Gossip Column: Dan Bilzerian`s Marijuana Company Lands in Fresh Trouble With US Authorities 

Gossip Column - Dan Bilzerian
  • Profile picture
  • Namita Ghosh September 5, 2022
  • 2 Minutes Read

The self-proclaimed “King of Instagram,” Dan Bilzerian, lives a life many envy! He is always surrounded by scantily dressed pretty women and is known to have an uber-luxurious lifestyle. However, he is also a controversial figure!

And the millionaire playboy has managed to land himself in hot water again and, this time has regulatory troubles hovering over his cannabis and vape company, Ignite International Brands Ltd. After an inquiry by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have both begun investigating Bilzerian’s company for alleged accounting fraud.

Last Monday, the SEC filed a request with a California court, seeking compliance from Ignite on a subpoena sent to it in May. Evidently, SEC’s information request has not evoked much response from Bilzerian’s company. To substantiate its authority to continue the accounting investigations, the SEC revealed that it is facing “numerous requests from the regulatory authorities” in Canada, namely, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).

 

Is Bilzerian Sidestepping Investigations?

Representing the SEC in its filing before the California court, staff attorney Patricia Pei alleged “possible violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.”

She added that the information uncovered indicates that the company “may have filed public financial statements that include false or misleading representations” in 2020.

However, the SEC later issued a statement clarifying that it continues “its fact-finding investigation and, to date, has not concluded that any individual or entity has violated the federal securities laws.”

Dan Bilzerian
Dan Bilzerian

 

Interestingly, two months after the SEC initiated its investigations into the 2017-launched Ignite International Ltd., headquartered in Markham, Ontario; the company announced plans to shift operational functionality from a publicly traded company to a private entity.

In August-end, the company’s shareholders approved the move. The company released a statement that read – “At the Meeting, shareholders of the Company approved: (i) the fixing of the number of directors of the Company at five (5); (ii) the election of the five nominated directors, being Dan Bilzerian, Lester Lee, Greg Gilpin-Payne, Ralph Gilpin-Payne, and Tom Bunker.”

Bilzerian’s active involvement in Ignite had drawn many investors, and the company, which traded as BILZ-CN” peaked in 2019, commanding a market capitalization of over $750 Million. But the valuation came tumbling down rapidly after Ignite stopped trading in North America, with the company`s market cap falling as low as $170 Million.

The recent SEC filing in the court indicates that Ignite has chosen not to comply with the U.S. regulatory investigations. While the SEC has maintained a neutral stance so far, clarifying that it has not concluded whether Ignite or Bilzerian have violated federal security laws, the fact that federal agencies are investigating it doesn’t bode well for the company.

 

Bilzerian – The Controversy King!

Name Bilzerian, and the man manages to shock us in one way or another, and his involvement in the poker industry has been mired in controversy. Following an altercation with Doug Polk, Bilzerian surprised the poker community when he was roped into the GGPoker team of Brand Ambassadors in December 2020.

Things started on a patchy note as Bilzerian almost immediately got embroiled in a public spat with Canadian poker player Vanessa Kade and received a lot of flak for his sexist comments on the latter. In 2021, Bilzerian challenged billionaire Alec Gores to a $100 Million heads-up poker match, but things didn’t get rolling on that front.

Dan Bilzerian
Dan Bilzerian

 

Last December, he released a self-published autobiography, “The Setup,” before facing off with Polk AGAIN on the latter’s podcast.

On International Women’s Day in March this year, GGPoker silently terminated its association with Bilzerian.

Not much was talked about this, but in June, Bilzerian revealed to “Adam22” on the No Jumper Podcast that he was no longer representing the brand and that GGPoker didn’t hold up their end of the contract by reneging on the payment of his affiliate revenue, among other things.

He claimed then – “Initially, I tried to do it, you know what I mean, I did some posts and drove them a f******d of traffic. But then they were supposed to give me a percentage of the people that I recruited, and you know, we had like 100,000 that we downloaded, there’s like a lot of people. So, the numbers they were saying they were going to pay me was millions a month.”

Bilzerian also talked down poker players, “Most poker players are f*****g nerds; I don’t really hang out with that many of them, I don’t really want to associate with them. I shut most of them out of my f*****g games. I never really let pros in.”

We never thought we’d see the man walk the aisle to get married, but he shocked us in July, sharing a picture of him doing the same!

The Millionaire playboy has been actively promoting Ignite across his Instagram and other social media accounts in a big way, and there have been rumours of financial troubles in the company.

Now with the Canadian and U.S. regulators investigating Ignite for fraud, there may be more trouble ahead for the controversy-sporting poker player.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Top Online Poker Rooms

Top
PokerGuru