A Louisiana man was charged on Thursday with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit trademark counterfeiting for allegedly creating and selling imitation coupons on the now-defunct underground marketplace Silk Road.
Beau Wattigney allegedly used Silk Road 1.0 and, later, Silk Road 2.0 to sell his imitation coupons – which contained counterfeit trademarks for coupon distribution services such as Hopster, Coupons.com, SmartSource and RedPlum – until the respective marketplaces were dismantled, according to a release.
Wattigney allegedly created and sold one coupon that enabled the purchasing of $50 Visa Gift Cards for a penny, the released said.
“The coupons Wattigney allegedly sold on Silk Road 1.0 and 2.0 affected more than 50 manufacturers, retailers and online coupon distributors,” the release stated. “If redeemed, the counterfeit coupons could have resulted in a loss of more than $1,000,000 to the affected businesses.”
