This attractive woman leaning on a fancy car isn’t a model posing for a car ad.
She’s a criminal, and bought the car with proceeds from a fraud scheme. (Read story here.)
Back in 2014, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot (how do newspapers come up with such names?) lauded her as a hard-working businesswoman in an article titled, “At work with Lori Ann Talens, owner, Strategic Marketing and Printing” (read it here). It said,
“My father told me, ‘Lori Ann, don’t be the girl who goes for the guy with the hooked-up nice car and the power suits. You be the woman with a nice car, and you be a power suit, because the only person you can depend on is yourself.’ … I have probably four or five dozen trophies. My car was featured in an international magazine on a two-page spread. It was featured on the cover of calendars and on posters … [and] on television …. “
For the record, Power Suit Lady’s husband is going to prison with her, although to a different prison (they don’t have co-ed prisons, even for couples). She got 12 years, he got 7 years.
Her “strategic marketing and printing” business consisted of counterfeiting store coupons and selling them on the internet. Not much different from printing your own dollars, just a similar method of stealing.
It’s not a victimless crime. Her scheme resulted in “$32 million in losses for retailers and manufacturers, according to the Department of Justice.” When their home was raided, investigators found fake coupons stashed in every cranny “and crevice” (see photo below).
They say “money isn’t everything,” but for many people it is. That’s because we live in a money-mad society in which people are often judged by their incomes or possessions rather than their character.
(That probably has a lot to do with why Donald Trump got elected as leader of our entire country.)
It’s stupid, if you ask me. Things like honesty, trustworthiness, integrity, and decency ought to count for more than the GT parked in the driveway. But it is what it is.
And what Lori Ann Talens is, is a convicted felon wearing handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit. Her loyal (?) and faithful (?) husband is in the jug, too, because of her. (How forgiving will he be for that? And he’ll be out, and free to do what he wants, a full five years before she can keep track of his whereabouts and activities.)
Was it worth it, babe?
