Money Now Funding defendants settle with FTC

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that Michael Abdelmesseh and KMA Merchant Services LLC have agreed to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit for laundering credit card charges for Money Now Funding (MNF), a business opportunity scheme that falsely promised consumers they would make thousands of dollars helping small businesses get loans.

In 2015, the MNF defendants were banned from selling business or work-at-home opportunities under court orders obtained by the FTC. In 2017, the FTC charged Abdelmesseh and KMA with helping MNF access credit card networks via fraudulent applications in the names of more than 40 fictitious MNF companies, in violation of the FTC Act and the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). A settlement order bans Abdelmesseh and KMA from payment processing or acting as an Independent Sales Organization or sales agent, and they are prohibited from engaging in credit card laundering. The order also imposes a judgment of more than $1.3 million that will be suspended due to the settling defendants’ inability to pay. The full judgment will become due immediately if they are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.