FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two South Florida men were arrested on federal mail fraud and money laundering charges Thursday after postal inspectors said they were part of a multimillion-dollar nationwide fraud scheme involving counterfeit coupons.
Court documents show the cases against Nikolay Saukov, 60, of Pompano Beach, and Andrei Zaretski, 49, of Hollywood, are being prosecuted in Detroit federal court. Authorities said a third co-defendant, Oleskiy Holikov, lives in and ran a portion of the scheme in the Detroit suburbs.
Coupon ring hits feds’ radar
According to a federal criminal complaint, the three got on authorities’ radar as part of an investigation into The Weekly Coupon Service, or WCS.
Investigators described WCS as “a criminal conspiracy involving the production and sale of highly realistic, but counterfeit, consumer goods coupons with drastically inflated values,” which are “so inflated that they result in a significant loss to product manufacturers and, at times, the stores at which those goods are sold.”…