Daniel Tzvetkoff
Daniel Kim Tzvetkoff (b. October 1983 in Ipswich, Queensland) is the founder of . He is currently in witness protection in New York.
Early life
He began his own web design business at the age of 13. At 16, he was animating cartoons for The New York Times website. He left school in 2000 having developed software for processing online payments securely just as a worldwide boom in Internet shopping was occurring worldwide.
Internet tycoon
In 2004 Tzvetkoff teamed up with lawyer , a cousin of former federal Labor MP Con Sciacca, to run Intabill, which became one of the world's largest online billing companies.
He appeared on the 2008 edition of the BRW Young Rich List. His business had grown "10 to 20 per cent" every month since its inception. Five thousand clients in 70 countries - many of them online gambling operators - were using the company's technology to take payments from customers.
Legal troubles
In 2009 US poker sites Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars complained Intabill owed them money, even though Intabill's books showed all accounts were up to date. Full Tilt Poker sued Intabill claiming it had stolen tens of millions of dollars. Sciacca brought in a forensic auditor who discovered that in six months Tzvetkoff had allegedly siphoned off millions of dollars of company funds to pay for his Las Vegas lifestyle.
In July 2009, Intabill collapsed. Sciacca sued Tzvetkoff for $100 million and claimed he'd falsified company accounts, while his U.S. associates reported him to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for money laundering in connection with helping Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker process funds for U.S. players. When Tzvetkoff arrived in Las Vegas for an internet billings conference in April 2010, he was arrested.
After a few months in U.S. custody, and facing a possible 75 year sentence for alleged UIGEA violations, he opted to become a government informant. His insider knowledge has allowed prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to file United States v. Scheinberg et al..
See also
References
- "Witness protection likely for Tzvetkoff". Sydney Morning Herald. 2011-04-22. http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/witness-protection-likely-for-tzvetkoff-20110422-1dr8i.html.
- Sullum, Jacob (2010-04-21). "Getting Away With Poker: How is helping people play a card game like murder?". Reason. http://reason.com/archives/2010/04/21/getting-away-with-poker.
- Toohey, Paul; NewsCore (2011-04-16). "Web king behind FBI raids". The Courier-Mail. http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/web-kings-life-on-the-line/story-fn6ck45n-1226039907165.
- McKenna, Michael (2011-04-16). "Arrests follow internet high-flyer's release". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/arrests-follow-internet-high-flyers-release/story-e6frg6nf-1226039942478.
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tzvetkoff
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