Brandon Becker, the former CEO of CardReady LLC, has been sentenced to seven years in prison following his involvement in a major credit card laundering scheme. The announcement was made by Matthew Podolsky, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Becker had previously pled guilty to the conspiracy of committing wire fraud and bank fraud.
The scheme orchestrated by Becker and his associates defrauded a credit card processing company and a federally insured bank of over $19 million. They falsely promised to alleviate the debt burdens of thousands of customers. "With today’s sentence, Becker faces the consequences of this massive fraud, sending the clear message that corporate executives who facilitate fraud will be held accountable for their crimes,” Podolsky emphasized.
Court documents reveal that Becker created numerous sham merchant accounts to process victim payments by misrepresenting these accounts as legitimate businesses. The fraudulent activities were conducted through CardReady, a Los Angeles-based company.
Approximately in 2012, Becker negotiated an agreement with co-defendant Steven Short, formerly of Florida-based E.M. Systems & Services LLC. This agreement allowed CardReady to retain a share of E.M. Systems’ transactions in exchange for access to the card processing network. Subsequently, Short's team targeted customers through telemarketing, offering prohibited services like debt consolidation, which led to excessive chargebacks.
Becker's strategy involved setting up 26 sham merchant companies to mask E.M. Systems as the real merchant entity. To achieve this, he enlisted signers who had no business operations, paying them nominal fees to head the sham accounts. Through fake applications and concealed associations, CardReady bypassed guidelines, enabling fraudulent charges to continue undetected.
Beyond the E.M. Systems scheme, Becker's operations included recruiting over 270 signers resulting in the creation of more than 800 sham accounts used by over 30 high-risk clients between 2012 and 2016.
Becker, 53, from Los Angeles, will serve his sentence accompanied by three years of supervised release, and he has been ordered to pay restitution of $1,910,600.05 with an additional forfeiture amounting to $11,405,964.00. Steven Short, 48, from Tampa, Florida, was also sentenced for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, receiving a 78-month prison term.
The investigation was credited to the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the Federal Trade Commission providing support. The case is managed by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vladislav Vainberg and Timothy Capozzi leading the prosecution.