A New Orleans man was sentenced today to 41 months in prison
for his role in a coupon counterfeit ring using the Silk Road online
marketplace, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the
Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite Jr. of
the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Beau Wattigney, 30, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy
to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit trademark counterfeiting before
U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle of the Eastern District of
Louisiana. Judge Lemelle sentenced
Wattigney and immediately remanded him into custody.
In connection with his plea, Wattigney admitted that between
May 2012 and November 2014, he used the online monikers PurpleLotus,
GoldenLotus and CouponKing to sell counterfeit coupons for various goods and
services on the Silk Road, a covert online marketplace largely for illicit
goods. Wattigney admitted that he
created and manufactured the fraudulent coupons with the assistance of several
co-conspirators and that they designed the coupons to look like original
print-at-home manufacturers’ coupons by using the companies’ trademarks. According to the plea agreement, Wattigney
sold over $1 million worth of counterfeit coupons and victimized more than 50
United States-based businesses.
The FBI’s Philadelphia Division investigated the case, with
assistance from the FBI’s New Orleans Field Office. Senior Counsel Marie-Flore Johnson and Robert
Wallace of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property
Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Ginsberg of the Eastern District of
Louisiana prosecuted the case.
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