Biz2Credit MCA Lawsuit Defense: What to Do When Itria Ventures Sues Your Business

Most business owners who go looking for help with a Biz2Credit lawsuit run into the same snag within the first few minutes: the summons doesn’t say Biz2Credit. It names Itria Ventures LLC, a company many of them have never heard of, even though it has been debiting their operating account every week for months.

That mismatch isn’t a clerical error, and it doesn’t mean your account was sold to a debt buyer. It is how Biz2Credit’s revenue-based financing is structured. Knowing who actually holds your contract, what that contract calls the deal, and what the company’s own public disclosures say about how repayment is supposed to work is where a real defense begins.

This guide explains what a Biz2Credit merchant cash advance lawsuit looks like in practice. It draws on Biz2Credit’s published disclosures, Itria’s Receivables Sale Agreement as it appears in public filings, and New York court decisions involving Itria from 2019 through 2026. It is written for owners who have decisions to make now: whether and how to answer, what to gather, which defenses deserve a closer look, and which popular strategies tend to backfire.

Why Your Lawsuit Names Itria Ventures, Not Biz2Credit

Biz2Credit is the brand and the online platform you applied through. According to Biz2Credit’s legal disclosures, almost all of its customers receive Revenue-Based Financing, which the company says is also known as sales-based financing or a merchant cash advance. The same page states that the financing contract calls the transaction a Receivables Sale Agreement, and that these financings are made at the sole discretion of Itria Ventures LLC. Biz2Credit describes Itria as its wholly owned subsidiary.

So when an account goes into default, the party with standing to sue is the party on the contract: Itria. The agreement names Itria as “Purchaser” and your business as “Merchant.” A version of the agreement filed publicly with the SEC as an exhibit to a borrower’s quarterly report (Itria Receivables Sale Agreement, SEC EDGAR) states that the purchase and sale of receivables takes place in New York and asks the merchant to confirm the deal is not a loan. Those two provisions shape almost everything that follows: where you get sued, which state’s law applies, and what the central legal fight will be about.

If you are searching for the plaintiff by name, our separate guide to Itria Ventures lawsuit defense covers the company’s collection pattern in more detail. This page focuses on what Biz2Credit customers specifically need to know: which product you actually have, what the contract says, and how recent decisions affect your options.

First, confirm which Biz2Credit product you signed

Not every Biz2Credit deal is a merchant cash advance. The company also markets term loans (made by Itria or by Cross River Bank) and business lines of credit funded by Itria, and a single application can be routed into either category. Pull up the signed document and look at its title before you do anything else, because the defenses are different.

What Biz2Credit Says Revenue-Based Financing Is, and Why Your Bank Statements Matter

Biz2Credit’s own disclosure describes revenue-based financing as the company purchasing your future business receipts at a discount, to be repaid from an agreed percentage of those receipts, and only from those receipts, until the agreed amount is reached. It also states that the product has no fixed term and no interest rate.

That description is the funder’s strongest argument in court. A genuine purchase of receivables is not a loan, and if it isn’t a loan, usury limits don’t apply. But the description also creates a benchmark you can measure your own account against. Open your bank statements and look at the Itria debits. Did the amount move with your sales, or was it the same dollar figure every week whether you had a strong month or a terrible one?

In the reported Itria cases, the payment schedules were fixed amounts. In a 2025 New York County case, a Receivables Sale Agreement called for $156,250 in receivables to be remitted in weekly installments of $3,255.21 (Itria Ventures LLC v. Aneela 1 LLC, 2025 NY Slip Op 32925(U)). In a 2026 bankruptcy case discussed below, Itria’s agreement called for weekly payments of $14,545.45, described as an estimate of 9.1 percent of weekly collections. A fixed estimate isn’t improper on its own, because the contract allows reconciliation. What it does is move the whole dispute onto one practical question: was reconciliation real?

That is why your reconciliation history is often the most valuable evidence in the file. If you asked for a payment adjustment and were ignored, stalled, buried in documentation requests, or offered a token reduction, that record matters. Our guide to MCA reconciliation clause breach claims explains how attorneys build that argument, and the MCA calculators can help you estimate the effective annual cost of your advance before you speak with counsel.

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Inside the Itria Receivables Sale Agreement: What a Federal Bankruptcy Judge Flagged in 2026

On February 20, 2026, Judge Michael E. Wiles of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York issued a published decision in Greenwich Retail Group LLC v. Moby Capital, LLC, an adversary proceeding in which two related retail debtors challenged merchant cash advance agreements with several funders, including Itria. Itria asked the court to dismiss every claim against it. The court largely refused, holding that the debtors had plausibly alleged the Itria transaction was a loan rather than a sale of receivables.

The decision is valuable because it walks through an actual Itria contract term by term. The July 2024 agreement at issue sold $640,000 of receivables for a purchase price of $500,000, less a $10,500 fee. An attached offer summary estimated the amount would be paid in 308 days and expressed the cost as an estimated annual percentage rate of 65.25 percent. Itria took a security interest in all of the debtors’ assets, including equipment and inventory, obtained a performance guaranty from the owners, and collected confessions of judgment from both the companies and the guarantors.

Features the court said support a loan argument

• Joint obligations across separate businesses. Two companies signed one agreement with no separate reconciliation rights. If one location stopped producing sales, Itria could keep collecting the full amount from the other.
• A possible breach from the day of signing. The contract required the merchants to represent that no other advance or lien encumbered their receivables. The debtors had prior secured loans and other advances that appeared in public UCC filings, which raised the prospect that they were in “Material Breach” from the moment they signed, giving Itria full recourse for the life of the deal.
• Risk that looked like ordinary credit risk. Receivables were defined to cover virtually every dollar the businesses would receive. The judge observed that the only scenario leaving Itria unpaid was the businesses ceasing to exist, which is the same risk every lender takes.
• Missing features of a true sale. No specific receivables were identified, Itria allegedly did not investigate the creditworthiness of the merchants’ customers, it had no upside if collections came in faster than expected, and it had no right to collect from customers directly.
• Reconciliation limits. The look-back period for reconciling past payments was capped at one calendar quarter, Itria could issue a credit against future payments instead of a refund, and the agreement did not say how forward adjustments would be calculated. The debtors also alleged Itria lacked staff to perform reconciliations, which the court held was enough to survive dismissal.
• A calculable term. Because the payments were fixed, the expected duration could be computed easily, which weakened the argument that the deal had no fixed term.

Rulings that shape what you can argue

Several parts of the decision matter for any business sued by Itria, whether or not it ever files bankruptcy:

• LLCs and corporations cannot raise civil usury in New York. Limited Liability Company Law § 1104(a) bars that defense. They can, however, assert criminal usury, which applies above 25 percent per year under Penal Law § 190.40, as a defense to amounts that remain unpaid.
• Criminal usury is generally a shield, not a sword. Standing alone, it does not let a business sue to recover payments it already made.
• Contract waivers may not hold. The court concluded that the prevailing New York rule is that a waiver of usury defenses written into an allegedly usurious agreement is not enforceable.
• Timing is everything. Under New York law, failing to raise usury in the state court collection case before judgment operates as a waiver. The Greenwich debtors got a second chance only through bankruptcy fraudulent-transfer claims, which is a narrow path that most businesses cannot rely on.

The practical takeaway is straightforward: if there is a credible usury or reconciliation defense, it belongs in your answer, supported by facts, not saved for later. Our overview of merchant cash advance legal defenses explains how these arguments are framed across different funders.

How a Biz2Credit MCA Lawsuit Usually Unfolds

Itria lawsuits follow a recognizable sequence. Where you are in that sequence determines which options are still open.

For a step-by-step look at how these cases move through the courts generally, see the MCA lawsuit process guide and our broader resource on merchant cash advance lawsuit defense.

Confessions of judgment are still in Itria’s toolkit

Greenwich Retail Group confirms that Itria was still taking confessions of judgment in 2024 agreements. In that case, Itria filed the confession in New York County on January 15, 2025, and judgment was entered on April 23, 2025, with prejudgment interest at 16 percent. Since August 30, 2019, CPLR 3218 has barred entry of a confessed judgment in New York against a defendant who is not a New York resident, and a business is considered a resident of any county where it has a place of business. If your business operates outside New York and a confession of judgment was entered anyway, that is a vacatur question to raise quickly. Our guide to confession of judgment covers the mechanics.

Summary judgment is not automatic

In the Aneela case, decided July 16, 2025, a New York County justice denied Itria’s summary judgment motion in its entirety. Discovery had barely started, no preliminary conference had been held, and depositions were outstanding. The court also found that an affidavit from Itria’s in-house counsel, based on reviewing corporate records and talking with other employees, did not amount to firsthand confirmation of the facts. The merchants’ usury, unconscionability, fraudulent inducement, and good-faith defenses survived. Defenses pleaded as bare conclusions, such as laches, failure to mitigate, and contract of adhesion, were dismissed.

The lesson for any business sued by Itria is to plead facts. A one-line “usury” defense in a form answer invites dismissal. A defense that ties specific dates, payment amounts, and ignored reconciliation requests to the language of the contract has a much better chance of surviving.

After judgment, your customers can be ordered to pay Itria

On April 1, 2026, the Appellate Division, Second Department reversed a trial court and granted Itria’s petition to collect a receivable directly from a company that owed money to Itria’s judgment debtor (Matter of Itria Ventures, LLC v. Champion Painting Specialty Services Corp.). The court held that CPLR 5227 is the proper tool when the asset is a debt owed to the judgment debtor, and that an acknowledgment of the debt by the customer’s president was sufficient.

In practical terms, a judgment lets Itria reach past your bank account to the invoices your customers have not yet paid. That is a relationship problem as much as a cash problem. If you are already seeing levies or third-party subpoenas, see our guides on stopping an MCA bank levy and out-of-state MCA subpoena defense.

Your LLC cannot represent itself, so vet your lawyer

Under New York’s CPLR 321(a), a business entity must appear through an attorney. In Itria Ventures LLC v. IC Shop LLC, a Kings County justice discovered in January 2026 that the defendants’ lawyer had been suspended from practice more than a year earlier. The court paused the cases so the business could retain new counsel. Before you hire anyone, confirm the attorney’s registration status with the New York court system, and read every court notice addressed to you, even when you believe a lawyer is handling the case.

The FTC’s $33 Million Biz2Credit Settlement: What It Does and Does Not Mean for Your MCA

In March 2024, Biz2Credit and Itria agreed to pay $33 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they misrepresented how quickly Paycheck Protection Program applications would be processed during 2020 and 2021. The FTC alleged the companies advertised processing in 10 to 14 business days when the average took well over a month, and that they ignored many applicants’ requests to withdraw their applications. Biz2Credit said publicly that it did not admit wrongdoing and settled to avoid the cost and uncertainty of litigation.

Here is what that settlement does not do. It concerns PPP loan applications, not Receivables Sale Agreements. It does not reduce your merchant cash advance balance, it is not a defense to an Itria collection suit, and it does not make MCA customers eligible for refunds. Treat any pitch suggesting that “FTC settlement verification” will cut what you owe with real skepticism. At most, the settlement is background on the company’s regulatory history.

Defenses an Attorney Will Evaluate in a Biz2Credit MCA Lawsuit

No defense is automatic, and the strength of each one depends on your contract, your payment history, and where you are in the case. These are the categories that experienced Biz2Credit lawsuit defense attorneys typically examine first.

For a funder-by-funder view of how these arguments have fared, see our page on merchant cash advance lender lawsuits.

What tends to backfire

• Ignoring the summons. A default judgment removes most of your leverage and usually locks in fees and interest.
• Closing the account and diverting receipts. In Itria Ventures LLC v. O’Keefe, a federal bankruptcy court in the Northern District of New York held $35,011.59 nondischargeable after finding the owner closed the account Itria was debiting and took the funds for himself, knowing it would stop the payments. By contrast, in Itria Ventures LLC v. Chadha, 598 B.R. 710 (Bankr. E.D.N.Y. 2019), Itria failed to prove its fraud claims at trial. Honest conduct and good records protect owners; diversion can create personal liability that survives bankruptcy.
• Telling your bank an authorized debit was unauthorized. Disputing an ACH you actually authorized can create new problems with your bank and in court. If you need to stop MCA withdrawals, do it with legal advice and in writing.
• Taking another advance to cover Itria. Stacking usually violates the agreement’s representations and accelerates default. Our MCA stacking lawsuit defense guide explains how funders use stacking against merchants.
• Filing a form answer. As Aneela shows, conclusory defenses get dismissed. Specific facts survive.

Personal Guaranty Exposure for Owners

Itria’s agreements include a “guaranty of performance.” In the Aneela case, the guaranty quoted by the court made the owner responsible for the merchant’s performance once a Material Breach occurred, kept that obligation in force until Itria received the entire amount sold plus fees and collection costs, and made multiple guarantors jointly and severally liable. Interfering with Itria’s right to collect was defined as a Material Breach.

In Greenwich, the court noted that the guaranty was triggered by any Material Breach, including a misrepresentation about the company’s financial condition, and observed that guaranties not limited to the contingent nature of the merchant’s obligation suggest a loan. Owners should also know that a company’s bankruptcy does not automatically protect a guarantor. The Greenwich debtors had to ask the court to extend the automatic stay to their owners. Our guide to MCA bankruptcy options explains how that works.

Settling a Biz2Credit MCA Lawsuit with Itria Ventures

Most merchant cash advance cases end in a negotiated agreement, and Itria cases are no different. Two cautions matter more here than in many funder disputes.

First, do not sign a settlement you cannot perform. In a public response to a Better Business Bureau complaint, Itria described a merchant who defaulted under an executed settlement and said it would pursue its claims in court. A breached settlement generally leaves you in a worse position than the original dispute, often with a stipulated judgment already in place.

Second, an executed settlement can release defenses. The Greenwich decision quoted the general rule that while a borrower cannot waive usury in the original agreement, a completed settlement entered in good faith can release usury claims tied to past transactions. That makes your defenses bargaining leverage, and they should be evaluated by counsel before you sign anything.

Terms worth negotiating include:

• A payment amount and schedule your business can actually sustain through a slow season
• Timing for termination of the UCC-1 financing statement (see MCA UCC lien removal)
• Withdrawal of any unfiled confession of judgment and a satisfaction of judgment once paid
• Release of personal guarantors
• A written cure period before any default can be declared
• Mutual releases that cover affiliates and related entities

Our merchant cash advance settlement guide covers how these negotiations are typically structured.

State-Specific Notes for Biz2Credit Customers Outside New York

Itria’s agreements choose New York law, but your home state can still matter, especially for confessions of judgment, judgment enforcement, and regulatory complaints.

• California. Biz2Credit states that Itria is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Financing Law. California’s commercial financing disclosure law requires disclosures for covered transactions, and amendments effective January 1, 2026 tightened how annual percentage rates must be stated. Enforcement runs through the DFPI.
• Texas. Chapter 398 of the Texas Finance Code, added by HB 700 and effective September 1, 2025, makes confession-of-judgment provisions in covered commercial sales-based financing void and unenforceable and restricts automatic debits unless the provider holds a validly perfected first-priority security interest. The statute is enforced by the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner and does not create a private right of action.
• Florida and Utah. Both states require commercial financing disclosures, but enforcement belongs to state regulators, and a violation does not void the agreement. See our Florida merchant cash advance laws guide for detail.

For every state with a commercial financing disclosure statute, see merchant cash advance laws by state.

Your First 72 Hours After Being Served

1. Write down exactly how and when you were served, and calendar the answer deadline with a margin of safety. Confirm the date with counsel.
2. Download the signed agreement from your Biz2Credit portal or email. Note the document title, the contracting entity, every guarantor, any confession of judgment, and the governing-law clause.
3. Export at least 12 months of bank statements showing every Itria debit and every returned item.
4. Collect every reconciliation request you sent and every response you received, including portal messages and emails.
5. List every other advance, loan, and lien on the business, and run a UCC search with your secretary of state.
6. Do not close accounts, move money between entities, or change payment processors without legal advice.
7. Speak with an MCA defense attorney before you call Itria or its lawyers.

Choosing Lawyers for Biz2Credit MCA Lawsuits

Owners searching for lawyers for Biz2Credit MCA lawsuits, or attorneys who handle Itria Ventures cases, are usually comparing a handful of firms in a hurry. A few questions separate experienced counsel from general practitioners:

• Are you admitted in New York, and have you handled Receivables Sale Agreement cases in New York Supreme Court?
• How would you present reconciliation and usury defenses in the answer, and what evidence would you need from me?
• Do you handle bankruptcy, or work with bankruptcy co-counsel, if that becomes the better path?
• How do you charge, and what does a negotiated resolution typically cost compared with litigating?
• Can I verify your registration status with the court system before I sign an engagement letter?

CredibleLaw is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. We are a national referral network that connects business owners with independent, licensed attorneys who handle merchant cash advance disputes. You can learn more about how we work with MCA defense attorneys, or request a free case review to be connected with counsel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Biz2Credit suing me, or is it Itria Ventures?

In most revenue-based financing cases, the plaintiff is Itria Ventures LLC. Biz2Credit’s disclosures state that its revenue-based financings are made at the sole discretion of Itria, which it describes as a wholly owned subsidiary, and the contract names Itria as the purchaser.

Is a Biz2Credit merchant cash advance a loan?

The contract says no. It is written as a sale of future receivables, and Biz2Credit describes the product as having no fixed term and no interest rate. Whether a court agrees depends on how the agreement actually operated, including whether reconciliation was available in practice, whether the term was effectively fixed, and whether the funder bore real risk. In 2026, a federal bankruptcy court allowed a claim that an Itria agreement was a disguised loan to proceed, though it did not decide the question on the merits.

Can Itria Ventures freeze my business bank account?

Not before it has a judgment. Once it does, New York law allows a judgment creditor to serve restraining notices on banks, and Itria can also seek turnover of money your customers owe you, as an April 2026 appellate decision confirmed. That is why answering the lawsuit on time matters so much.

Does the FTC’s $33 million settlement reduce my MCA balance?

No. The 2024 settlement concerned how Biz2Credit marketed processing times for PPP loan applications. It does not affect amounts owed under Receivables Sale Agreements and is not a defense to a collection lawsuit.

Can my LLC raise a usury defense?

In New York, an LLC cannot raise civil usury, but it can assert criminal usury, which applies to rates above 25 percent per year, as a defense to amounts still unpaid. The defense generally must be raised before judgment, because failing to raise it in the collection case can operate as a waiver.

What if Itria filed a confession of judgment against my business?

Since August 2019, New York law has barred confessed judgments against defendants who are not New York residents, and a business is a resident wherever it has a place of business. If your business is outside New York, or the confession was otherwise defective, an attorney may be able to move to vacate it. Act quickly, because enforcement can begin immediately.

Am I personally liable as a guarantor?

Usually, if you signed the performance guaranty and a Material Breach occurred. Itria’s guaranties typically make the owner responsible for the full amount sold plus fees and collection costs, and multiple guarantors are jointly and severally liable.

Will Itria Ventures settle a lawsuit?

Many cases resolve through negotiation. The key is to evaluate your defenses first, since a signed settlement can release them, and to agree only to a payment plan your business can actually sustain.

What happens if my business files bankruptcy?

A filing triggers the automatic stay for the business, which halts collection. It does not automatically protect individual guarantors, though a court may extend the stay in some cases. In bankruptcy, the debtor can also object to Itria’s claim and, in some circumstances, pursue fraudulent-transfer claims.

How do I find attorneys for Biz2Credit MCA lawsuits?

Look for counsel admitted in New York with specific experience defending Receivables Sale Agreement cases, and verify registration status before you hire. CredibleLaw can connect you with independent attorneys who handle these cases through a free case review.

Sources and Further Reading

• Biz2Credit legal disclosures (revenue-based financing, Itria Ventures LLC)
• Itria Receivables Sale Agreement, filed as an exhibit on SEC EDGAR
• Greenwich Retail Group LLC v. Moby Capital, LLC, Bankr. S.D.N.Y., Feb. 20, 2026
• Itria Ventures LLC v. Aneela 1 LLC, 2025 NY Slip Op 32925(U)
• Matter of Itria Ventures, LLC v. Champion Painting Specialty Services Corp., App. Div. 2d Dept., Apr. 1, 2026
• Itria Ventures LLC v. IC Shop LLC, 2026 NY Slip Op 50088(U)
• FTC v. Biz2Credit, Inc. and Itria Ventures LLC, case summary
• New York CPLR 3218 (judgment by confession)
• New York Penal Law § 190.40 (criminal usury)
• New York Limited Liability Company Law § 1104