American social media influencer (born 1980)
Daniel Brandon Bilzerian (born December 7, 1980) is an American poker player, businessman, and social media influencer. He gained notability for his extravagant lifestyle and photo ops with scantily dressed female models on social media. He is the eldest son of businessman Paul Alec Bilzerian and the brother of poker player and writer Adam J. Bilzerian.
His business ventures include Ignite International Brands Ltd., which sells electronic cigarettes, CBD oils, water bottles and vodka, among other products. He has also explored other avenues; he appeared in such films as "The Equalizer", "Cat Run 2" (both 2014), and "Extraction" (2015), and authored the autobiography "The Setup" (2021), which recounts his controversial life and lifestyle.
Early life and education.
Daniel Brandon Bilzerian was born on December 7, 1980, in Tampa, Florida, the son of corporate takeover specialist Paul Bilzerian and Terri Steffen. He is the brother of fellow poker player Adam Bilzerian, and is of half Armenian descent through his father, who was a corporate raider on Wall Street and provided both of his sons with trust funds. Bilzerian said he studied for four years at the University of Florida, majoring in Business and Criminology, but dropped out of college to pursue a professional poker career.
Career.
Poker.
Bilzerian claims he earned his fortune as a poker player, though Vice said that was “a myth”, reporting that Bilzerian’s wealth came from his father, as “party to a byzantine network of corporations, companies, and other business formulations designed to protect the assets of his white-collar criminal father Paul Bilzerian from the government.”
Bilzerian played in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing in 180th place. In 2010, he was voted one of the funniest poker players on Twitter by "Bluff" magazine. In November 2011, Bilzerian was one of those sued by the estate of Bradley Ruderman over winnings from poker games, which were alleged to have been paid with funds from an illegal Ponzi scheme.
In November 2013, Bilzerian posted an unconfirmed claim that he won $10.8 million from a single night of playing poker, and in 2014 he claimed to have won $50 million throughout the year, adding that he "doesn't play against professionals anymore and the most he's ever lost in a single session is $3.6 million." Bilzerian has discussed his poker career on Joe Rogan's podcast on YouTube.
Business ventures.
Bilzerian runs the company Ignite International Brands Ltd., which sells electronic cigarettes, CBD oils, water bottles and vodka, among other products. U.S. prosecutors allege that Bilzerian’s father, Paul Bilzerian, retained de facto control of Ignite, and improperly funneled money to the company while owing more than $180 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission .
Ignite is a public company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, that began trading in January 2019 under the BILZF ticker. The company reportedly lost over $50 million in 2019, mostly on marketing and office rental expenses.
Personal life.
Due to his drug abuse, Bilzerian reportedly suffered two heart attacks before the age of 32.
In 2014, Bilzerian split his time between homes in Hollywood Hills and Los Angeles (California) and Las Vegas (Nevada).
He moved to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air in 2018.
Acquisition of Armenian citizenship.
On August 28, 2018, Bilzerian flew to Armenia with his brother Adam and father Paul to take their oaths to obtain Armenian citizenship and join the Armenian Armed Forces.
On that same trip he visited the Republic of Artsakh where he visited a shooting range, and fired weapons there. The government of Azerbaijan sent a note of protest to the United States over these actions due to the contested status of Artsakh, and summoned U.S. Chargé d'Affaires William Gill to take an official note of protest addressed to the State Department. A court in Baku issued an arrest warrant for Bilzerian and put him on the international wanted list. Two years later, Bilzerian and other members of his family donated $250,000 to the Armenia Fund to support Armenia and Artsakh during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, declaring that he was "very disappointed that Azerbaijan decided to attack the Armenian people."
Political views.
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One thing I do like is that he is kind of raw and unfiltered ... that honestly scares me less than these people that are so politically correct and they're just gonna say whatever they're supposed to say ... I would rather somebody, even if I don't agree with his opinion, give it to me straight.
—Bilzerian on his support for Trump, "Larry King Now"
In June 2015, Bilzerian announced his bid to run in the 2016 United States presidential election. By December 2015, however, he had begun supporting Donald Trump, stating that he "is raw and unfiltered," eschewing political correctness and praising his pro-gun stance.
In 2024, Bilzerian condemned Israel and expressed support for Hamas amidst the Israel–Hamas war, referring to it as a "resistance organization" and calling its former leader Yahya Sinwar "a hero."
Antisemitism.
Bilzerian has generated controversy for a series of statements against Jews and Judaism as early as 2010. He has gone on record to say that the Jewish people perpetrated the Holodomor in Soviet Ukraine, assassinated John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, created the "transgender nonsense," and orchestrated the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War, among other assertions and antisemitic conspiracy theories. He also stated that Nazi Germany "flourished" when "Hitler removed Jews from the banking system" and that Spain's golden age began because it expelled the Jews at the end of the "Reconquista" in 1492.
In a 2024 interview with Piers Morgan, Bilzerian claimed that Judaism "promotes supremacy and rape, and steals from other people as long as they're not Jewish" and that "most of the problems today are caused by Jewish supremacy." He invoked the term "antisemitism" as a misnomer, stating that the Palestinian people "are the real semites." He also stated that all Israeli Jews are "Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews" and "don't have actual Hebrew DNA." Bilzerian further claimed that Jews "control the media" and promoted Holocaust denialism, saying that "I would bet my entire net worth that it was less than six million." Bilzerian followed up on this claim about the Holocaust by stating that Jews "killed more Christians than six million" and that "they've basically invented genocide."
Legal issues.
In 2014, Bilzerian sued the producers of the film "Lone Survivor". His lawsuit stated that he invested $1 million in the film in exchange for at least eight minutes of screen time and 80 words of dialogue, but his role was later reduced to less than one minute and just one line. His lawsuit demanded $1.2 million—the original investment plus 20 percent. The lawsuit was later dropped, and Bilzerian reportedly generated $1.5 million in revenue due to the film's commercial success.
In August 2014, Bilzerian was banned from a Miami nightclub for kicking model Vanessa Castano in the face during a brawl. Bilzerian stated that Castano and another woman attacked Bilzerian's female companion. Castano stated, "There were two girls standing next to me at the table that were fighting. People started getting shoved and I tried to separate them. Then Dan pushed me off the banquette and once I fell he kicked me in the face." Castano later filed a lawsuit against Bilzerian for her injuries. It was also reported that Castano has asked Bilzerian for US$1 million to settle the suit citing the possibility of greater punitive damages based on his income if the suit went to trial.
In 2014, Bilzerian was involved in a legal matter with pornographic actress Janice Griffith. Griffith was featured in a photoshoot with Bilzerian for "Hustler" magazine in April 2014, which involved Bilzerian throwing her off the roof of a house and into a pool. Griffith fell short of the pool, hitting the edge, and broke her foot. The 18-year-old asked Bilzerian for $85,000 for her injuries, which was rejected. In December 2014 she filed a lawsuit against both "Hustler" and Bilzerian. Bilzerian's attorney responded that Griffith was under contract for the event by "Hustler", that "Hustler" hired Bilzerian for the event, and that Bilzerian was not at fault. In January 2015, "Hustler"'s attorney claimed that the toss was an "act of God" and stated that it was not the publisher's fault that Griffith suffered injuries as a result.
On December 9, 2014, Bilzerian was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on unrelated bomb-making charges. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Bilzerian was arrested on a fugitive warrant from Nevada and was booked at the LAPD's Pacific Division around 10 pm: "Bilzerian has been charged with violating a law making it a crime to possess an explosive or incendiary device with the intent to manufacture it." He was released from LAPD custody on the day of his arrest after charges were dropped but was scheduled to be arraigned in January 2015 in Clark County, Nevada. In February 2015, Bilzerian pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of "negligently failing to extinguish a fire in the open" and was fined $17,231.50.
In July 2020, former Ignite president Curtis Heffernan sued Bilzerian for wrongful termination. Heffernan claimed that he was fired for criticizing Bilzerian's misappropriation of company funds for his lavish lifestyle.
In popular culture.
In October 2016, American rapper T-Pain released the song "Dan Bilzerian".
References.
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