Daniel Tzvetkoff , Founder of Intabill, Faces 75 Years in Prison

Daniel Tzvetkoff of Australia is the founder of the online payment processor Intabill. On the 16th of April, Tzvetkoff was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada and was charged with a number of felonies including bank fraud, money laundering, and processing illegal internet gambling transactions. Tzvetkoff, 27, has been charged with allegedly processing over $500 million in online transactions between February 2008 and March 2009 which is when his company collapsed. The collapse of his company was a result of over $80 million in debt of which over $30 million was owed to four major online poker websites.

Even after declaring bankruptcy, Tzvetkoff was involved in the management of multiple offshore billing and consulting ventures. He was in Las Vegas for a ten day conference and, while there, was identified by a number of professional poker players to whom he owed money. A former associate describes the situation: “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 accused of violating the American UIGEA statute by disguising the transactions to banks so that they would appear t be unrelated to gambling. According to the department of justice, “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 the banks the… transactions were on behalf of these companies. On may 3, 2008 one of Tzvetkoff’s co-conspirators in an [sic] 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 the height of his prominence, Tzvetkoff was estimated to be worth approximately $82 million and was well known in Australia for his extremely opulent, lavish, and luxurious lifestyle. His businesses began to unravel after one of his former business partners, Sam Sciacca, attempted to sue Tzvetkoff for $100 million. Subsequently, Mr. Tzvetkoff has been forced to liquidate the majority of his assets including the largest mansion on the Australian Gold Coast, his Lamborghini, and a nightclub in Brisbane. Daniel Tzvetkoff, if convicted, is facing up to 75 years in federal prison.

Posted by Joel on Jun 19 2010. Filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry