United States v. Intercept or d/b/a InterceptEFT

Intercept Corporation, d/b/a “InterceptEFT” (“Intercept”), a privately held corporation headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, operating an illegal money transmittal business. Intercept was a “third party payment processor” which processed electronic funds transfers for its clients through the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) system, an electronic payments network that processed financial transactions without using paper checks. Among Intercept’s clients were numerous business entities that issued, serviced, funded, and collected debt from short-term, high-interest loans, commonly referred to as “payday loans,” because such loans are supposed to be repaid when the borrower received his or her next paycheck or regular income payment. Payday loans are effectively illegal in more than a dozen states, including Pennsylvania, and are highly regulated in many other states.