Basically he would have used a stolen credit card to pay for the contest he was suggesting on 99designs.com. Then he would have awarded the prize to the designer, but asked the designer to send him back some of the money "for tax reasons" or some other nonsense via PayPal. If the designer can get the cash out before the chargeback comes in or the design contest site notices, then he profits.
Aside from that, he might just have been getting free design work that he could sell elsewhere.
don't tell me he's scamming people out of web-design labor.