WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission said it has taken action to stop Nexway, a multinational payment processing company, along with its CEO and chief strategy officer, from serving as a facilitator for tech support scammers through credit card laundering.
The defendants in the case have agreed to court orders that prohibit them from any further payment laundering and require them to closely monitor other high-risk clients for illegal activity. The complaint and orders were filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, the agency stated.
The FTC’s complaint against Nexway (and several of its subsidiaries and an associated company known as Asknet), its CEO Victor Iezuitov, and its chief strategy officer Casey Potenzone charges that the defendants were at the center of several offshore tech support scams, processing tens of millions of dollars in charges and giving the scammers access to the U.S. credit card network.
‘Multiple Scams’
According to the complaint, Nexway acted as the payment processor for multiple tech support scams going back to at least 2016, noting that the company’s “premium tech support” clientele accounted for a quarter of all of its business between 2016 and 2020.
The complaint details Nexway’s relationships with tech support scammers, in which Nexway acquired credit card merchant accounts and then used those accounts to collect money from consumers on behalf of the scammers. The complaint charges that Nexway, Iezuitov, and Potenzone were aware that their tech support clients were scammers and directly received numerous complaints about the companies.
The Court Order
The court orders include a number of restrictions and requirements on Nexway and Iezuitov, Asknet, and Potenzone:
- Prohibition on credit card laundering. The orders will prohibit the defendants from laundering sales through their merchant accounts
- Requirement to monitor high-risk clients. The orders require the defendants to screen and monitor any clients they serve who meet criteria that make them an elevated risk of violating the law, and also require them to take action if their clients charge consumers without authorization or violate the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR)
- Prohibition on payment processing or assisting tech support scammers. The orders will prohibit the defendants from engaging in payment processing for tech support companies that use pop ups, telemarketing or false or unsubstantiated advertising
- Monetary judgments. The orders require Nexway and its subsidiaries to pay $350,000; Asknet and its subsidiaries to pay $150,000; Iezuitov to pay $100,000; and Potenzone to pay $50,000
Monetary Judgement
The orders contain a total monetary judgment of $16.5 million, which is partially suspended based on the defendants’ inability to pay the full amount. If the defendants are found to have lied to the FTC about the financial status, the full judgment would be immediately payable, the FTC said.
Feeling the FOMO Fever? CUToday.info Has a Prescription
Are you missing out on the latest news in credit unions? Missing the trends and developments you need to be aware of? We can help. Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more.
And it’s free!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com