Chexx's Parent Company Formally Winds Down

VANCOUVER, B.C. — PacNet Group, the company that operated the disbanded adult-friendly payments processor Chexx Inc., reportedly has ceased business operations and has begun to wind down.

News of the wind down comes one year after the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets placed the companies on a transnational criminal organizations blacklist.

The Treasury Deparment alleged Vancouver, B.C.-based Chexx, PacNet and related payments processors had been third-party money launderers on behalf of fraudulent solicitation schemes.

Chexx, PacNet Group and other affiliated companies later were hit with seizures of assets and interests in property that fell into U.S. jurisdiction.

Additionally, the Treasury Department said that all “U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.”

The sudden termination of Chexx services last year impacted payees and the payment methods available to adult paysites that used the payments provider for processing. It specialized in international check and electronic funds transfer withdrawals.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that PacNet Group, which had operations in Canada, Ireland and the U.K., communicated to the Treasury Department that it would wind down operations.

As a result of that communication of the wind down, the Treasury Department deleted names of a number of PacNet organizational leaders from the transnational criminal blacklist.

PacNet company officials Rosanne Day, Paul Davis and Gerard Humphreys, as well as an entity identified as Manx Rare Breeds Ltd., were removed from the blacklist, according to the Treasury Department. Two others — Donna MacBain and Siobhan Hanrahan — were removed from the blacklist earlier this year.

After review of information available to the Treasury Department, “including the fact that PacNet Group has ceased active business operations, begun to wind down and credibly represented its intent to dissolve,” the agency decided that the three individuals, as well as Manx Rare Breeds, were eligible for removal, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing a government source.

Chexx and PacNet Group, as well as its numerous affiliated companies, however, were not deleted from the blacklist.

Chexx has not updated its website since September 2016 when it was placed on the blacklist.