The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the State of Florida have sued California-based payment processing firm CardReady for credit card laundering and for facilitating a debt relief telemarketing scam.

The agencies in their complaint alleged that the business and its executives Brandon Becker, James Berland and Andrew Padnick created 26 shell merchant accounts to process credit card payments for a fraudulent debt relief operation.

The agencies charged the payment processor defendants, as well as E.M. Systems & Services, with credit card laundering under the TSR and illegal factoring of credit card transactions under Florida law. The FTC also charged CardReady and its executives with assisting and facilitating the debt relief scam.

FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director Jessica Rich said: "Our investigation went beyond the telemarketers who swindled consumers out of their money. We also stopped the credit card processing operation that hid their illegal transactions. Credit card laundering isn’t just bad business – it’s against the law."

In June 2015, the State of Florida, along with the FTC, froze assets of the debt relief operation based on allegations against five companies who falsely promised consumers with credit card debt that, for an upfront fee, they would save them thousands of dollars by reducing their credit card interest rate.

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