The ladies account is frozen due to suspicious activity, so Connie realizes they need to prove their business is legitimate. David Lake, who led the Phoenix Police Departments investigation, told KPHOat the time. After multiple, very expensive fertility treatment failures, she and her IRS auditor husband (Joel McHale, given nothing to do) are estranged and deeply in debt. They also come into possession of guns, cars and boats in an effort to. Because they arent exactly hardened criminals, they think that the money theyve made through their shell company has to be laundered, so they bought all these high priced items with the intent to just immediately resell them. "I'm saving money!" In this film we have one of the world's most adorable people, Kristen Bell, with her delightful "The Good Place" co-star Kirby Howell-Baptiste as the two women who almost make a multi-million dollar crime seem cute. JoJo combines two people in real life:Amiko Fountain and Marilyn Johnson. Ame shielded her eyes from the sunlight, "It's just that it's been a while since I've been on duty at daytime.". Authorities also seized twenty-two assault weapons and twenty-one vehicles, including a forty-foot boat, in the raid. Police in Phoenix, Arizona, announced the arrest of three women after they confiscated more than $25 million worth of fake coupons in a raid. This is based on the true story of three women: Robin Ramirez, Marilyn Johnson, and Amiko "Amy" Fountain. Authorities eventually traced Ramirezs activity back to 2007. She lives with her mother and is trying to be an entrepreneur with a series of YouTube videos featuring tips on saving. Now, with their story back in the spotlight, theres no escaping it, even nearly ten years later. [5] In October 2020, Bebe Rexha joined the cast of the film. Kristen Bell as Connie Kaminski and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as JoJo Johnson in QUEENPINS. Meanwhile, Ken is partnered with U.S. postal inspector Simon Kilmurry. YOU'VE REACHED YOUR MONTHLY ARTICLE LIMIT. As one law enforcement official put it, these were not the fifty-cents-off coupons one might find in their mailbox. She was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by seven years probation. I'd recommend this film for unwinding on a Friday night after a long week. Though most of their fraudulent earnings have been confiscated, the pair have hundreds of thousands of dollars from their illegal activities stashed away, and JoJo starts a relationship with Earl and relocates to Montenegro, a non-extradition country, where the pair can immediately restart the scam upon Connie's release. In July 2012, police in Phoenix, Arizona arrested three women in a coupon scam that cost manufacturers roughly $40 million. (edited by) Casting By Ben Harris Allison Jones Production Design by Jennifer Klide Art Direction by Adri Siriwatt Costume Design by Julie Carnahan Makeup Department Production Management Mike Upton . After he retired from the force, he took what he had learned from this case and others like it to found the Center on Shadow Economics, which works to mitigate the economic impact of black market crimes like counterfeit couponing. I just decided I really wanted to play the curmudgeon nature of the character. Ken: Yeah no, even if I wanted to switch, I think it's more important that your daughter learn a valuable lesson. "[Ringleader Robin Ramirez] would bring in these coupons from overseas in large quantities, quantities we never could imagine and she would sell them on her website for about 50 percent of face value," said Sgt. Kristen Anne Bell (born 1980) is an American actress and singer. The trios many customers never faced charges but they might have. Queenpinsdebuted in theaters on September 10, 2021. Paul Walter Hauser's character, Ken Miller, seems to be a very loosely-inspired caricature of Bud Miller, the Executive Director of the Coupon Information Corporation (CIC). Ben Stiller serves as an executive producer under his Red Hour Productions banner. Lets break it down. The acting was solid, though the relatively unknown Paul Walter Hauser stole the movie. Kristen Bell And Kirby Howell-Baptiste Run A Multi-Million Dollar Coupon Scam In The 'Queenpins' Trailer. In July of 2012, police raided Ramirez's home andseized more than $25 million worth of fake coupons. But during Proctor & Gamble'sroutine audits ofthird-party coupon processors, the discovered fakes in circulation and hired private investigators to do some more digging. And in terms of the crime itself, Queenpins stayed pretty loyal. In researching the Queenpins true story, we learned that Procter & Gamble did an audit of their third-party coupon processors. -TIME. Here's the cast and character guide for Queenpins, along with comparisons to some of the characters' counterparts in real life. David Lake, who was in charge of the coupon investigation at the Phoenix Police Department, "The opulence and the money was the equivalent of drug cartel-type stuff." It is also revealed that Connie, after numerous unsuccessful attempts to conceive following her miscarriage, is finally pregnant through in vitro fertilization. A trailer released this month shows how a suburban housewife (Bell) and her coupon vlogger friend (Howell-Baptiste) come up with a scheme to sell fake coupons online, earning them millions of dollars while contributing to costly losses for brands like Proctor & Gamble andUnilever. He'd be scary if the film didn't make him the literal butt of the joke. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Coupons in the News features daily news stories and information about coupons, grocery shopping and saving money. Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com. Queenpins has arrived in theaters and on Paramount+, telling the story of the countrys largest counterfeit coupon scam. Queenpins tells a comedic story of two down-on-their-luck Phoenix women who discover their path to prosperity by concocting a $40 million counterfeit coupon scheme that all comes crashing down when they get caught. Coupons wasnt even the biggest, most interesting case I did. Along with paying Procter & Gamble millions of dollars, Ramirez had to serve jail time. Previously, she worked as a singer and songwriter, penning hitslike Eminem and Rihanna's "The Monster" and collaborating with bands such as Florida Georgia Line. The real Queenpins' mugshots are displayed below. So will Robin Ramirez, Amiko Fountain and Marilyn Johnson be going to see Queenpins this weekend? They also come into possession of guns, cars and boats in an effort to clean the money theyve made from selling coupons. This is much more inspired So we dont really know anything about the real players and we kind of didnt want to. And it does seem like Queenpinswill take a comedic look at the inequality underpinning the counterfeit coupon market. But Lake determinedly led his team in pursuing the case. Their script is so nuanced and the words are chosen so perfectly. Once there, buyers would have access to an array of high-dollar coupons. Illegal couponing doesn't seem like ahigh-levelcrime, but the two women manage to grow rich off their scheme. They were a part of a fast-rising category referred to as "pink collar criminals," "nice" suburban women who commit non-violent crimes, mostly fraud or embezzling from businesses or from community organizations like the PTA. Heres how the real Queenpins counterfeit coupon ring worked: shoppers would purchase the coupons on websites like eBay and/or be invited or referred to the rings personal website, savvyshoppersite.com. He also explained the counterfeit coupon case to Gaudet and Pullapilly, who sought him out after their curiosity was piqued when they first read about the crime. You could only place an order if you had a referral from a current customer, and you had to pay for your order with a Green Dot Moneypak (prepaid debit card). Okeniyi appeared in The Hunger Games and Run Sweetheart Run, and his next role is in Greek Freak. Required fields are marked *. It was then that they learned of the fakes that were in circulation. We're all looking for a loophole to find our joy and happiness in life." director of photography Film Editing by Kayla Emter . The CIC and some of its members were on location in a mobile command unit watching the bust." They start buying things like sports cars, boats, planes, and guns, but Tina then criticizes their overspending and tells them that because their money was always clean, their purchases are just making them look more suspicious, instructing them to withdraw money from the bank in small increments and to sell off all their big purchases. Johnson helped package and ship the coupons to customers, and Fountain placed hologram stickers on some of them to make them look more legitimate. The idea started just as a way for their two families to make ends meet as they struggled to pay the bills. Afterwards, the duo begins their own website and small business "Savvy Super Saver", which helps them sell numerous coupons and generate profit. Related:Worth Cast & Character Guide: What The Real People Look Like. But court records indicate that she has not quite been able to put this case behind her. Some of the coupon enthusiasts featured on the TLC show Extreme Couponing routinely purchased coupons from clipping services.In response to the Arizona coupon counterfeiting ring that inspired the Queenpins movie, the CIC's Bud Miller stated, "Coupon buyers expose themselves to the possibility of becoming involved with counterfeits, stolen property, or other criminal activities. According to Time magazine, they went undercover and purchased coupons as part of their effort to locate the source. Thats the type of money they had, Sgt. The site's name was inspired by the legit coupon magazine Savvy Shopper, which is in no way related. They contact the hacker who stole JoJos identity, Tempe Tina, and are taken to her secret location, where she instructs the pair on how to conceal their operation and secure their money, suggesting they use JoJos cosmetics brand Back 2 Black to disguise their coupon business. Instead, Hauser's character is a loss-prevention officer for a grocery store chain. Released in the United States on September 10, 2021 by STXfilms, the film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office bomb, grossing only $1.2 million against a $20 million production budget. They may also expose themselves to additional risk by providing their names, home addresses, and financial information to organized crime rings." Eventually, they brought in Phoenix police, who conducted aneight-week investigation. Here's the cast and character guide and the real-life counterparts. And after reading the script and falling massively in love with it, because it was such a grounded comedy, I did some research about these women. She was sentenced to two years in prison, with credit for 287 days served, and seven years of supervised probation. The only real-life individual you could say was better off after the case than before, is the man who cracked the case. Counterfeit Coupon Ringleader Pleads Guilty - Coupons in the News, Woman spends $600 on SavvyShopperSite.com fake coupons - Jill Cataldo. The leader, Ramirez, pleaded guilty to fraud, counterfeiting, and illegal control of an enterprise. And in terms of the crime itself, Queenpins stayed pretty loyal. Queenpins has arrived in theaters and on Paramount+, telling the story of the countrys largest counterfeit coupon scam. David Lake of the Phoenix Police Department. The FBI has crooks who commit moremanly crimes to track down. And I think it comes from loneliness and feeling isolated and kind of under-utilized or under-appreciated. On the case to bust them: a supermarket's. Ramirez, Fountain and Johnson were charged and convicted for running their very own $40 million counterfeit coupon scheme, for which theyre still paying the price and may well be for the rest of their lives. So they may be the first ones to tell you that coupon crime may make for a great Hollywood comedy but in real life, its no laughing matter. You don't always get your way. One account had more than $2 million dollars. The story actually began more than a decade ago, when the women started selling their coupons online. SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, July 2012, police in Phoenix, Arizona arrested three women, Queenpins Trailer: Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste Are the Robin Hood of Coupons (Video), Netflixs The Sandman TV Series Casts Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death. The other two women pleaded guilty to a single charge of counterfeiting. Just to make him more sympathetic, in addition to the $2 an hour, he has a pregnant wife who also works at the factory. Her sacrifices have never been appreciated and she has been overlooked by her husband Rick, an IRS senior audit specialist, her loved ones and the rest of society. The other queenpin is Connie's neighbor and close friend JoJo (Howell-Baptiste), who was a victim of identity theft that ruined her credit and her ability to apply for jobs. If you can get an unlimited number of those, think how this grows. Queenpins is a 2021 American comedy film written and directed by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly. By mail. Here . If you watch the movie 'Queenpins,' you will see, what I believe, is the first film in Hollywood to feature AEW in the film." Furthermore, Paul Walter Hauser reveals that he has actually had minimal wrestling training with several names from The Nightmare Factory including Anthony Ogogo, Preston Vance, and even WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas . Analysts Predict More Deals in the Grocery Store This Year, Savings Apps Are All the Rage This One Most of All, Grocery Shoppers Shrug Off A Tumultuous Year, Couponer Is Dealt A Final Setback In Decade-Old Dispute.