The U.S. Department of Justice announced that payment processing broker Jeremy Todd Briley was sentenced to three years in prison for helping sham merchants steal money from businesses’ bank accounts. Briley secured U.S. payment processing relationships for clients that falsely claimed to provide online marketing services but instead used those channels to make over USD 14 million in unauthorized debits and attempted debits. According to court documents, Briley maintained those processing relationships from February 2017 to December 2023 while knowing the merchants were fraudulently debiting victims’ accounts. Despite repeated information showing the debits were unauthorized, he concealed the merchants’ activity and arranged for a payment processor to manipulate return rates to deceive banks. Briley was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit USD 460,000. He pleaded guilty in April 2026 to one count of wire fraud.