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In a very well written article by Paul Toohey of the Courier Mail, the question is raised as to whether online poker payment processing “Wiz Kid” Daniel Tzvetkoff would have been better off spending a year or two behind bars as opposed to “snitching”.
Toohey, who was among the first to realize those April 15, 2011 “Black Friday” indictments were about to come down, notes that it was Tzvetkoff who may have been most responsible for bringing an entire industry to its knees. It is he who assisted US prosecutors in understanding how the whole payment processing scheme worked for Internet gambling, the ways and means of getting around a measure designed to prohibit such activity.
The Australian Internet entrepreneur is believed to be in a sort of witness protection program, living in the States. He’s only been photographed once prowling the streets of Time Square since the “Black Friday” indictments.
This week, the online poker companies he reportedly ratted out have come to a settlement agreement with US prosecutors that may ultimately allow re-entry back into the US market. More importantly, all customers stand to be paid in the coming months after a year’s long wait.
From the Courier Mail article:
You have to wonder whether he's done a bad deal.
Did all those threats of facing "75 years in prison" get to him?
Most of the men he employed to do his work have had jail terms of less than a year. And as for the really big boys in online poker, the stage seems to be set for them to pay their way out of jail.
There also are federal authorities, and many creditors, waiting for Tzvetkoff back in Brisbane. Where does he go next? And do the US prosecutors even care?
Seems like he could have taken a year or two in a US prison and claimed he'd done his time.
Instead, by talking his way out of jail, his freedom may cost him a lifetime of pain.
This is a good article and we encourage you to read the piece in its entirety here.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
