Settlements & Refunds · Notice
Humboldt Merchant Services pays $12 million, banned from risky processing
The FTC says the payment processor knowingly kept open more than 1,000 shell merchant accounts, including one tied to a prior FTC fraud case. It pays $12 million and is permanently barred from processing for the riskiest merchant categories; no refund round has been announced.
Humboldt Merchant Services will pay $12 million and is permanently barred from processing payments for the riskiest categories of merchant, to settle FTC charges that it knowingly kept sham businesses supplied with the ability to charge consumers' cards. The complaint and stipulated order were filed September 8, 2026 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The defendant is 5967 Ventures, LLC, doing business as Humboldt Merchant Services, a company that markets itself as a specialist in "tough to place" or "high risk" merchants that other payment processors turn away.
What the FTC says happened
The complaint centers on more than 1,000 merchant accounts the FTC says were shell entities: fronts and pass-throughs that let third parties engaged in fraud take payments without their own names ever touching the transaction. From 2021 through 2023 alone, the FTC says Humboldt processed more than $100 million through these sham accounts.
Two prior cases sit behind this one. In December 2023, at the Justice Department's request, a federal court shut down the organization behind many of the shell entities Humboldt used, in *United States v. CB Surety LLC*, in the Eastern District of California. And one of the fraud operations the complaint names by name is Legion Media, which the FTC sued in June 2024 (*FTC v. Legion Media, LLC*, M.D. Fla.) over a "pay a small shipping fee for a free gift" scheme that led to unauthorized recurring card charges once a consumer paid.
The complaint alleges Humboldt opened these accounts despite red flags, including chargeback rates almost 10 times what the card networks consider excessive, and that it tried to keep the transactions flowing anyway by routing them through a lower-risk bank identification number used by an affiliated entity, making it more likely a cardholder's bank would approve charges it might otherwise flag.
What the order bans
Beyond the $12 million payment, the order permanently prohibits Humboldt from:
- Credit card laundering or helping anyone else do it, meaning processing one merchant's transactions through another merchant's account to disguise the true source of the charges.
- Processing for four categories of merchant: straw companies; merchants on Mastercard's Alert to Control High-Risk (MATCH) list for excessive chargebacks, laundering or fraud; merchants that have already faced a law enforcement action; and e-commerce sellers whose only listed business location is a third-party mailbox service such as a UPS Store, if they also use negative-option billing or have no processing history.
- Giving false or misleading information to obtain payment processing, including misrepresenting a merchant in an account application.
- Load balancing and similar tactics used to dodge the fraud and risk monitoring that banks and card networks run.
As in the FTC's other recent payment-processor cases, Humboldt neither admits nor denies the allegations; the Commission's vote to file was 2-0.
Is there a refund
Not yet, and there is no claim form to fill out. The $12 million judgment was due within seven days of the order, and the order places it in a fund the FTC may use for consumer redress, with the agency deciding whether direct redress is practical; any money not used for relief goes to the US Treasury. If the FTC opens a payment round, it will appear on the agency's refund-programs page and on FTC refunds, the tracker this desk keeps for programs actually distributing money. This case, like the FTC's settlement with the payment processor Nuvei days earlier, settles without an admission of wrongdoing, which what that means for a settlement explains. Days later, the FTC brought its largest-ever action against a multilevel marketer, $225 million from Amway over recruiting tactics rather than payment processing, but built on the same pattern: an order, a fund, and no claim form yet.
What to do
- There is nothing to claim today. If a refund round opens, it will appear on the FTC’s refund programs page and on this desk’s tracker.
- If you were charged by a company after paying a small fee for a supposedly free item, or by a merchant you do not recognize, check your card statement for the charge now in case a redress round is announced later.
- Treat any message asking for money or bank details to release a refund from this case as a scam; the FTC does not ask for either. reportfraud.ftc.gov
- Read the order for the full list of what Humboldt is now banned from doing. ftc.gov
Questions readers ask
- Will I get money back from the Humboldt Merchant Services settlement?
- Not right now. There is no claim form and no refund round has been announced. The $12 million judgment goes into a fund the FTC may use for consumer redress if it decides direct redress is practical; money not used for relief goes to the US Treasury. If a round opens, it will be listed on the FTC’s refund-programs page and on this desk’s FTC refunds tracker.
- What did Humboldt Merchant Services do?
- The FTC’s complaint says the payment processor, doing business as Humboldt Merchant Services, opened and kept open more than 1,000 merchant accounts it knew or avoided knowing were shell entities fronting for fraud operations, including one, Legion Media, the FTC had already sued. From 2021 through 2023, Humboldt processed more than $100 million through these accounts despite chargeback rates the complaint says were nearly ten times what card networks consider excessive.
- Is Humboldt still allowed to process payments?
- For most merchants, yes; the order is not a total ban on operating. It permanently bars Humboldt from processing for four specific risk categories, including merchants on Mastercard’s MATCH list and straw companies, and from tactics like credit card laundering and load balancing used to dodge fraud monitoring.
- Did Humboldt admit wrongdoing?
- No. The stipulated order records that Humboldt neither admits nor denies the FTC’s allegations, except for the facts needed to establish the court’s jurisdiction. That is standard in an FTC settlement; it lets a case resolve without a trial while the defendant still accepts the order’s terms.
- What is a MATCH list merchant?
- Mastercard’s Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants (MATCH) list is a shared database card networks and banks use to flag merchants terminated for reasons like excessive chargebacks, fraud or laundering. Being on it is meant to warn other processors away; the FTC’s order specifically bars Humboldt from processing for merchants on that list.
- How is this related to the FTC’s case against Nuvei?
- Both are September 2026 FTC settlements with payment processors accused of knowingly supporting fraudulent merchants, and both settle without an admission and without an announced refund round yet. Nuvei paid $4.85 million over a tech-support scam; Humboldt’s $12 million case involves a wider set of shell-company merchants, including the previously sued Legion Media.
Filed under: FTC refunds: who is being paid now
Mentioned:Federal Trade Commission
How we reported this
Built from 3 primary documents linked in the Source Card. Every number was copied from the document, not from another outlet.
This page describes public documents and agency procedures. It is not legal advice, and FactFiled has no attorney on its review panel; the editor checked the page against the documents it cites. For a decision about your own case, use the official source linked above or consult a lawyer.
Written by Mirza Seraj Baig · Checked against the documents in the source card (editorial standards).