A St. Johns County judge has shut down a Nocatee-based gift card business and imposed more than $800,000 in penalties, while the company also faces a $2.28 million judgment in another case.
In a final order issued last month Circuit Judge Howard M. Maltz ruled against Gift Card Deal Marketplace Inc., which operated as giftcarddeal.com, and its Ponte Vedra-based owner, Adam Johnson.
The court ordered $48,676.04 in restitution to compensate affected consumers and imposed $810,000 in civil penalties for violations of state law.
In a separate case, a judge ruled the company owes payment processor GoDaddy $2,283,073 for 1,600 chargebacks linked to invalid cards.
According to court documents, Gift Card Deal Marketplace marketed discounted gift cards online to consumers in Florida and nationwide but routinely failed to deliver as promised.
“We want to be transparent with the public — we are actively working to ensure that any client who has not yet received a refund is taken care of,” Johnson told The Citizen. “The majority of these cases date back approximately four years, and in most instances, refunds had already been issued at that time.”
Johnson said a hack in the site’s system also created complications, and that he wants to “make things right” for his customers.
“Their trust means everything to us, and we are committed to resolving this as quickly as possible,” he said.
Emails included in a claim show that a Tennessee customer paid $7,500 for what was purported to be a $10,000 Disney gift card. The man was assured he would receive the card in under 30 days, in time to pay for his family trip.
When the deadline passed, the man sent repeated emails inquiring about his purchase.
“We paid $7,500 over 60 days ago and don’t want to act as if this was a scam,” he wrote.
He sent a final unanswered email four months later before filing a court claim, papers state.
Other customers reported similar issues: some never received their gift cards, others received cards worth less than they paid, and some were sent cards for different retailers.
Deliveries were sometimes delayed, and refund requests were often ignored or denied.
An Attorney General’s investigation identified at least 75 affected consumers.
As part of the ruling, the court permanently barred the company from operating in Florida. As of Thursday, the website is still up.
The owners previously lived in a $2 million home in Twenty Mile, which was sold last year in a bank foreclosure.
They also purchased a separate waterfront parcel in Palm Valley for $1.5 million in 2022, which was later sold.
