Zhenya Tsvetnenko liked things quickly.
There were fast cars. Many of them.
He spoke fast. So fast that it was as if his mouth struggled to keep up with the ideas coming out of his brain.
But most of all, the Russian man from Perth liked fast money.
And inevitably, that was his downfall.
Nearly six years after U.S. authorities accused him of fraud and money laundering, this week he will know his fate.
He will be convicted in a New York court after pleading guilty on his part to a $ 270 million text message scam.
It was a scam that saw him personally pocket $ 15.4 million, a scam that originated in Perth and traveled around the world, stealing money from hundreds of thousands of people.
Zhenya Tsvetnenko, left, being escorted by federal officials to Perth prior to his extradition. (Supplied)
From Russia with little
The first years of Zhenya Tsvetnenko’s life were modest, far from the empire she would build.
In 1992, when he was 12, his parents emigrated to Perth, with “nothing more than a partner [of] suitcases “.
“We sold our apartment in Russia for $ 6,000. I remember that,” he told a Perth community television network in 2011.
“My parents moved here. We started from scratch.”
He went to a local high school and college to study electrical engineering, but later dropped out to make money — quick money — on something quite strange for Perth: technology.
Surviving two-minute noodles, in the early 2000s he reduced his bank account to $ 200 while developing the code in his suburban bedroom.
“Don’t give up,” he said in the same 2011 interview. “If you have an idea and it doesn’t work … [even] if you have to throw that idea away and think of something new, do it. “
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Tsvetnenko’s “idea” was automated SMS technology.
Launched in the pre-smartphone era in the mid-2000s, its unique computer program sent mass text messages to mobile phone users, offering subscription services such as horoscopes or weather forecasts.
It grew rapidly and money began to flow.
So much so, he told The West Australian in 2009, as he posed in front of two Lamborghinis, a Ferrari and a Hummer, that he had made so much money so fast that he “hadn’t had time to count it.”
Zhenya Tsvetnenko in one of her luxury cars. (YouTube)
At the time, the BRW Young Rich List estimated its wealth at about $ 107 million.
But even then, the authorities were watching, and rumors of inaccuracy were growing louder.
A corporate adviser who worked with Tsvetnenko at the time told ABC: “No one had any real idea of how he was making his money, but he was splattering them and investing heavily in Perth technology companies.
“Most people like it: who cares?”
Flash with cash
In Perth at that time everyone knew — or knew of — Zhenya Tsvetnenko.
It was the epitome of excess, a “Personality” in every sense. Even in a state that emerged from the mining boom once in a generation, the Russian-born tech mogul stood out above the rest.
Tsvetnenko celebrated her 29th birthday with American rapper Snoop Dogg in LA, spent $ 600,000 on her wedding, invested in nightclubs and had almost weekly appearances on Perth social media, and was very happy to show off your money.
Zhenya Tsvetnenko during one of her regular social appearances in Perth. (YouTube)
Western Australia has had its “bogans charged,” but the striking aspect was the antithesis of Perth’s most reserved and oldest business circles, backed by mining, where it was generally frowned upon.
However, after becoming a father, Tsvetnenko withdrew from the party and tried to reshape his image, leaving behind SMS technology and launching a bitcoin-focused ASX-listed company.
Perth-based technology investor Howard Digby worked with Tsvetnenko during the 2010s.
“I knew his story. [I’d] “I saw his photos in the newspaper,” he said. “And my immediate thoughts were,‘ Me, I wouldn’t be so flashy, mate, ’Digby said.
Zhenya Tsvetnenko enjoyed the best things in life before going to prison. (ABC)
“But then I met him and he was humble, very interested in probity, and maybe it was a retrospective that came into play.
“I remember the day he told me the full story of his previous company [the SMS company]. I just thought to myself, ‘Mate, have you ever wondered why you were making so much money so fast? Why are you doing so well? ”
And finally, this past, and the quick money, would bring it up to date.
The scam
As complex as the scam itself was, at its core it was relatively simple.
According to U.S. Department of Justice documents seen by the ABC, from 2012 to 2013, Tsvetnenko and his co-conspirators swindled hundreds of thousands of cell phone consumers in the United States by making unauthorized charges on their phone bills Phone.
The practice, known as “automatic subscription,” saw U.S. consumers charge $ 9.99 a month for services such as “horoscopes, celebrity gossip, or trivial facts” without their knowledge or consent.
Often, bills would be repeated monthly unless consumers actively told their phone company they wanted to leave the service.
Tsvetnenko was taken to the scam by self-proclaimed “Hollywood businessman and producer” Darcy Wedd, also from Perth.
Wedd, who had known Tsvetnenko since his time in Western Australia, oversaw the entire plan. In 2018, Wedd was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the United States for his role.
Darcy Wedd was described as the head of the scam. (Supplied)
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Tsvetnenko played a “direct, active, and indispensable role” using what he described as his “history of engaging in deceptive and suspicious practices, including automatic subscription” to help the conglomerate defraud consumers of $ 41 million. .
In all, seven people have been charged and convicted for various roles in the scam, which has resulted in prison sentences of six months to 10 years.
Although Tsvetnenko was not the leader, his personal cut of 70% of crime revenue, more than $ 15.4 million, was by far the largest.
Jennifer Beidel worked as a U.S. attorney in the complex fraud and cybercrime unit in the southern district of New York, the unit that set up the case.
Zhenya Tsvetnenko played a “central and indispensable role” in the criminal scheme, according to US authorities. (Facebook: Zhenya Tsvetnenko)
He told the ABC that the unit worked with U.S. law enforcement after spending many years assembling the complex case against Tsvetnenko and his co-conspirators.
This included “search warrants, subpoenas and development of cooperating witnesses,” he said.
It also involved breaking up the various fictitious companies the scammers had used to try to hide the money from the authorities.
“The problem with this case was that the individual victims had a low amount of losses,” he said.
“And so sometimes criminals can get away with this kind of behavior because each individual victim has only lost $ 10 or $ 20.
“But when you add it up, it was a huge sum of money.”
Automatic subscription occurred in Australia, where it is better known as “third party billing”.
No criminal proceedings have ever been instituted against Tsvetnenko in Australia and he has no criminal record in Australia.
The ABC contacted Australian federal police for comment.
Motivated “only by greed”
Tsvetnenko was charged in his luxury riverside apartment in Perth in 2016, with US authorities at the time declaring their plans to push for the extradition of the Perth billionaire to face the courts of Perth. New York.
The luxury riverside apartment complex where Zhenya Tsvetnenko lived before she was arrested in 2019. (ABC News: Nick Sas)
After battling charges in a lengthy legal battle for two years, meanwhile, seeing his seven co-conspirators sentenced to prison, he was taken to Hakea Prison in Perth in December 2018.
Last year, he abandoned the fight for extradition, was flown to the US and arrested. In February, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit electronic fraud and money laundering.
On Wednesday he will know his fate, with authorities recommending a sentence of between seven and nine years.
“Tsvetnenko chose to get rich by defrauding others through large-scale fraud,” U.S. lawyer Damian Williams said in his sentencing document.
“Tsvetnenko’s decision to participate in the fraud [wasn’t] a fleeting error or a punctual lapse of judgment.
“Deliberately, and methodically, the defendant continued to automatically subscribe to unconscious consumers, day after day, for a substantial period of time, generating tens of millions of dollars in profits to cover his pockets and those of his co-conspirators. “.
Back in Perth, Tsvetnenko has reunited his family, former business partners, friends, charities and even former inmates at Hakea Prison.
They have sent 48 separate letters to the sentencing judge on their behalf to try to receive a lighter sentence.
Zhenya Tsvetnenko photographed with her family, one of many photos she sent to the U.S. sentencing judge. (Supplied)
Tsvetnenko, who returned the $ 15.4 million he stole, has spent nearly four years in detention and is asking U.S. authorities to release him within the time he has already served.
The ABC contacted its U.S.-based lawyer for comment.
If the offer fails, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Department told the ABC that international transfers of prisoners to Australia require the consent of the “prisoner and the foreign country in question”.
It would also need the approval of the Australian government and the Western Australian government.
“I justified my actions at the time thinking it wasn’t a lot of money and no one was hurt,” Tsvetnenko said in his own letter to the judge.
“I deceived myself. I am deeply ashamed of what I did and the harm my behavior caused. I live with that remorse every day.
“I knew in the back of my mind that it would only be a matter …