ST. LOUIS — A federal jury convicted 35-year-old Marshall Lampkin on Tuesday for running a sophisticated coupon fraud scheme that defrauded Kohl’s out of over $200,000 in merchandise.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, the jury took less than seven minutes to find Lampkin guilty on five counts of mail fraud.
Prosecutors revealed that between 2021 and 2022, Lampkin exploited Kohl’s Cash — a promotional discount — in over 100 transactions at 40 different stores across 13 states. He would purchase merchandise in-store using Kohl’s Cash, then immediately use the same Kohl’s Cash to buy more items online before the initial purchase registered in Kohl’s system. Afterward, he would return the in-store items for additional Kohl’s Cash and repeat the cycle.
Items such as furniture, flooring, and appliances were shipped to Lampkin’s storage units in St. Louis and a family member’s residence in Illinois. He then attempted to sell the goods through Facebook Marketplace.
Investigators eventually uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in Kohl’s merchandise during searches of Lampkin’s storage units.
Lampkin’s sentencing is set for December.
