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Education

e
Payments, a retrospective I did not know about these shenanigans until after the
Payments, a retrospectiv
fact. The client I knew was a brilliant young fintech entre-
preneur. Bad choices caught up with him and put an end
to his business and his freedom.
Payments folks are a privileged bunch. ISOs and fintechs
brush up against millions of dollars every day. Most
participants hope to earn a legitimate few basis points
Legal ease: here and there. Sometimes, however, temptation strikes,
and the fintech business operator wants more than just a
piece of the face-value of the transactions they support.
Avoid this. Stay in your lane, and you are likely to avoid
the worst outcomes like the one for this bright young man
now behind bars.
The Green Sheet Liquid lunches in Belize

opens doors for High-risk processors will search all over the world for the
right acquirer. A client of ours found an open-minded bank
in Belize that was able to process high-risk merchants. My
legal advice and client’s processing business operated with excellent profit
for a time. Then, as often happens in off-shore high-risk,
learning the bank stopped processing and held back millions of
dollars from the processor.

By Adam Atlas The processor was destroyed, and its merchants were
livid. The processor proceeded to sue the bank before a
Attorney at Law court in Belize. Who better to serve as an expert witness
than the undersigned, Adam Atlas, Esq.? My client always
he Green Sheet got me here. It’s time to say thank enjoyed lunch with one or two drinks. Preparing for trial,
you and share some of the lessons learned. we sat in a palapa bar perched over the azure blue ocean,
Twenty years ago, on a lark, I offered to write a looking at the villa he lost because of the bank.
T legal column for the magazine. This is that col-
umn, where I have covered everything from NDAs to ISO The courtroom was something out of a colonial-era mov-
agreements, ISO bankruptcies and countless other topics. ie. Sweltering heat, no air conditioning and a judge who
(rightfully) commanded absolute respect. When I had the
Readers from small and large ISOs have reached out over audacity, as an (out of town) expert on the stand to suggest
the years to ask for advice or just to unlock a legal puzzle, that the court find in favor of my client, the judge dressed
and I've had the privilege to receive these inquiries and me down and put me in my place by reminding me that he
support innumerable ISOs on their legal ups and downs and only he would decide my client’s fate. After the hear-
for a couple of decades. For readers new and old, here are ing, more drinks. The court held in favor of my client. Col-
a few stories that are keepers from which we can all learn lecting from the bank proved, however, to be impossible.
a thing or two—legally.
Fintech client in prison Being right and holding a judgment in your favor does not
mean you will collect. I don’t need to teach the high-risk
He didn’t follow our advice. He participated in an ille- folks about the ups and downs of high-risk processing.
gal scheme, and now he is serving hard time in a federal That’s their regular fare.
prison. This young man was quite possibly the most in- ISO widows
telligent and well-read person I have ever worked with.
As federal agents came through his front door demand- From the early days through to the present, all my engage-
ing that he unlock his phone, he knew more of the legal ment letters state that I provide free legal advice to ISO
precedents around search and seizure law than I did—and widows. In the past, the vast majority of ISOs were run
held his ground admirably. by men. That is not true anymore, and in my practice I
answer to mostly women in leading positions within our
Rewinding from that fateful moment, my client had an on- clients.
line fintech business involving cutting edge technology.
His razor-sharp mind and flawless memory made him Our firm is also a mostly female firm. In any case, a hand-
excellent in his business. But he partnered with people ful of ISO widows have reached out to me over the years,
operating an illegal scheme and ended up being guilty of and we have been able to provide free advice to assist
bilking innocent people out of large amounts of money. them in picking up where their husbands left off.
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