BlueSnap and its former CEO have settled with the Federal trade Commission (FTC) for knowingly processing payments for "deceptive and fraudulent" companies.
The payments company, ex-CEO Ralph Dangelmaier and SVP Terry Monteith agreed to turn over $10 million for consumers and to stop processing payments for certain high-risk clients.
In a federal court complaint, the FTC charged that BlueSnap and its officers processed millions of dollars in credit card payments for ACRO Services despite substantial evidence that the company was fraudulent.
BlueSnap, Dangelmaier and Monteith "turned a blind eye to glaring warnings" that ACRO Services was defrauding consumers from at least 2019 to 2021, according to the complaint.
The FTC says that BlueSnap continued to process payments for ACRO even though reports from Visa repeatedly showed that between 29% and 40% of the company’s charges were being disputed as fraudulent and even after American Express directly contacted Monteith asking her to close down ACRO’s accounts.
In addition, BlueSnap’s own internal fraud monitoring team reported to both Dangelmaier and Monteith that ACRO was defrauding consumers and they still failed to act to shut down the company’s accounts, according to the complaint.
BlueSnap was also accused of processing payments for other companies accused of fraud.
“Companies like BlueSnap that knowingly process payments for scammers are breaking the law and making it easier to cheat consumers,” says Samuel Levine, director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection.