Tech millionaire Eugeni “Zhenya” Tsvetnenko was denied bail this morning at the Perth Magistrates Court after being arrested on fraud charges in the United States.
Magistrate Joe Randazzo said the risk of flight was real and refused to grant bail.
The 39-year-old father of two is wanted in the United States after being charged in 2016 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He appeared by video link from Hakea Prison and seemed to be relaxed.
Tsvetnenko and ten other men were charged for their alleged participation in a scheme to charge hundreds of thousands of mobile phone customers $9.99 US per month for unsolicited recurring text messages about horoscopes, celebrity gossip and trivia between 2011 and 2013.
The US Department of Justice alleged Tsvetnenko began auto-subscribing customers in April 2012 and continued through mid-2013 to generate millions of dollars of revenue for himself and his co-conspirators which was split among them to fund “a lavish lifestyle of expensive vacations and gambling”.
Tsvetnenko will appear at an extradition hearing on April 12 in Perth.
The Russian-born entrepreneur immigrated to Perth with his parents when he was 12.
Tsvetnenko dropped out of university in the late nineties and earnt his millions after he created an automatic SMS delivery service.
He went on to found blockchain technology company DigitalX and online advertising business Tech Mpire and resigned from both companies when he was charged in 2016.
In 2011 he was ranked 13th in BRW’s Young Rich List with a fortune of $115 million and won Business News’ 40under40 award.
