One hundred merchants across the U.S. will receive refunds from the Federal Trade Commission after being defrauded by an operation that provided debit and credit card processing services.
The FTC alleged that Aaron Lee Rian, Karely McCarthy - also known as Karly Speelman, Merchant Processing Inc., Direct Merchant Processing Inc., Vequity Financial Group Inc., and PPI Services Inc. falsely promised they would save small businesses hundreds to thousands of dollars a year in processing fees by offering lower rates than their current credit card processing service.
The defendants also allegedly falsely promised that they would buy out merchants’ equipment leases if they accepted the offer, failed to disclose fees and concealed pages of fine print until after merchants had signed contracts.
Settlements with Rian and McCarthy banned them from marketing card processing goods or services for sale or lease, and required the sale of certain assets to provide funds for refunds.
Approximately $345,000 is being returned to merchants; the amount of payment will vary from an estimated $100 to more than $25,000, depending on how much the merchant paid.
