Woman enters guilty plea in Phoenix counterfeit coupon case

You may remember the enormous counterfeit coupon ring that was busted in Phoenix earlier this year. At the time of the bust, the three women involved pled “not guilty” to the charges.

Last week, one of the women, Marilyn Johnson, changed her “not guilty” plea to “guilty.” Marilyn ran a spinoff site, selling counterfeit coupons for free products on a website that also promoted her dog-breeding business. From Phoenix’s AZfamily.com:

One of the women accused of assisting an international counterfeit coupon operation has confessed to breaking the law.

Marilyn Johnson, 54, has pleaded guilty to a charge of counterfeiting. She’s due back in court on February 1 for sentencing. Johnson, Robin Ramirez, and Amiko Fountain were arrested after police raided three homes on July 10 and seized $25 million worth of coupons.

Ramirez, who is accused of being the ringleader, allegedly had counterfeit coupons shipped in from overseas. She would then sell the coupons on savvyshoppersite.com for approximately 50 percent of face value. The scheme reportedly cheated manufacturers out of $400 million to $600 million.

Johnson and Fountain were accused of helping Ramirez by operating the site, and assisting with the shipping of the coupons.

It will be interesting to see whether the other women involved also change their pleas from “not guilty” to “guilty.”