Daniel Tzvetkoff doesn’t appear to be a bright man. After allegedly ripping off lots of online casino operators, he showed up at a conference in Las Vegas that was full of them and was surprised when he ended up in jail.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Mr. Tzvetkoff, who is an Australian citizen, was arrested on Friday for bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to operate and finance an illegal gambling business. According to the indictment, he created fake websites for shell companies and used those companies to engage in financial transactions with financial institutions. All transactions were sent by these shell companies. Mr. Tzvetkoff allegedly used an Automated Clearing House (ACH) system to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars between the United States and the British Virgin Islands.

Using the ACH transactions, Tzvetkoff, former co-owner of IntaBill, allegedly moved money from the bank accounts of online gamblers in America to his offshore shell companies. From there, he moved the funds to accounts at online casinos. The shell companies were used to move money back and forth between the online casinos and the player’s accounts.

The American legal system has a term for those types of transactions: money laundering. According to the indictment, the online casinos stopped doing business with Tzvetkoff in March of 2009 because he had stolen $100 million from them. On Friday, Tzvetkoff appeared at a conference in Las Vegas attended by representatives from many of those online casinos. Not surprisingly, a tip was called in to the FBI and Tzvetkoff was arrested a short time later.

I think there are some lessons to be learned here. First of all, don’t launder money or commit bank fraud. Secondly, if you rip off a group of people for $100 million, don’t go hang out with them at a social event.

If convicted, Tzvetkoff could spend 75 years in prison and pay back at least $543 million in fines and restitution.