Only a few years ago Daniel Tzvetkoff was a millionaire with a Gold Coast mansion and a luxury yacht, now he's been implicated in a US poker website's Ponzi scheme. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied
- Website takes players for more than $400m
- "Not a poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme"
- Donald Trump tells Australia to 'screw China'
FALLEN Brisbane IT mogul Daniel Tzvetkoff was allegedly instrumental in a US poker website's Ponzi scheme that ripped off more than $400 million from online gamblers.
Court documents lodged this week by US prosecutors allege Tzvetkoff's former clients, Full Tilt Poker, orchestrated an elaborate fraud by stealing money from customers and replacing them with "phantom funds", the Courier-Mail reported.
The site's top figures paid themselves lavish fees of up to $42 million each from shared bank accounts while players the world over continued gambling with fake money.
While the documents don't implicate 27-year-old Tzvetkoff in the Ponzi scheme, his now bankrupt company Intabill is named for allegedly processing more than $500 million in what have now been revealed as illegal transactions for poker websites.
The once high-flying mogul who owned a $30 million Gold Coast pad, a Lamborghini and a Fortitude Valley club, was arrested in the US in April last year but was quietly released four months later.
He is believed to be co-operating with the US authorities who later indicted the owners of several poker sites alleging fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling.
But the latest allegations in amendments to the original indictment drastically escalate the case against Full Tilt.
"Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme," US Attorney Preet Bharara, who was involved in the prosecution of fraudster Bernie Madoff, said.
"Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company."
Bharara said the massive shortfall in Full Tilt's accounts occurred after its payment processing network was disrupted in the US, beginning with a bitter fallout with Tzvetkoff.
In a June 2009 lawsuit, Full Tilt alleged Tzvetkoff had stolen more than $42 million while conducting transactions for the site.
A month later, Tzvetkoff's Brisbane-based company BT Projects collapsed, owing about $180 million and he was arrested months later while visiting Las Vegas.
The US Attorney's office alleges that by March 31 this year, Full Tilt owed about $390 million to players around the world but had only $60 million in its bank accounts.
Much of the money that was distributed to the website's board owners was transferred to overseas accounts.
More than $150 million is owed to American players but it is not known what is still owed to Australians.
Despite being warned by the Australian Crime Commission that online gambling was a potential channel for money launderers and fraudsters, the Federal Government is yet to act against websites blatantly getting around local laws outlawing their services.
0 comments:
Post a Comment