By: Associated Press//January 20, 2016//
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Two defendants are set to go on trial in a large coupon fraud case nearly nine years after a grand jury indicted the nation’s biggest coupon processor and nearly a dozen people.
The grand jury’s 2007 indictment alleged that $250 million was stolen over 10 years and that defendants defrauded manufacturers and retail stores by cashing coupons they knew weren’t used. The case has languished in federal court in Milwaukee.
The Journal Sentinel reports the remaining two defendants appeared in court Tuesday for a pretrial conference, with a trial set to begin next month. Earlier defendants reached plea agreements.
One of the remaining defendants, former International Outsourcing Services CEO Thomas Balsiger, has argued investigators don’t understand the coupon business and alleged prosecutor misconduct.