solicited to participate in the promotion were not entitled to coupon redemption funds.
The defendants admitted that after unwitting store owners agreed to participate in the purported promotion, the defendants prepared store participation applications and sent the forms to various coupon clearing houses which sort coupons for reimbursement by manufacturers.
It was determined that the applications grossly inflated the size of the store and the amount of coupon-related sales. In many instances, the stores did not accept manufacturers’ coupons. The defendants submitted tens of thousands of coupons to clearing houses which issued checks totaling more than $580,000 to the store owners. The defendants demanded fifty percent or more of the monies received by store owners.
Source: New Jersey Attorney General's Office