Internet conman turned in to FBI for money laundering, turned informant against the illegal poker operators

The conman stole money off the poker sites. So the poker sites called the cops on him. The conman turned stool pigeon and now the poker sites are all going to jail.


Yet Tzvetkoff wanted more. Soon he was spending most of his time in Las Vegas, where the spending and partying continued as he set up payment processing systems for internet gambling companies.

BUT Tzvetkoff couldn't make his millions last until his 26th birthday.

In early 2009 US poker sites Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars started complaining they were owed money, even though Intabill's books showed all accounts were up to date. Full Tilt Poker took Intabill to court, 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.

Furious at having been done out of millions by a pipsqueak, Tzvetkoff's US associates reported him to authorities for online money laundering. They said the tech guru had set up a complex chain of fake websites and international bank accounts to cover the fact that Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker were making money from online gamblers in the US, which is illegal.

"He effectively was a firewall between the gambling authorities and the people making the rackets," a Brisbane lawyer explains. "But he also did a bit of skimming and they didn't want to lose their money."

Thanks to Tzvetkoff's insider knowledge, the FBI is now rounding up and arresting the 11 men who run the world's biggest online poker websites. But while Tzvetkoff may have got out of jail, he has lost his freedom, probably for life.

[link to www.smh.com.au]