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Cases

Merchant Services and Northern Leasing: Credit Card Processing and Lease Fraud

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This suit alleges as follows: Defendants are perpetrators of a nationwide fraud against small businesses. Defendants enroll merchants in credit card processing services, promising that the merchants will save hundreds of dollars a month on processing charges. No such savings materialize. In fact, processing rates increase dramatically. When merchants try to cancel the service, Defendants claim they are bound by non-cancellable leases for card processing equipment and must pay $5000 or more for equipment worth only a few hundred dollars. Defendants support the claim by altering contracts after they have been signed, either by inserting new pages, filling in blanks, or forging the merchants' signatures, and they electronically debit funds directly from merchants' bank accounts without authorization. When merchants close their bank accounts to keep Defendants from withdrawing funds, they are greeted with relentless, harassing collection methods, destroyed credit, and lawsuits in out-of-state courts. Defendants thwart attempts by merchants to identify responsible parties, by using paperwork that obscures the true identities of those involved, shifting blame to supposedly "independent" sales agents, and selling the contracts between one another and between a host of alter-egos and shell corporations, creating a customer-service labyrinth.

If you have had any dealings with any of the Defendants regarding credit card processing services or leases, please contact us.

Here is the list of Defendants:

  • “Merchant Services Defendants”: Merchant Services, Inc.; National Payment Processing; Universal Merchant Services LLC; Universal Card Inc.
  • “Leasing Defendants”: Northern Leasing Systems, Inc.; MBF Leasing LLC; Northern Funding LLC; Golden Eagle Leasing LLC; Lease Source, LLC; Lease Finance Group, LLC; MBF Merchant Capital, LLC; RBL Capital Group, LLC
  • “TransFirst Defendants”: Transfirst Holdings, Inc.; Transfirst, LLC, Transfirst Third Party Sales, LLC
  • “Bank Defendants”: Columbus Bank and Trust Co.; Fifth Third Bank; Merrick Bank
  • “Other Defendants”: Jason Moore; JWM Holdings, LLC; La Quinta Holdings LLC; Nathan Jurczyk, Robert Parisi, Eric Madura, Fiona Walshe, Alicyn Roy; Jay Cohen; Leonard Mezei; Rich Hahn; Sara Krieger; Lina Kravic; Brian Fitzgerald; Sam Buono; William Healy; Joseph I. Sussman; Joseph I. Sussman, P.C.