|
Written by Marcus | Friday, April 23rd, 2010
The owner of the online payment processor, Intabill, was arrested last week in Las Vegas and is facing money laundering and bank fraud charges and is accused of processing illegal online gambling financial transactions. The 27-year-old Australian, Daniel Tzvetkoff, reportedly affiliated transactions of more than $500 million between the period of February 2008 and March 2009. After his company collapsed, he owed more than $80 million in debts, $30 million of that to four different online poker web sites.
Despite bankruptcy, Tzvetkoff was involved with a separate billing and consulting offshore group and was visiting Las Vegas for a 10-day conference when online poker pros whom he owed money to spotted him and alerted the FBI. An ex-colleague of Tzvetkoff said, “Daniel went to the US and got into the country, no problems, but I think him wandering around that conference sort of thumbing his nose at some of the people he owed large amounts of cash to caused them to get in touch with the FBI.”
Tzvetkoff is now being accused of UIGEA violations as he disguised “transactions to the banks so that they would appear unrelated to gambling.”
The Department of Justice explained, “Tzvetkoff and his co-conspirators created dozens of shell companies with names unrelated to gambling – complete with phony websites that made the companies seem legitimate – and represented to banks that the… transactions were on behalf of these companies.
“On May 3, 2008, one of Tzvetkoff’s co-conspirators in an email told Tzvetkoff that he had hired programmers to develop ‘unique’ websites for the shell companies so that if someone was ‘checking the companies out there is absolutely no way to tie the companies together.’ Tzvetkoff responded: ‘This is all perfect!’”
At one time, Tzvetkoff was believed to have $82 million in worth and was known in Australia for living a very lavish and luxurious lifestyle. But things took a turn for the worse when his ex-business partner, Sam Sciacca, attempted to sue him for $100 million, forcing Tzvetkoff to sell off his personal possessions that included a mansion on the Gold Coast, his black Lamborghini, and his nightclub in Brisbane. If guilty, he could face up to 75 years in prison.
 More Related Articles
Written by Marcus · Filed Under news · |
