Businessman Daniel Tzvetkoff, the man behind internet payment company Intabill, which collapsed a year ago with around $80 million debt, could face up to 75 years imprisonment if found guilty of bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
Tzvetkoff was reportedly in Nevada to attend a 10-day conference when he was arrested by Federal authorities in Las Vegas.
After being declared bankrupt soon after Intabill collapsed, he continued to operate a consulting and billing group offshore, with US officials saying he had previously assisted online gambling companies in laundering around $540 million into foreign accounts. The Australian has pleaded not guilty and is expected to apply for bail.
He was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alongside claims by several American gambling companies that the Queenslander owes them money. In June, US-based gaming company Kolyma Corporation, which owns a number of popular gambling sites including Full Tilt Poker, filed suit against Intabill for $52 million over claims that online payments received by Tzvetkoff's company had not been forwarded.
“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,” according to the US Department of Justice filing.
“On May 3, 2008, one of Tzvetkoff's co-conspirators in an e-mail 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!’.”
The 27-year-old is also being sued for $80 million by former business partner Sam Sciacca over claims that he “diverted funds payable to the company to cover personal expenses,” although this action has been delayed, given Tzvetkoff’s detention.
“Daniel went to the US and got into the country with no problems,” a former workmate speculated to Brisbane’s Courier Mail newspaper, “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.”
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