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Federal Trade Commission and Office of the Attorney General, State of Florida, Department of Legal Affairs, Plaintiffs, v. E.M. Systems & Services, LLC, a Florida limited liability company; Administrative Management & Design, LLC, a Florida limited liability company; KLS Industries, LLC, doing business as Satisfied Services Solutions, LLC, a Florida limited liability company; Empirical Data Group Technologies, LLC, a Florida limited liability company; Epiphany Management Systems, LLC, a Florida limited liability company; Steven D. Short; Karissa L. Dyar; One Easy Solution, LLC, a Florida limited liability company; Christopher C. Miles, an individual; Jason E. Gagnon, an individual; Kenneth A. Sallies, an individual; Matthew B. Thomas, an individual; CardReady, LLC, a California limited liability company; Brandon A. Becker, an individual; James F. Berland, an individual; and Andrew S. Padnick, an individual, Defendants.
FTC Matter/File Number
152 3155
X150051
Civil Action Number
8:15-cv-01417-SDM-EAJ
Enforcement Type
Federal Injunctions
Federal Court
Middle District of Florida

Case Summary

The Federal Trade Commission is sending full refunds totaling more than $11 million to consumers who lost money to a bogus credit card interest rate reduction scheme operated by E.M. Systems & Services.

The FTC and the State of Florida alleged that the company’s owners, Steven D. Short and Karissa L. Dyar, used a variety of phony business names with associated websites, cold-called consumers with credit card debt and falsely promised to save them thousands of dollars by reducing their credit card interest rates. The FTC says that the defendants charged an up-front fee between $695 and $1,495, and falsely promised to provide refunds to consumers if they failed to reduce the interest rates.

In April 2021, the FTC used funds from this case to provide $11 million in redress to consumers harmed by the E.M. Systems and Services scam.

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