Feds: Cut-Rate Computer Seller Accused of Cutting Customers' Promised Rebates

In a suit filed yesterday in San Francisco's U.S. District Court, the Federal Trade Commission accused Market Development Specialists of offering $20-to-$150 rebates it won't pay out.

The Indiana-based company buys and resells computers and equipment via institutions such as Office Depot, Buy.com and others. The feds alledge in the suit that MDC even inked an "Assurance of Voluntary Compliance" with the state of Indiana in which the company promised to " Process all timely requests to deliver rebates within eight weeks of receiving a properly completed rebate request." (At this point, company president John Levy would break down and confess to several unrelated crimes ... if this were Perry Mason).

The feds request "restitution and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains."

You can read the suit here.