A Southern California man this morning is facing a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison after federal prosecutors accused him of selling counterfeit Kohl's coupons.
Beginning in September 2011 through June 2012, Boi Quoc Vo created disguising identities at online auction websites to sell “thousands” of fakes to unsuspecting consumers in multiple states.
Vo isn't disputing the government's case.
In fact, Assistant United States Attorney Joshua M. Robbins can thank the defendant for knowing the amount of illegal profit: $93,000.
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Vo kept detailed records of his scam.
Law enforcement officials aren't certain how many of the fake coupons cheated Kohl's because Vo used editing software to remove the company's security features from the documents, according to court records.
Vo, who was born in 1983, is free on bail and awaiting a sentencing date.
Oddly, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney might not be aware that Vo and his criminal defense lawyer signed a formal guilty plea on September 9.
Court staff records assert Vo pleaded “not guilty” on Oct. 15, and that U.S. Magistrate Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth set a “three or four day” trial to begin Dec. 10 with Carney inside Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.