The Department of Justice said Tuesday (Feb. 18) that a district court in Miami permanently barred 10 individuals and entities from making unauthorized debits to the bank accounts of consumers and small businesses.
The court entered the final consent decree in a series on Jan. 31, the DOJ said in a Tuesday press release.
In a civil complaint unveiled in December 2023, the DOJ alleged that the defendants used sham companies to make the unauthorized charges appear legitimate, according to the release.
The complaint also alleged that they created bogus websites for the sham companies, fake customer authorizations for the charges, and a “customer service” call center to field complaints and offer refunds, the release said.
The government alleged that the victims never signed up for or received any services from the defendants, per the release.
The defendants in the DOJ’s civil complaint include Farhan Khan, Jeremy Todd Briley, Christopher Foufas, Brandon Hahn and Melinda Petit-Homme, according to the release.
The sham companies include Altitude Processing Inc., which does business as Clear Marketing Agency, a provider of online marketing services, the release said.
The consent decrees do not constitute an admission of guilt on behalf of the defendants, per the release.
Eric Shen, inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Criminal Investigations Group, which investigated the case, said in the release: “The U.S. Postal Inspection Service will relentlessly pursue any and everyone masquerading as legitimate businesses to fraudulently steal money from unsuspecting consumers.”
Banks and financial institutions face the rising costs of fraud, among other challenges, as the financial landscape undergoes digital transformation, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Progress and Protection: Balancing Convenience and Security in Digital Banking.”
In another, separate case, the Federal Trade Commission said in July that it filed a complaint against two groups of defendants, alleging that they participated in an unauthorized billing scheme.
The complaint charged the defendants with enrolling consumers, without their knowledge, in continuity plans in which they were repeatedly shipped products and charged for those products, which they did not agree to purchase.
