Daniel Tzvetkoff’s Role In Making Black Friday A Reality

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Tuesday, May 27th, 2014 | Written by Stephen Smith

On 15th April 2011, the US Department of Justice raided and shut down PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker’s American operations in an attempt to crack down on major, unregulated offshore gambling companies operating illegally Stateside. In the process, 75 bank accounts in 14 countries, as well as five domain names were seized, resulting in online poker’s ‘Black Friday‘. Describing the carnage which ensued, Poker Royalty agent Brian Balsbaugh, stated:

“It happened, it happened fast and it completely annihilated what was a flourishing industry in the United States.”

Playing a major role in the day which brought online poker to its knees was Australian multimillionaire Daniel Kim Tzvetkoff, and now a book has been released called ‘Alligator Blood’ charting the rise and fall of the young Internet tycoon.

Tzvetkoff’s humble beginnings

In 1983, Daniel Tzvetkoff was born in Australia and from a very young age displayed a unique talent for computers. By age 13 he had launched his own web design business, and at 17 had written the code for a payment processing system at a time when e-commerce was just beginning to take off.

In 2004, Tzvetkoff teamed up with attorney Sam Sciacca and together created online payment processing company Intabill, which subsequently became a successful operation processing payments for a range of businesses related to pharmaceuticals, travel, music and pornindustry. In spite of enjoying healthy trade, however, it wasn’t until the 2006 UIGEA was passed that his company really took off, having decided to move in and fill the void left by the major online payment processing companies which had now withdrawn their services from the USA.

Intabill then quickly signed deals with the three biggest poker sites at the time, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, and soon Intabill was handling billions of dollars worth of transactions that no other companies would touch.

A 25 year-old multimillionaire

Within a few short months, Tzvetkoff was soon earning around $3 million each week and by age 25 had an estimated fortune of $80 million, complete with a private jet, yacht, Lamborghini, and home valued at $28 million. Tzvetkoff was also noted for his hedonistic lifestyle and non-stop partying, which soon attracted the attention of authorities, and lead him to disguise his illegal business activities through money laundering schemes, whilst also siphoning off and burning his way through huge sums of money transferred in the form of ‘loans’ from Intabill to his own personal account.

Seeking to expand his operation further, Tzvetkoff then partnered up with Texan Curtis Pope and John Scott Clark, although Tzvetkoff relied on a gentlemen’s agreement to seal the deal rather than have his or Sam Sciacca’s name mentioned on any papers. As quoted in the dailymail.co.uk:

“Together with Pope, Tzvetkoff’s exploits became ever more daring. He joined forces with Pope’s company, Trendsact, and another called Impact Payments, run by an associate of Pope, John Scott Clark. Both processed payday loans and soon billions of dollars of gambling proceeds were running through Trendsact and Impact Payment’s books as just that.”

The beginning of the end

The situation subsequently came to a head in 2009 when Pope eventually cut Tzvetkoff from the deal and Tzvetkoff was left owing around $100 million to the various poker websites. When Tzvetkoff asked Curtis Pope why he did it, he apparently replied:

“Because I could [and] Because you f***d this up for everyone and now I’m taking care of business.”

When Tzvetkoff returned to Las Vegas in April 2010 still personally owing around $143 million to his creditors, the FBI subsequently arrested him on bank fraud and money laundering charges, and faced with the prospect of 76 years behind bars he swiftly turned informant, with his information directly resulting in the shut down of the American operations of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, and by extension online gambling in the USA. As a report featured on theaustralian.com.au, explains:

“After serving eight months in jail he reportedly struck a deal with prosecutors – handing over 90,000 documents from his company, Intabill, and agreeing to give evidence against his co-accused. Within months, the websites of the poker giants were shut down simultaneously in the US and 12 of the website owners were charged.”

A book that details it all

The story of Daniel Tzvetkoff can now be read in a book entitled “Alligator Blood: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of the High-rolling Whiz-kid Who Controlled Online Poker’s Billions.” Currently under witness protection, there are also rumours that his tale of hubris, excess, and betrayal is also being considered for a Hollywood movie, something which poker fans will surely be awaiting with great anticipation.