WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.580 Okay, I want you to do something for me. If you're 00:00:01.580 --> 00:00:03.940 not driving, just close your eyes for a second. 00:00:04.019 --> 00:00:05.620 Don't do it on the treadmill either. Right. Good 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:09.720 point. But if you're safe, just picture it. Oh, 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:13.140 you go back in time. It's maybe 2014. You pick 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:15.300 up your phone. You open up Instagram. You start 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:19.420 scrolling. What do you see? Oh, wow. 2014. That's 00:00:19.420 --> 00:00:22.679 a throwback. Probably a lot of really heavily 00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:25.260 filtered photos of food, right? Some sunsets. 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:28.019 And then you'd scroll past a brunch photo and 00:00:28.019 --> 00:00:30.850 then boom. There he was. There he was. Always. 00:00:30.929 --> 00:00:34.689 The beard. The giant sunglasses. The stacks of 00:00:34.689 --> 00:00:36.869 poker chips that look like skyscrapers. And the 00:00:36.869 --> 00:00:39.030 private jets. The ones that looked more like, 00:00:39.109 --> 00:00:41.289 I don't know, a billionaire's living room than 00:00:41.289 --> 00:00:44.090 an airplane. And of course the women. So many 00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:46.689 women. Usually on a yacht or draped over some 00:00:46.689 --> 00:00:49.289 kind of military grade vehicle. And all of them 00:00:49.289 --> 00:00:52.100 wearing like... less fabric than you'd find in 00:00:52.100 --> 00:00:53.899 a single sock. You couldn't escape him. He was 00:00:53.899 --> 00:00:55.920 the king of Instagram. He really was. It was 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.380 an archetype. Dan Bilzerian. He basically created 00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:01.899 a new category of internet fame before we even 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:04.560 really knew what to call it. Exactly. For, I 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:07.219 don't know, a good five, maybe six years, he 00:01:07.219 --> 00:01:09.920 was the guy that every kid in a college dorm 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:12.900 room either wanted to be or, you know, wanted 00:01:12.900 --> 00:01:15.400 to prove was a total fraud. Is one or the other. 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:20.340 He sold this this explosive, completely unapologetic 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:24.209 action movie life. Guns, girls, high stakes gambling. 00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:26.090 It was like he was playing Grand Theft Auto, 00:01:26.269 --> 00:01:28.450 but with the infinite money cheat code turned 00:01:28.450 --> 00:01:31.590 on. It was a really fascinating cultural moment. 00:01:31.709 --> 00:01:33.969 Yeah. Because this was just before the word influencer 00:01:33.969 --> 00:01:36.469 became like a legitimate job title you'd put 00:01:36.469 --> 00:01:38.530 on LinkedIn. Right. Felt a little more raw back 00:01:38.530 --> 00:01:41.430 then, a little more dangerous maybe. Yeah. He 00:01:41.430 --> 00:01:42.950 wasn't trying to sell you a promo code for a 00:01:42.950 --> 00:01:45.370 smoothie. Yeah. Not at first anyway. He was selling 00:01:45.370 --> 00:01:49.109 a fantasy. A fantasy of just. Total unchecked 00:01:49.109 --> 00:01:51.450 masculinity and bottomless resources. Exactly. 00:01:51.510 --> 00:01:53.250 But here's the thing. And this is really why 00:01:53.250 --> 00:01:56.069 we're doing this deep dive today. If you haven't 00:01:56.069 --> 00:01:57.989 really checked in on the Dan Bilzerian story 00:01:57.989 --> 00:02:00.430 since those, let's call them the glory days of 00:02:00.430 --> 00:02:04.349 2015, 2016, you are in for an absolute shock. 00:02:05.129 --> 00:02:07.269 That's putting it mildly. Because that whole 00:02:07.269 --> 00:02:11.830 party boy persona, that brand. It hasn't just 00:02:11.830 --> 00:02:15.650 faded away. It's collapsed. Or maybe mutated 00:02:15.650 --> 00:02:17.750 is the better word. It's become something much, 00:02:17.810 --> 00:02:20.110 much darker. Mutation is the perfect word for 00:02:20.110 --> 00:02:22.509 it. And that's why we're here. We're not just 00:02:22.509 --> 00:02:24.389 here to gossip about some Internet celebrity. 00:02:24.710 --> 00:02:26.789 We're going to look behind the curtain. We're 00:02:26.789 --> 00:02:28.789 going to look at the machinery that built the 00:02:28.789 --> 00:02:30.789 myth. We're going to follow the money. We have 00:02:30.789 --> 00:02:32.539 to. We're going to look at where he said the 00:02:32.539 --> 00:02:34.460 money came from, you know, the poker winnings. 00:02:34.460 --> 00:02:35.979 And then we're going to look at where federal 00:02:35.979 --> 00:02:38.039 investigators and court documents suggest it 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:39.439 really came from. And we're going to dissect 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:42.560 a business empire that from the outside looked 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:44.639 like its main product was just setting piles 00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:47.479 of cash on fire. A very, very expensive bonfire. 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:49.659 And we absolutely have to talk about where he 00:02:49.659 --> 00:02:52.340 is now. Right now in 2024, heading into 2025. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:56.240 Because the guy who positioned himself as this, 00:02:56.280 --> 00:03:00.439 like... Fun -loving libertarian playboy has taken 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:04.020 such a hard pivot. A hard pivot into, well, into 00:03:04.020 --> 00:03:06.400 some very dark corners of the Internet. We're 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:09.919 talking about a full -blown descent into conspiracy 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:13.900 theories, hardcore political extremism. And rhetoric 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:17.060 that has just completely alienated even his most 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:20.439 loyal followers. It's genuinely shocking. It's 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:23.300 a case study, really. A case study in radicalization. 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:26.719 How does someone go from being the literal poster 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:31.780 boy for hedonism to being a mouthpiece for some 00:03:31.780 --> 00:03:35.479 truly vile hate speech? It's a wild trajectory. 00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:38.110 So that's our mission for this deep dive, to 00:03:38.110 --> 00:03:40.650 try and separate the man from the myth. We've 00:03:40.650 --> 00:03:43.930 got a mountain of documents here, SEC filings, 00:03:43.949 --> 00:03:46.490 lawsuit transcripts, interviews, financial reports. 00:03:46.590 --> 00:03:48.030 We're going to try and answer the big questions. 00:03:48.250 --> 00:03:50.310 Did he really win all that money? Was his company 00:03:50.310 --> 00:03:53.110 Ignite a real business or was it just a personal 00:03:53.110 --> 00:03:56.349 piggy bank? And the big one. Why is he now on 00:03:56.349 --> 00:03:59.909 podcast denying the Holocaust? Yeah, it's a lot 00:03:59.909 --> 00:04:02.069 to get through. A whole lot to unpack. So let's 00:04:02.069 --> 00:04:03.990 start where all good stories start, at the beginning. 00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:07.099 The origin story. Because the tale that Dan himself 00:04:07.099 --> 00:04:09.340 has always told, the legend of Dan, is that he 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:12.080 is the ultimate self -made man. Right. The narrative 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:13.819 is that he walked into the jungle with nothing 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:16.600 but a knife, rustled a bear, and came out wearing 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:19.709 its skin. The ultimate alpha. That's the brand, 00:04:19.870 --> 00:04:22.870 100%. The idea that he's just built differently. 00:04:23.069 --> 00:04:26.329 He operates on a plane of risk and reward that 00:04:26.329 --> 00:04:29.009 us normal people can't even comprehend. But if 00:04:29.009 --> 00:04:31.110 you actually pull back the curtain on his biography, 00:04:31.430 --> 00:04:34.170 the story doesn't really begin in some smoky 00:04:34.170 --> 00:04:37.389 high -stakes poker room in Vegas. No. It starts 00:04:37.389 --> 00:04:41.050 in Tampa, Florida, 1980. And it starts with a 00:04:41.050 --> 00:04:45.879 trust fund. Ah, the trust fund. The kryptonite 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:49.079 for any self -made man story. It really is. And 00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:52.600 you simply cannot understand Dan Bilzerian, the 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:55.120 brand, or the man, without first understanding 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:58.360 his father, Paul Bilzerian. Now, he is a character 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:00.939 in his own right. Oh, absolutely. Paul, back 00:05:00.939 --> 00:05:03.459 in the 1980s, he was a big name on Wall Street. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:05.459 He was what they called a corporate raider. Okay, 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:07.540 I've definitely heard that term, usually in movies 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:09.319 from that era. You know, someone's shouting it 00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:11.199 into a giant phone. But what does a corporate 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:13.600 raider actually do? It sounds like a pirate with 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:16.339 a better suit. Honestly, that's not a bad way 00:05:16.339 --> 00:05:17.439 to think about it. It's a pretty good analogy. 00:05:17.779 --> 00:05:20.220 So a raider would identify a public company that 00:05:20.220 --> 00:05:22.560 they think is undervalued. Maybe it has a lot 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:25.439 of physical assets. Like real estate? Yeah. But 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:27.899 the management is terrible. Or maybe it's just 00:05:27.899 --> 00:05:29.920 sitting on a huge pile of cash and not doing 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:33.939 anything with it. The raider then starts quietly 00:05:33.939 --> 00:05:36.779 buying up a ton of that company's stock. Enough 00:05:36.779 --> 00:05:39.240 to become a problem. Enough to threaten a hostile 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:41.439 takeover. Right. They basically bully their way 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:43.620 to the table. From there, they have a few options. 00:05:43.819 --> 00:05:46.040 They can force the company's board to buy their 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:48.879 shares back from them at a huge premium just 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:51.079 to get them to go away. What's that called? That's 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:53.740 called greenmail. Greenmail. Got it. Or... If 00:05:53.740 --> 00:05:55.639 that doesn't work, they follow through on the 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:57.680 takeover. They buy the company, fire the management, 00:05:57.779 --> 00:06:00.180 and then they will distribute it for parts. They 00:06:00.180 --> 00:06:02.399 sell off all the valuable asset piece by piece 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:04.759 and pocket the cash. So it's super aggressive, 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:07.000 probably terrible for the company's employees. 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:09.959 Oh, devastating for the employees. But for the 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:13.639 raider, it could be incredibly, incredibly lucrative. 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:15.939 And Paul Bilzerian was one of the big names in 00:06:15.939 --> 00:06:18.699 this game. He was very successful at it for a 00:06:18.699 --> 00:06:22.800 while until the government caught up with him. 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:25.899 Paul ran into serious trouble with the SEC, the 00:06:25.899 --> 00:06:28.100 Securities and Exchange Commission. What happened? 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:30.240 He ended up being convicted on multiple counts 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:33.220 of securities fraud, conspiracy, making false 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:36.980 statements. Big messy case. But, and this is 00:06:36.980 --> 00:06:38.879 the absolute key to understanding Dan's story, 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.860 before the whole house of cards came down, Paul 00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:44.720 did something very smart. What was that? He set 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:48.639 up a very complex, very sophisticated web of 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:51.790 trusts and offshore accounts. For his kids? For 00:06:51.790 --> 00:06:54.110 the whole family. But yes, specifically for his 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:57.389 sons, Dan and his brother Adam. And our sources 00:06:57.389 --> 00:07:00.410 are crystal clear on this. Paul Bolzerian established 00:07:00.410 --> 00:07:02.689 significant trust funds for both of them. And 00:07:02.689 --> 00:07:04.230 we're not talking about a little college fund 00:07:04.230 --> 00:07:06.990 here. No, we are talking about millions and millions 00:07:06.990 --> 00:07:09.509 of dollars structured in a way that was specifically 00:07:09.509 --> 00:07:11.930 designed to be untouchable, to be out of the 00:07:11.930 --> 00:07:14.629 reach of the U .S. government and... any creditors 00:07:14.629 --> 00:07:16.550 who were trying to collect on the massive judgments 00:07:16.550 --> 00:07:20.350 against Paul. So when Dan Bilzerian is in his 00:07:20.350 --> 00:07:23.110 early 20s and he drops out of the University 00:07:23.110 --> 00:07:25.649 of Florida, where he was studying business and 00:07:25.649 --> 00:07:28.449 criminology, which is just perfect. The irony 00:07:28.449 --> 00:07:30.569 is almost too much, isn't it? He wasn't some 00:07:30.569 --> 00:07:33.509 broke college kid with a dream. Not even close. 00:07:33.910 --> 00:07:36.750 He had a financial safety net woven from titanium. 00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:40.480 And you have to understand how that changes the 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:43.420 entire equation of his life. Right. If you know 00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:45.600 that you have a multimillion dollar backstop 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.220 that can never be taken away from you, you can 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:50.180 take risks that would seem completely insane 00:07:50.180 --> 00:07:52.480 to a normal person. You can sit down at a poker 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:55.480 table and drop $100 ,000 on a single hand. Because 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:57.399 if you lose, who cares? You're not going to be 00:07:57.399 --> 00:07:58.800 homeless. You're not worried about rent. You're 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:01.610 just... You're waiting for the next wire transfer 00:08:01.610 --> 00:08:04.250 from the trust. But that completely contradicts 00:08:04.250 --> 00:08:06.550 his entire narrative. His story has always, always 00:08:06.550 --> 00:08:09.110 been, I never touched my father's money. I built 00:08:09.110 --> 00:08:11.870 my fortune from scratch playing poker. That is 00:08:11.870 --> 00:08:14.730 the foundational myth. That is the hill he has 00:08:14.730 --> 00:08:18.470 chosen to die on. The poker narrative. And the 00:08:18.470 --> 00:08:22.230 numbers he claims are just, they're astronomical. 00:08:22.569 --> 00:08:24.550 I was looking back at some of the articles from 00:08:24.550 --> 00:08:28.370 his peak fame around 2013, 2014. Yep. He claimed 00:08:28.370 --> 00:08:34.019 to have won. $10 .8 million in one night, a single 00:08:34.019 --> 00:08:36.379 session of poker. That was the big one in November 00:08:36.379 --> 00:08:38.399 2013. That was the claim that really put him 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:40.120 on the map. And then he followed up by claiming 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:43.519 he won a total of $50 million over the course 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:48.620 of the next year, 2014. $50 million! I mean, 00:08:48.620 --> 00:08:50.679 you have to put that in context. That's top -tier 00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:52.620 professional athlete money. That's superstar 00:08:52.620 --> 00:08:55.860 CEO money. It's GDP of a small country money. 00:08:56.039 --> 00:08:57.960 And he's claiming he made it playing cards. Now, 00:08:57.980 --> 00:08:59.960 his explanation was always, I don't play against 00:08:59.960 --> 00:09:02.259 the pros. I play against whales. Right. His whole 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:04.320 thing was that he seeks out these private high 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:06.799 -stakes games with super -rich businessmen who 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:09.299 are, frankly, terrible at poker but have money 00:09:09.299 --> 00:09:11.720 to burn and want the thrill of playing for huge 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:13.980 stakes. Which, I mean, on its face, that sounds 00:09:13.980 --> 00:09:15.990 plausible. Those kinds of games do exist. They 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:17.809 absolutely exist. It's a whole underground economy. 00:09:18.389 --> 00:09:22.669 But the numbers, 50 million in a year. That's 00:09:22.669 --> 00:09:24.490 where you have to apply a serious reality check. 00:09:24.669 --> 00:09:26.870 So how do we check that? What are the actual 00:09:26.870 --> 00:09:29.889 verifiable records of his poker career? Well, 00:09:29.909 --> 00:09:32.259 there's a database called the Hendon Mob. It's 00:09:32.259 --> 00:09:34.840 basically the Bible of poker. It tracks the results 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:38.440 of every major live poker tournament in the world 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:41.179 for every player. And what does Dan Bilzerian's 00:09:41.179 --> 00:09:43.139 profile look like on there? Is it $50 million? 00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:47.179 It is. Not $50 million. Not even close. His single 00:09:47.179 --> 00:09:50.360 biggest accomplishment, his crowning achievement 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:52.159 in the world of professional tournament poker, 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:55.480 came back in 2008. Okay. He played in the World 00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:57.220 Series of Poker main event. It's the biggest, 00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:59.779 most prestigious tournament on the planet. Thousands 00:09:59.779 --> 00:10:02.200 of people play. And how did he do it? Did he 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:04.200 win it? He did not. Yeah. He didn't even make 00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:07.620 final table. He finished in 180th place. 180th. 00:10:07.700 --> 00:10:11.840 180. Yes. He won about $36 ,000 for that finish. 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:15.019 Look, I mean, finishing 180th out of thousands 00:10:15.019 --> 00:10:17.179 of players is not nothing. You have to be a decent 00:10:17.179 --> 00:10:19.879 player to do that. Oh, for sure. He's not a bad 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:22.580 player. He clearly knows the game. But there's 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:25.759 a Grand Canyon -sized gap between being... a 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:28.799 capable amateur who got lucky and made one deep 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:32.700 run in a tournament, and being a poker god who 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:36.220 can consistently extract $50 million a year from 00:10:36.220 --> 00:10:39.299 the game. It's like saying I was the star quarterback 00:10:39.299 --> 00:10:41.759 on my high school team, so it's totally believable 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:45.019 that I'm secretly making $50 million a year beating 00:10:45.019 --> 00:10:47.240 NFL players and pick up games in my backyard. 00:10:47.539 --> 00:10:50.240 It's the exact same logic. The math just doesn't 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:53.179 work. But there's one particular legal case that 00:10:53.179 --> 00:10:55.460 shines a really bright light on where some of 00:10:55.460 --> 00:10:57.340 these supposed winnings might have actually come 00:10:57.340 --> 00:11:00.240 from. Okay. And to understand it, we need to 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:02.899 talk about a man named Bradley Witterman. Okay, 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:05.080 I saw this name in the research, and it's a wild 00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:08.200 story. He was the Ponzi scheme guy, right? How 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:10.860 on earth does a Ponzi scheme connect to a secret 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.279 Hollywood poker game? It's one of the craziest 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:16.169 side stories in this whole saga. Bradley Ruderman 00:11:16.169 --> 00:11:18.269 presented himself as a successful hedge fund 00:11:18.269 --> 00:11:20.830 manager in Beverly Hills. He wasn't. He was not. 00:11:20.929 --> 00:11:23.669 In reality, he was running a classic Ponzi scheme. 00:11:23.870 --> 00:11:26.769 He was taking in money from investors, promising 00:11:26.769 --> 00:11:29.769 them these huge guaranteed returns. And instead 00:11:29.769 --> 00:11:32.070 of investing the money, he was just spending 00:11:32.070 --> 00:11:35.250 it. The old Bernie Madoff special. Exactly. But 00:11:35.250 --> 00:11:38.289 Ruderman had a particular weakness. He was addicted 00:11:38.289 --> 00:11:41.210 to high stakes poker. He was desperate to be 00:11:41.210 --> 00:11:43.889 seen as a big shot, to rub elbows with celebrities, 00:11:44.149 --> 00:11:47.070 and maybe in his own mind, he thought he could 00:11:47.070 --> 00:11:49.509 win back all the money he'd stolen. So he gets 00:11:49.509 --> 00:11:52.490 himself into these super exclusive underground 00:11:52.490 --> 00:11:56.129 Hollywood poker games. Very same games that were 00:11:56.129 --> 00:11:58.269 famous for having players like Tobey Maguire, 00:11:58.389 --> 00:12:01.330 Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio. And yes, Dan 00:12:01.330 --> 00:12:03.570 Bilzerian. So Ritterman is at the poker table 00:12:03.570 --> 00:12:05.970 betting with money he stole from his investors. 00:12:06.190 --> 00:12:08.309 Precisely. He is literally betting with people's 00:12:08.309 --> 00:12:10.429 retirement savings. And he was losing. He was 00:12:10.429 --> 00:12:12.370 losing millions and millions of dollars in these 00:12:12.370 --> 00:12:14.850 games. And a significant chunk of that stolen 00:12:14.850 --> 00:12:17.429 money ended up in Dan Bilzerian's pockets. Wow. 00:12:18.250 --> 00:12:20.409 So, OK, Dan wins the money fair and square at 00:12:20.409 --> 00:12:22.509 the table. Ruderman eventually gets caught and 00:12:22.509 --> 00:12:24.570 goes to jail. Is that the end of it? Not by a 00:12:24.570 --> 00:12:27.370 long shot. Once the Ponzi scheme collapsed, a 00:12:27.370 --> 00:12:29.509 trustee was appointed to try and claw back as 00:12:29.509 --> 00:12:31.549 much money as possible for the victims. Right. 00:12:32.110 --> 00:12:35.169 The trustee's job is to trace where all the stolen 00:12:35.169 --> 00:12:38.190 money went. Right. And they see these huge payments, 00:12:38.409 --> 00:12:41.610 millions of dollars, going to Dan Bilzerian and 00:12:41.610 --> 00:12:43.950 the other players in the game. So they sued them. 00:12:44.350 --> 00:12:47.409 Wait, they sued the winners? On what grounds 00:12:47.409 --> 00:12:49.350 could they do that? It's a fascinating legal 00:12:49.350 --> 00:12:52.309 argument. They argued that because these high 00:12:52.309 --> 00:12:55.129 stakes private poker games were technically illegal 00:12:55.129 --> 00:12:58.230 under California law, because the host was taking 00:12:58.230 --> 00:13:01.450 a rake or a percentage of the pot without a gaming 00:13:01.450 --> 00:13:04.690 license, that any transfer of money within that 00:13:04.690 --> 00:13:07.440 game was legally void. So the argument is essentially 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:10.519 you didn't win that money in a legitimate enterprise. 00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:13.059 You were the recipient of a fraudulent transfer 00:13:13.059 --> 00:13:15.460 of stolen property. That is exactly the argument. 00:13:15.539 --> 00:13:17.120 They weren't just winnings. They were stolen 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:20.000 goods. And what happened? Dan eventually settled 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.379 the lawsuit. He paid back a portion of the money. 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:24.740 But the case is so revealing because it just 00:13:24.740 --> 00:13:27.139 pulls the curtain back on this whole myth. It 00:13:27.139 --> 00:13:29.100 shows that his winnings weren't just the result 00:13:29.100 --> 00:13:31.720 of him being a poker genius. Right. It was this 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:36.470 murky. unregulated ecosystem where millions of 00:13:36.470 --> 00:13:39.169 dollars of questionable origin were flying around 00:13:39.169 --> 00:13:43.169 with zero oversight. And if you're Dan and you're 00:13:43.169 --> 00:13:46.049 sitting on a huge pile of trust fund money and 00:13:46.049 --> 00:13:49.370 you're moving it through these games, it becomes 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:52.129 impossible for an outsider to tell which dollar 00:13:52.129 --> 00:13:54.450 is a poker win and which dollar is just dad's 00:13:54.450 --> 00:13:56.840 money being cycled through. That's the part that 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:58.899 really gets me. It's the opacity of it all. It's 00:13:58.899 --> 00:14:01.759 the perfect cover story for having a ton of unexplained 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:04.039 cash. It's the ultimate narrative for wealth 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:06.679 that doesn't want to be traced. If you say you 00:14:06.679 --> 00:14:08.899 made your money in the stock market, I can ask 00:14:08.899 --> 00:14:10.960 to see the trade confirmations. If you made it 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:13.320 in real estate, I can look up the deeds. But 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:15.879 if you say you won it all in private poker games. 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:18.480 There's no paper trail. There are no receipts. 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:20.360 You just have to take their word for it. It's 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:22.019 the perfect way to explain away the trust fund. 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:24.279 And it's clear he wanted to be seen as more than 00:14:24.279 --> 00:14:28.100 just a gambler. He wanted legitimacy. Which brings 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:30.460 us to the next chapter of the myth, the businessman. 00:14:30.820 --> 00:14:37.019 Ah, yes. Ignite International Brands LTD. This 00:14:37.019 --> 00:14:39.480 was Dan's attempt to go corporate. And what a 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:42.360 glorious, spectacular flame out this was. I remember 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:45.860 when this launched, that goat skull logo was 00:14:45.860 --> 00:14:47.879 suddenly everywhere. It was. What were they even 00:14:47.879 --> 00:14:49.799 selling? It felt like they sold everything. They 00:14:49.799 --> 00:14:51.820 were trying to be a lifestyle brand. So they 00:14:51.820 --> 00:14:53.860 had CBD oils. They had electronic cigarettes 00:14:53.860 --> 00:14:57.519 and vapes. They had vodka, bottled water, T -shirts. 00:14:57.720 --> 00:15:00.620 A whole gamut. The idea was to monetize the Bilzerian 00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:02.759 lifestyle. You can't actually be Dan, but for 00:15:02.759 --> 00:15:04.919 $19 .99, you can drink his vodka or wear his 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:06.909 hat. And they took this company public, like 00:15:06.909 --> 00:15:09.649 on a real stock exchange. They did. In January 00:15:09.649 --> 00:15:12.529 2019, Ignite listed on the Canadian Securities 00:15:12.529 --> 00:15:16.590 Exchange. The ticker symbol was BILZF. So finally, 00:15:16.669 --> 00:15:18.710 we get some actual receipts. Now we have public 00:15:18.710 --> 00:15:20.970 financial statements, quarterly reports. We can 00:15:20.970 --> 00:15:24.169 finally see under the hood. How did the king 00:15:24.169 --> 00:15:27.029 of Instagram do as a public company CEO? It was 00:15:27.029 --> 00:15:29.110 an absolute catastrophe. Yeah. The financial 00:15:29.110 --> 00:15:31.129 performance is genuinely breathtaking and how 00:15:31.129 --> 00:15:33.250 bad it is. In its first year as a public company, 00:15:33.389 --> 00:15:36.090 2019, Ignite reported a loss of over $50 million. 00:15:36.669 --> 00:15:39.610 Hold on. Say that again. They lost $50 million. 00:15:40.350 --> 00:15:44.129 In a single year. Selling water bottles and vape 00:15:44.129 --> 00:15:46.970 pens. How is that physically possible? Did they 00:15:46.970 --> 00:15:49.669 build their headquarters out of solid gold? That's 00:15:49.669 --> 00:15:51.909 not far from the truth, actually. See, the money 00:15:51.909 --> 00:15:54.679 wasn't lost. because of high manufacturing costs, 00:15:54.899 --> 00:15:57.259 the financial statements show that the vast majority 00:15:57.259 --> 00:15:59.960 of the spending was on marketing and promotion. 00:16:00.259 --> 00:16:02.899 But when you start to dig into the court filings 00:16:02.899 --> 00:16:05.580 and whistleblower lawsuits that came later, that 00:16:05.580 --> 00:16:08.700 marketing budget starts to look a whole lot like 00:16:08.700 --> 00:16:11.700 Dan Bilzerian's personal expense account. And 00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:13.700 this is where the former company president, Curtis 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:16.320 Heffernan, comes in. Exactly. Curtis Heffernan 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:18.580 was hired to be the adult in the room to actually 00:16:18.580 --> 00:16:22.210 run the company. and in july of 2020 he filed 00:16:22.210 --> 00:16:25.009 a wrongful termination lawsuit against ignite 00:16:25.009 --> 00:16:27.970 and what was his claim why was he fired according 00:16:27.970 --> 00:16:30.789 to heffernan's lawsuit he was fired because he 00:16:30.789 --> 00:16:35.049 kept trying to stop dan from in his words misappropriating 00:16:35.049 --> 00:16:38.440 company funds He claimed Dan was treating the 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:40.519 public company's bank account like it was his 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:43.179 own personal ATM. What kind of expenses are we 00:16:43.179 --> 00:16:45.919 talking about here? The lawsuit listed some truly 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:50.960 unbelievable items. A $75 ,000 photo shoot set. 00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:56.080 A $40 ,000 bed frame. A $40 ,000 bed frame. A 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:00.620 $15 ,000 ping pong table. An $88 ,000 vault. 00:17:01.210 --> 00:17:04.089 A rock climbing wall. The list goes on and on. 00:17:04.250 --> 00:17:07.049 Who needs an $88 ,000 vault for a CBD company? 00:17:07.369 --> 00:17:09.589 The lawsuit alleged that these weren't even for 00:17:09.589 --> 00:17:11.910 the office. They were for his personal mansions 00:17:11.910 --> 00:17:14.769 in Los Angeles. Ignite was paying the massive 00:17:14.769 --> 00:17:17.150 rent on these houses, claiming they were marketing 00:17:17.150 --> 00:17:20.109 venues. So the justification was, my life is 00:17:20.109 --> 00:17:22.210 the marketing, therefore everything in my life 00:17:22.210 --> 00:17:24.890 is a legitimate business expense. That was the 00:17:24.890 --> 00:17:27.670 argument. My parties, my jets, my yachts, the 00:17:27.670 --> 00:17:29.910 models I fly around the world, that's all just 00:17:29.910 --> 00:17:32.250 marketing for the brand. That is a bold strategy. 00:17:32.569 --> 00:17:34.569 It's also, according to Heffernan, a guaranteed 00:17:34.569 --> 00:17:37.109 way to bankrupt the company. You cannot burn 00:17:37.109 --> 00:17:39.750 through $50 million in a year on parties and 00:17:39.750 --> 00:17:42.269 private jets and expect to ever turn a profit 00:17:42.269 --> 00:17:45.589 selling $20 t -shirts. The math is impossible. 00:17:46.049 --> 00:17:48.450 So the public shareholders who bought stock in 00:17:48.450 --> 00:17:50.410 this company were essentially just paying for 00:17:50.410 --> 00:17:52.730 his Instagram content. They were subsidizing 00:17:52.730 --> 00:17:55.299 the lifestyle. And this is where the story gets 00:17:55.299 --> 00:17:57.980 even stranger, because the shadow of his father 00:17:57.980 --> 00:18:01.400 looms large over Ignite. Paul Bilzerian is back 00:18:01.400 --> 00:18:04.039 in the picture. Big time. U .S. prosecutors have 00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:06.220 actually alleged that Paul Bilzerian, who remember, 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:08.759 is banned for life from the securities industry. 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:11.079 Right. That he retained de facto control over 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:13.319 the company. The feds claimed he was attending 00:18:13.319 --> 00:18:15.859 board meetings, directing corporate strategy 00:18:15.859 --> 00:18:18.500 and helping to structure deals all from behind 00:18:18.500 --> 00:18:21.069 the scenes. So the allegation is that Ignite 00:18:21.069 --> 00:18:23.990 wasn't just a failed lifestyle brand. It was 00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:27.369 potentially a front, a vehicle for the father 00:18:27.369 --> 00:18:29.609 to get back into the corporate world and for 00:18:29.609 --> 00:18:32.089 the son to live like a king on other people's 00:18:32.089 --> 00:18:34.410 money. That is the picture that the lawsuits 00:18:34.410 --> 00:18:37.130 and federal investigations paint. And what was 00:18:37.130 --> 00:18:39.130 Dan's defense when all this came out? What was 00:18:39.130 --> 00:18:41.289 it? His defense was basically that he wasn't 00:18:41.289 --> 00:18:42.970 really involved in running the company at all. 00:18:43.049 --> 00:18:44.829 He said he just showed up for the photo shoots 00:18:44.829 --> 00:18:46.269 and didn't know anything about the finances. 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.319 I'm just the face of the brand. Don't ask me 00:18:49.319 --> 00:18:52.059 about the $50 million loss. Which is just so 00:18:52.059 --> 00:18:54.579 ironic because the entire brand is built on the 00:18:54.579 --> 00:18:56.660 idea that he's the ultimate boss, the one in 00:18:56.660 --> 00:18:59.339 charge. So what happened to the company? Eventually, 00:18:59.500 --> 00:19:02.279 in 2022, they took it private again. Why would 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:04.740 they do that? Well, when a company is public, 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:07.079 it's subject to intense scrutiny. You have to 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:09.240 file quarterly reports. You have to open your 00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:11.359 books to the world. And the world was seeing 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:14.200 these massive losses. So by going private? The 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:17.190 curtain comes down. No more public filings. No 00:19:17.190 --> 00:19:19.690 more having to explain the $40 ,000 bed frame 00:19:19.690 --> 00:19:23.450 to angry shareholders. The problem just goes 00:19:23.450 --> 00:19:26.950 away. It's a clear pattern. He craves the attention 00:19:26.950 --> 00:19:30.289 and the glory, but he refuses any of the accountability 00:19:30.289 --> 00:19:34.039 that comes with it and that mentality. it leads 00:19:34.039 --> 00:19:36.079 us right into the really dark part of his story. 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:38.059 Yeah. Because if this is how he treats money 00:19:38.059 --> 00:19:40.000 and business, just wait until you see how he 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:41.900 treats other human beings. This is where things 00:19:41.900 --> 00:19:44.779 stop being about, you know, funny internet money 00:19:44.779 --> 00:19:46.819 and corporate shenanigans, and they start getting 00:19:46.819 --> 00:19:49.480 genuinely dangerous. We have to talk about the 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:52.440 violence. We do. And just a content warning for 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:54.460 our listeners, some of the stuff in this next 00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:56.819 section is pretty disturbing. We're talking about 00:19:56.819 --> 00:19:58.880 incidents of physical assault. And we should 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:00.539 probably start with the violence he inflicted 00:20:00.539 --> 00:20:02.160 on himself. I mean, it's a crucial part of the 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:05.880 story. Before he even turned 32 years old, Dan 00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:07.880 Bilzerian had already suffered two heart attacks. 00:20:08.579 --> 00:20:12.539 Two? Before 32? How? By his own admission, it 00:20:12.539 --> 00:20:14.700 was from a combination of extreme drug abuse 00:20:14.700 --> 00:20:17.740 and exhaustion. He talked about binging on cocaine, 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:21.220 Viagra, and not sleeping for days on end to keep 00:20:21.220 --> 00:20:23.519 the party going. He was literally killing himself 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:26.400 to maintain this image. But he survived, and 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:28.640 it seems like after that, he started projecting 00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:31.839 that same chaos and violence outward onto other 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:34.069 people. The incident that always stands out to 00:20:34.069 --> 00:20:35.829 me is the one with Janice Griffith, the roof 00:20:35.829 --> 00:20:39.450 toss. Ah, yes. April of 2014, which was just 00:20:39.450 --> 00:20:41.789 a banner year for terrible decisions for him. 00:20:41.890 --> 00:20:44.150 So set the scene for us. What happened? He was 00:20:44.150 --> 00:20:45.829 at one of his mansions in the Hollywood Hills 00:20:45.829 --> 00:20:49.289 doing a photo shoot for Hustler magazine. Janice 00:20:49.289 --> 00:20:51.670 Griffith, who was a pornographic actress, I believe 00:20:51.670 --> 00:20:53.569 she was only 18 or 19 years old at the time. 00:20:53.750 --> 00:20:57.210 The concept for one of the photos was, well, 00:20:57.269 --> 00:21:00.480 it was peak Bilzerian. He was going to pick her 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.059 up while she was topless and throw her from the 00:21:03.059 --> 00:21:04.839 roof of the house into the swimming pool down 00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:07.440 below. Just casually throw a person off a building 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:10.880 for a picture. That was the plan. Now, just think 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:12.940 about the physics of that for a second. You're 00:21:12.940 --> 00:21:16.799 trusting a guy who is famous for his nonstop 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:20.880 partying to execute a perfect life or death throw. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:24.400 What could possibly go wrong? He completely botched 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:27.130 it. He underthrew her. She didn't clear the concrete 00:21:27.130 --> 00:21:30.150 deck surrounding the pool. She smashed her foot 00:21:30.150 --> 00:21:32.410 on the edge of the pool on the way down. It was 00:21:32.410 --> 00:21:34.529 a severe break. And honestly, she was lucky. 00:21:34.589 --> 00:21:36.069 She could have hit her head. She could have been 00:21:36.069 --> 00:21:38.210 killed or paralyzed. And what was his reaction? 00:21:38.369 --> 00:21:40.710 Was he apologetic? Did he immediately offer to 00:21:40.710 --> 00:21:42.650 pay for all her medical bills? She asked him 00:21:42.650 --> 00:21:45.970 for $85 ,000 to cover her medical costs and the 00:21:45.970 --> 00:21:48.329 work she would lose while recovering. And he 00:21:48.329 --> 00:21:50.450 flat out refused. This is the guy who claimed 00:21:50.450 --> 00:21:54.059 to make $50 million that year. 85 grand is like 00:21:54.059 --> 00:21:56.559 a rounding error to him. It wasn't about the 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:58.619 money. It was about the principle of it. For 00:21:58.619 --> 00:22:00.859 him, he refused to accept any responsibility. 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.240 So she sued him. And this is where the story 00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:06.220 gets even more disgusting. How? The lawyer for 00:22:06.220 --> 00:22:08.259 Hustler magazine, who was defending the photo 00:22:08.259 --> 00:22:11.900 shoot, actually argued in a legal letter that 00:22:11.900 --> 00:22:15.119 the incident was an act of God. An act of God. 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:18.750 Or hurricane. Or an earthquake. Yes. The official 00:22:18.750 --> 00:22:21.930 legal position was that Dan Bilzerian throwing 00:22:21.930 --> 00:22:25.950 a woman off a roof and failing is an unforeseeable, 00:22:25.990 --> 00:22:29.230 uncontrollable force of nature, like a lightning 00:22:29.230 --> 00:22:32.369 strike. That is one of the most cynical, dehumanizing 00:22:32.369 --> 00:22:34.630 legal arguments I have ever heard in my life. 00:22:34.769 --> 00:22:36.670 It's unbelievable. It basically frames her as 00:22:36.670 --> 00:22:39.410 a prop, a thing. And if the prop breaks during 00:22:39.410 --> 00:22:41.369 the photo shoot, well, that's just bad luck. 00:22:41.490 --> 00:22:43.150 It's not the fault of the person who threw it. 00:22:43.230 --> 00:22:45.049 It tells you everything you need to know about 00:22:45.049 --> 00:22:47.980 how the women in his world were viewed. As accessories. 00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:50.859 And accessories don't get a say. And this wasn't 00:22:50.859 --> 00:22:53.019 a one -off. It wasn't an isolated incident. That 00:22:53.019 --> 00:22:55.460 very same year, he was banned for life from a 00:22:55.460 --> 00:22:59.019 nightclub in Miami. For what? For kicking a woman 00:22:59.019 --> 00:23:01.819 in the face. My God. This was the Vanessa Castano 00:23:01.819 --> 00:23:04.279 incident. There was a big brawl on the dance 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:06.819 floor. Dan's story was that he was just trying 00:23:06.819 --> 00:23:09.200 to be a hero and break up the fight to protect 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:11.319 a friend. But that's not what the witnesses said. 00:23:11.500 --> 00:23:15.180 No. The victim... Vanessa Castano and other witnesses 00:23:15.180 --> 00:23:17.819 claimed that during the chaos, he shoved her. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:20.740 And when she was on the ground, he kicked her 00:23:20.740 --> 00:23:24.220 in the face. There was even video footage. She 00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:26.559 sued him for a million dollars. So we have a 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:29.259 clear pattern here. Violence happens. He claims 00:23:29.259 --> 00:23:31.380 he was either the victim or the hero. And then 00:23:31.380 --> 00:23:33.200 the lawyers come in to write checks and make 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:35.440 it all go away. But the escalation continued. 00:23:36.019 --> 00:23:38.599 He went from fists and feet to something much 00:23:38.599 --> 00:23:41.529 more dangerous. He was eventually arrested for, 00:23:41.609 --> 00:23:44.009 and this sounds like a joke, for building bombs. 00:23:44.329 --> 00:23:46.230 People forget about this one, but it's maybe 00:23:46.230 --> 00:23:48.730 the most insane story of them all. In December 00:23:48.730 --> 00:23:51.430 2014, federal agents arrested him at Los Angeles 00:23:51.430 --> 00:23:53.490 International Airport. They pulled him right 00:23:53.490 --> 00:23:55.529 off a plane. And the warrant wasn't for some 00:23:55.529 --> 00:23:58.369 minor charge? No. The warrant from Nevada was 00:23:58.369 --> 00:24:00.829 for possessing and manufacturing an explosive 00:24:00.829 --> 00:24:03.849 or incendiary device. We're not talking about, 00:24:03.910 --> 00:24:07.599 like... M -80s on the 4th of July. This was serious. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:11.279 He and a friend had taken a semi -truck cab out 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:13.559 to federal land in the Nevada desert. And what 00:24:13.559 --> 00:24:16.160 did they have with them? They had a cooler packed 00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:19.019 with a mixture of tannerite, ammonium nitrate, 00:24:19.079 --> 00:24:22.519 and aluminum powder. This is a powerful explosive 00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:25.759 mixture. Ammonium nitrate is? That's the same 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:27.559 stuff used in the Oklahoma City bombing. That's 00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:29.740 not a toy. Not at all. It's highly unstable. 00:24:29.799 --> 00:24:32.160 They packed it into the truck cab and blew it 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:35.049 up. For fun. For an Instagram video. The explosion 00:24:35.049 --> 00:24:38.309 was huge. They had no permits, no safety protocols. 00:24:38.589 --> 00:24:40.490 They just wanted to watch something go boom. 00:24:40.789 --> 00:24:43.029 So he gets arrested on a federal warrant for 00:24:43.029 --> 00:24:45.470 building a bomb on federal land. He must have 00:24:45.470 --> 00:24:47.529 faced serious prison time for that. You would 00:24:47.529 --> 00:24:50.630 think so. But no. He managed to get a plea deal. 00:24:50.809 --> 00:24:53.569 To what? He pleaded no contest to a much, much 00:24:53.569 --> 00:24:56.710 lesser misdemeanor charge of negligently failing 00:24:56.710 --> 00:24:59.430 to extinguish a fire in the open. Basically, 00:24:59.430 --> 00:25:01.809 a fancy charge for littering and not being careful 00:25:01.809 --> 00:25:04.009 with a campfire. And the punishment for blowing 00:25:04.009 --> 00:25:06.410 up a truck with an improvised explosive device. 00:25:06.829 --> 00:25:11.089 He had to pay a fine of about $17 ,000. $17 ,000. 00:25:11.250 --> 00:25:13.609 It's amazing what a team of expensive lawyers 00:25:13.609 --> 00:25:16.490 can do. But it really shows you the trajectory, 00:25:16.710 --> 00:25:19.509 the constant need for escalation. The poker wasn't 00:25:19.509 --> 00:25:22.029 enough. The parties weren't enough. Now he needed 00:25:22.029 --> 00:25:24.410 actual explosions to feel anything. And when 00:25:24.410 --> 00:25:26.470 you've blown up everything you can in Nevada... 00:25:26.809 --> 00:25:28.829 Where do you go for your next adrenaline hit? 00:25:29.150 --> 00:25:31.609 Apparently, you go and get yourself involved 00:25:31.609 --> 00:25:34.009 in an active war zone. Oh, it brings us to section 00:25:34.009 --> 00:25:37.170 four, the Armenian connection. This is where 00:25:37.170 --> 00:25:39.230 the story suddenly goes from Hollywood Hills 00:25:39.230 --> 00:25:42.410 to international geopolitics. So to set this 00:25:42.410 --> 00:25:46.109 up, Dan's family heritage is Armenian. Yes, on 00:25:46.109 --> 00:25:48.930 his father's side. The Bilzerian name has deep 00:25:48.930 --> 00:25:52.950 roots in Armenia. And in 2018, Dan, his brother 00:25:52.950 --> 00:25:56.079 Adam, and his father Paul... all flew to Armenia 00:25:56.079 --> 00:25:57.980 together. And this is a big deal over there. 00:25:58.099 --> 00:25:59.900 It was a massive media event. They were all there 00:25:59.900 --> 00:26:02.359 to formally take their oaths and receive Armenian 00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:04.839 citizenship. They even technically registered 00:26:04.839 --> 00:26:07.160 to join the Armenian Armed Forces. Which, you 00:26:07.160 --> 00:26:08.720 know, on the surface, sounds like a pretty cool 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:10.920 thing to do. Reconnecting with your roots, showing 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:13.339 support for your ancestral homeland. It absolutely 00:26:13.339 --> 00:26:15.619 could have been. But this is a Dan Bilzerian 00:26:15.619 --> 00:26:17.579 we're talking about, so he couldn't just leave 00:26:17.579 --> 00:26:19.519 it at that. He had to turn it into an action 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:21.960 movie. He decided to travel to the Republic of 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:24.119 Artsakh. Which is better known to most people 00:26:24.119 --> 00:26:26.819 as Nagorno -Karabakh. Right. And for anyone who 00:26:26.819 --> 00:26:28.819 doesn't follow geopolitics in that region, can 00:26:28.819 --> 00:26:31.359 you explain why just going there is a hugely 00:26:31.359 --> 00:26:34.799 provocative act? It is a massive deal. Nagorno 00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:38.140 -Karabakh is one of the most intensely disputed 00:26:38.140 --> 00:26:40.839 territories on the planet. For decades, it was 00:26:40.839 --> 00:26:43.579 a source of conflict and bloody wars between 00:26:43.579 --> 00:26:46.480 Armenia and Azerbaijan. It's internationally 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:49.460 recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it was 00:26:49.460 --> 00:26:52.420 historically populated and controlled by ethnic 00:26:52.420 --> 00:26:55.180 Armenians. Exactly. It's a geopolitical flashpoint. 00:26:55.259 --> 00:26:57.200 You don't just show up there as a tourist with 00:26:57.200 --> 00:26:59.880 a camera crew. It's seen as taking a side in 00:26:59.880 --> 00:27:02.920 a very real, very violent conflict. But Dan went. 00:27:03.259 --> 00:27:06.200 He went. And he didn't go to visit a church or 00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:08.220 a historical monument. He went to a military 00:27:08.220 --> 00:27:10.839 shooting range near the front lines of the conflict. 00:27:11.019 --> 00:27:13.400 And he started firing off heavy weaponry. Of 00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:15.700 course he did. He posted videos of himself firing 00:27:15.700 --> 00:27:18.619 a grenade launcher. In a contested war zone. 00:27:19.500 --> 00:27:22.140 As you can imagine, the government of Azerbaijan 00:27:22.140 --> 00:27:25.420 was absolutely furious. I bet. They sent a formal 00:27:25.420 --> 00:27:27.180 note of protest to the U .S. State Department. 00:27:27.700 --> 00:27:31.259 A court in the capital, Baku, issued an official 00:27:31.259 --> 00:27:34.500 arrest warrant for Dan Bilzerian. They put him 00:27:34.500 --> 00:27:36.700 on an international wanted list and notified 00:27:36.700 --> 00:27:40.059 Interpol. So the king of Instagram became, for 00:27:40.059 --> 00:27:42.799 all intents and purposes, an international fugitive. 00:27:43.079 --> 00:27:46.140 In the eyes of at least one country, yes. Now, 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:48.259 to be fair to him, he did put his money where 00:27:48.259 --> 00:27:51.019 his mouth was to some extent. During the 2020 00:27:51.019 --> 00:27:53.880 war over the territory, he and his family donated 00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:57.119 $250 ,000 to the Armenia fund. So there does 00:27:57.119 --> 00:27:59.099 seem to be a genuine connection there. There 00:27:59.099 --> 00:28:01.759 is. He spoke out very strongly against the attacks 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:05.029 on Armenians. But even his philanthropy is filtered 00:28:05.029 --> 00:28:07.529 through this lens of conflict and weaponry. It's 00:28:07.529 --> 00:28:09.289 like he can't engage with the world in any other 00:28:09.289 --> 00:28:11.690 way. Everything has to be an action movie. But 00:28:11.690 --> 00:28:14.210 recently, the script for that movie has changed 00:28:14.210 --> 00:28:16.849 dramatically. And the new genre feels less like 00:28:16.849 --> 00:28:19.690 an action thriller and more like a political 00:28:19.690 --> 00:28:21.910 horror film. And that's where we have to go next. 00:28:22.190 --> 00:28:26.170 Section 5. The Pivot. The deep dive into politics, 00:28:26.410 --> 00:28:29.750 conspiracies, and extremism. This is the part 00:28:29.750 --> 00:28:31.490 of the story that is genuinely alarming people 00:28:31.490 --> 00:28:33.950 right now. It's definitely the most significant 00:28:33.950 --> 00:28:36.710 and shocking transformation in his public persona. 00:28:36.890 --> 00:28:39.390 Without a doubt. It all started, I guess, innocently 00:28:39.390 --> 00:28:41.990 enough, back in 2015. He announced he was running 00:28:41.990 --> 00:28:43.710 for president of the United States. Which was 00:28:43.710 --> 00:28:45.849 clearly a publicity stunt. It was about selling 00:28:45.849 --> 00:28:47.549 more t -shirts and getting his name out there. 00:28:47.609 --> 00:28:50.109 Right. But then, a few months later, in December 00:28:50.109 --> 00:28:53.730 2015, he dropped out of his fake race and endorsed 00:28:53.730 --> 00:28:56.170 Donald Trump. And his reasoning at the time was 00:28:56.170 --> 00:28:58.559 very on brand for him. What did she say? He said 00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:01.359 he liked that Trump was raw and unfiltered and 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:04.339 that he was very pro -gun. It fit perfectly with 00:29:04.339 --> 00:29:07.680 his whole anti -PC alpha male persona. OK, so 00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:09.980 that makes sense in a way. But if you fast forward 00:29:09.980 --> 00:29:12.880 from that moment in 2015 to where we are today 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:16.779 in 2024, we have left the realm of mainstream 00:29:16.779 --> 00:29:19.779 politics far, far behind. We're in a completely 00:29:19.779 --> 00:29:22.359 different universe now. And the major catalyst 00:29:22.359 --> 00:29:24.880 for this shift seems to have been the Israel 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:28.309 -Hamas war that began in late 2023. And we need 00:29:28.309 --> 00:29:30.869 to be very clear here. Dan didn't just adopt 00:29:30.869 --> 00:29:33.690 a pro -Palestinian political stance, which is 00:29:33.690 --> 00:29:35.950 a position many people around the world hold. 00:29:36.230 --> 00:29:38.750 He went much, much further than that. He went 00:29:38.750 --> 00:29:41.509 all the way into full -throated public support 00:29:41.509 --> 00:29:44.049 for Hamas. Yeah, I have the direct quotes here 00:29:44.049 --> 00:29:46.329 from his social media and interviews. He referred 00:29:46.329 --> 00:29:49.609 to Hamas as a resistance organization. And he 00:29:49.609 --> 00:29:52.349 called Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, 00:29:52.529 --> 00:29:55.369 and the man who orchestrated the October 7th 00:29:55.369 --> 00:29:58.240 attacks a hero. I mean, look, whatever your personal 00:29:58.240 --> 00:30:00.859 politics are on that conflict, calling the architect 00:30:00.859 --> 00:30:03.259 of a massacre that killed over a thousand civilians 00:30:03.259 --> 00:30:07.359 a hero is that's an exceptionally extreme position 00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:09.460 to take. It's designed to be inflammatory. And 00:30:09.460 --> 00:30:11.519 then he went on Piers Morgan's show and that 00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:14.339 interview was just. It was a complete unmasking. 00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:16.140 I watched the entire interview. It was one of 00:30:16.140 --> 00:30:17.619 the most disturbing things I've seen in a long 00:30:17.619 --> 00:30:21.880 time. He just launched into this torrent of pure 00:30:21.880 --> 00:30:24.220 anti -Semitism, and I don't use that word lightly. 00:30:24.380 --> 00:30:26.299 He wasn't just criticizing the actions of the 00:30:26.299 --> 00:30:28.500 Israeli government. He was attacking Jewish people 00:30:28.500 --> 00:30:31.099 and Judaism as a whole. He was just reciting 00:30:31.099 --> 00:30:34.299 a laundry list of the oldest, most hateful anti 00:30:34.299 --> 00:30:37.819 -Semitic conspiracy theories imaginable. He claimed 00:30:37.819 --> 00:30:40.299 that the religion of Judaism itself promotes 00:30:40.299 --> 00:30:45.160 supremacy and rape. He blamed the Jews for the 00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:47.960 9 -11 attacks. He blamed them for the JFK assassination, 00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:51.720 for the Iraq war, for the Holodomor famine in 00:30:51.720 --> 00:30:54.319 Ukraine in the 1930s. It's the grand unified 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:58.079 theory of anti -Semitic paranoia. The idea that 00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:00.279 every single bad thing that has ever happened 00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:03.119 in world history was secretly orchestrated by 00:31:03.119 --> 00:31:05.920 a cabal of Jewish people. And then he moved into 00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:08.759 outright Holocaust denial. This was the point 00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:10.900 in the interview that I think left even Piers 00:31:10.900 --> 00:31:13.519 Morgan speechless. He said on camera that he 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:15.839 would bet his entire net worth that fewer than 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:17.619 six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. 00:31:18.019 --> 00:31:20.420 He then claimed that Jewish people invented genocide. 00:31:20.579 --> 00:31:23.140 He also started spouting historical revisionism. 00:31:23.369 --> 00:31:25.509 claiming that Nazi Germany was flourishing economically 00:31:25.509 --> 00:31:27.609 after they removed all the Jews from the banking 00:31:27.609 --> 00:31:30.549 system. This is word -for -word textbook neo 00:31:30.549 --> 00:31:32.509 -Nazi rhetoric. There is no other way to describe 00:31:32.509 --> 00:31:37.769 it. So the big question is, why? Why does a guy 00:31:37.769 --> 00:31:40.450 who seemingly has everything, the money, the 00:31:40.450 --> 00:31:43.529 fame, the lifestyle he always wanted, why does 00:31:43.529 --> 00:31:46.650 he go down this dark, hateful rabbit hole? Is 00:31:46.650 --> 00:31:49.230 he just bored? Is he trying to shock people to 00:31:49.230 --> 00:31:51.319 stay relevant? I think it's probably a combination 00:31:51.319 --> 00:31:53.640 of several things. One is definitely the relevance 00:31:53.640 --> 00:31:56.119 factor. The whole Bikinis and Private Jets act 00:31:56.119 --> 00:31:58.960 has a shelf life. It gets old. The engagement 00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:01.160 numbers on his social media were dropping. And 00:32:01.160 --> 00:32:03.720 nothing gets engagement like outrage. Exactly. 00:32:03.799 --> 00:32:06.500 When you say something that shocking and hateful, 00:32:06.519 --> 00:32:09.079 it creates a firestorm. The algorithm loves it. 00:32:09.180 --> 00:32:11.200 He's a creature of attention, and this is the 00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:13.779 ultimate attention -seeking behavior. So you 00:32:13.779 --> 00:32:15.440 think it's mostly a grift? He doesn't really 00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:17.200 believe this stuff. I think he probably does 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:19.640 now. That's the other part of it. When you immerse 00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:21.400 yourself in these online echo chambers, when 00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:22.980 you surround yourself with people who tell you 00:32:22.980 --> 00:32:25.140 you're a genius and you spend all day consuming 00:32:25.140 --> 00:32:28.279 red pill conspiracy content, you could absolutely 00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:30.940 radicalize yourself. He sees himself as a brave 00:32:30.940 --> 00:32:33.559 truth teller. In his mind, he's Neo from The 00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:36.700 Matrix. He's waking people up. But in reality, 00:32:36.900 --> 00:32:39.859 he's just become a vessel for regurgitating old, 00:32:40.019 --> 00:32:43.579 discredited disinformation and hatred. It's just 00:32:43.579 --> 00:32:46.559 such a bizarre and dark final chapter for his 00:32:46.559 --> 00:32:49.119 persona. It's like he spent his whole life trying 00:32:49.119 --> 00:32:51.480 to be Tony Stark, the Playboy billionaire, and 00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:53.460 when that didn't quite work out, he decided to 00:32:53.460 --> 00:32:56.640 become a full -blown supervillain instead. It 00:32:56.640 --> 00:32:59.079 really is a cautionary tale about the professional 00:32:59.079 --> 00:33:02.980 contrarian mindset. His entire brand was built 00:33:02.980 --> 00:33:04.880 on doing the opposite of what you're supposed 00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:07.839 to do. Society says don't gamble. I'll gamble. 00:33:08.019 --> 00:33:10.420 Society says treat people with respect. I won't. 00:33:10.440 --> 00:33:12.759 Society says don't engage in anti -Semitic hate 00:33:12.759 --> 00:33:15.460 speech. Watch me. Like oppositional defiance 00:33:15.460 --> 00:33:17.579 disorder that has been monetized into a career. 00:33:17.799 --> 00:33:19.980 And speaking of careers, we have to quickly touch 00:33:19.980 --> 00:33:22.500 on his other great ambition. Because before he 00:33:22.500 --> 00:33:24.519 was a political extremist, he was desperate to 00:33:24.519 --> 00:33:30.319 become a real Hollywood star. He's had a few 00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:33.680 tiny roles over the years. Little cameos in movies 00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:37.299 like Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer. But 00:33:37.299 --> 00:33:39.460 there is one story from his acting career that 00:33:39.460 --> 00:33:42.680 perfectly encapsulates his entire life. The Lone 00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:45.900 Survivor lawsuit. Oh, this is the ultimate pay 00:33:45.900 --> 00:33:48.640 -to -play story. It's incredible. So Lone Survivor 00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:51.420 is the big Mark Wahlberg movie about Navy SEALs 00:33:51.420 --> 00:33:55.059 in Afghanistan. Dan, a failed SEAL trainee himself, 00:33:55.460 --> 00:33:57.519 desperately wants to be in this movie. So what 00:33:57.519 --> 00:33:59.759 does he do? He can't get a role through a normal 00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:02.359 audition, so he finds another way in. He agrees 00:34:02.359 --> 00:34:05.500 to invest $1 million of his own money into the 00:34:05.500 --> 00:34:07.339 film's production budget. But there were strings 00:34:07.339 --> 00:34:09.380 attached. There were. You had a contract drawn 00:34:09.380 --> 00:34:11.730 up. And that contract explicitly stated that 00:34:11.730 --> 00:34:14.570 in exchange for his $1 million investment, the 00:34:14.570 --> 00:34:16.590 filmmakers had to guarantee him at least eight 00:34:16.590 --> 00:34:19.050 minutes of screen time and at least 80 words 00:34:19.050 --> 00:34:21.429 of dialogue. He literally bought the role. He 00:34:21.429 --> 00:34:23.650 paid for his screen time by the minute. That's 00:34:23.650 --> 00:34:26.110 exactly what he did. He bought himself a part 00:34:26.110 --> 00:34:28.570 playing a Navy SEAL. But here's the best part. 00:34:29.090 --> 00:34:32.550 The director of the movie, Peter Berg, apparently 00:34:32.550 --> 00:34:35.230 thought he was a terrible actor. So when it came 00:34:35.230 --> 00:34:38.699 time to edit the final film, he just cut. Almost 00:34:38.699 --> 00:34:40.780 all of his scenes out. How much was actually 00:34:40.780 --> 00:34:43.280 left in the movie? Less than one minute of screen 00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:47.000 time. And one single line of dialogue. One line. 00:34:47.139 --> 00:34:50.099 For a million dollars? That has to be the most 00:34:50.099 --> 00:34:52.579 expensive line of dialogue in the history of 00:34:52.579 --> 00:34:55.320 cinema. I think it might be. And what was Dan's 00:34:55.320 --> 00:34:57.699 reaction? Did he just laugh it off as a bad investment? 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:00.559 No. He sued the producers of the movie. Of course 00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:03.199 he did. For how much? He sued them for $1 .2 00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:06.699 million. His original million back. plus a 20 00:35:06.699 --> 00:35:09.000 % penalty for breach of contract. Did he win? 00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:11.519 He eventually dropped the lawsuit. He claimed 00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:13.659 it was because the movie ended up being so successful 00:35:13.659 --> 00:35:16.179 that his small percentage of the profits actually 00:35:16.179 --> 00:35:18.280 made him $1 .5 million anyway, so he came out 00:35:18.280 --> 00:35:20.820 ahead. But the money isn't the point. The point 00:35:20.820 --> 00:35:23.280 is that his entire approach to life is transactional. 00:35:23.659 --> 00:35:26.179 He couldn't earn the role with talent, so he 00:35:26.179 --> 00:35:28.260 tried to buy it. And even when he bought it, 00:35:28.300 --> 00:35:30.420 the creative people involved were like, yeah, 00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:31.820 no, you're still not good enough, you're getting 00:35:31.820 --> 00:35:34.420 cut. It's the theme that runs through everything. 00:35:34.929 --> 00:35:38.190 He believes that fame, respect, credibility, 00:35:38.610 --> 00:35:42.250 movie roles, they're all just commodities that 00:35:42.250 --> 00:35:44.449 can be purchased if you have enough cash. But 00:35:44.449 --> 00:35:47.610 some things, like actual talent, just can't be 00:35:47.610 --> 00:35:49.409 bought. He also wrote a book, didn't he? The 00:35:49.409 --> 00:35:51.630 Setup. He did. I've read parts of it. Yeah. It's 00:35:51.630 --> 00:35:54.030 exactly what you would expect it to be. Just 00:35:54.030 --> 00:35:56.369 more stories of his conquests, more myth -making. 00:35:56.670 --> 00:35:58.650 And there was even a T -Pain song about him. 00:35:58.829 --> 00:36:03.139 Dan Bilzerian. For a brief moment in 2016, he 00:36:03.139 --> 00:36:05.940 achieved total cultural saturation. He got the 00:36:05.940 --> 00:36:08.360 fame he so desperately craved. You can't deny 00:36:08.360 --> 00:36:10.420 that. No, you can't. If you stop the average 00:36:10.420 --> 00:36:12.559 guy on the street between the ages 25 and 35 00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:14.739 and ask who Dan Bilzerian is, they'll know that 00:36:14.739 --> 00:36:17.920 name. But at what cost? We've taken this deep 00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:20.699 dive today. We've looked at the money. And it's 00:36:20.699 --> 00:36:23.360 built on a foundation of trust funds and questionable 00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:26.360 dealings. We looked at the business and it's 00:36:26.360 --> 00:36:28.440 a spectacular failure that burned through millions 00:36:28.440 --> 00:36:30.519 of investor dollars. We looked at the lifestyle 00:36:30.519 --> 00:36:32.800 and it literally gave him two heart attacks and 00:36:32.800 --> 00:36:35.179 led to a string of lawsuits from people he hurt. 00:36:35.420 --> 00:36:38.320 And we looked at his current worldview and it's 00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:40.980 a toxic sewer of hatred and conspiracy theories. 00:36:41.579 --> 00:36:43.639 When you step back and look at the whole picture, 00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:46.980 it's not an aspirational story. It's a tragedy. 00:36:47.139 --> 00:36:49.940 It's a tragedy wrapped in a veneer of gold leaf 00:36:49.940 --> 00:36:52.639 and bikinis. It feels like a story about the 00:36:52.639 --> 00:36:55.400 absolute spiritual emptiness of modern excess. 00:36:55.860 --> 00:36:58.699 He spent 15 years meticulously building this 00:36:58.699 --> 00:37:01.079 giant monument to himself, and it turns out the 00:37:01.079 --> 00:37:03.539 entire foundation is completely rotten. So as 00:37:03.539 --> 00:37:05.360 we wrap this up, what's the big takeaway from 00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:07.519 all this? I think Dan Bilzerian is a warning 00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:10.219 sign. He's a cautionary tale. He is what happens 00:37:10.219 --> 00:37:12.079 when a person has access to virtually unlimited 00:37:12.079 --> 00:37:15.300 resources, but has no internal moral compass. 00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:19.840 He just chased every possible dopamine hit he 00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:22.579 could find. The money, the sex, the fame, the 00:37:22.579 --> 00:37:24.940 violence, the explosions. And when all of those 00:37:24.940 --> 00:37:27.360 stopped giving him a rush, he turned to the only 00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:31.000 thing that was left. Pure, unadulterated rage. 00:37:31.360 --> 00:37:33.239 It also makes you look inward a bit, doesn't 00:37:33.239 --> 00:37:34.820 it, at the culture that built him. I mean, we 00:37:34.820 --> 00:37:36.360 all clicked on the articles, we looked at the 00:37:36.360 --> 00:37:39.139 photos, we fed the beast. That's the really uncomfortable 00:37:39.139 --> 00:37:41.059 part of this whole story. For a while there, 00:37:41.199 --> 00:37:45.300 society celebrated the king of Instagram. A part 00:37:45.300 --> 00:37:47.559 of us was fascinated by that fantasy of total 00:37:47.559 --> 00:37:50.440 freedom. But we weren't really looking at the 00:37:50.440 --> 00:37:52.360 collateral damage. We weren't looking at the 00:37:52.360 --> 00:37:55.139 woman with the broken foot or the investors who 00:37:55.139 --> 00:37:57.579 lost their shirts. So I guess this is the question 00:37:57.579 --> 00:38:00.159 I want to leave everyone with today. In our current 00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:02.360 Internet culture, a culture that rewards shock 00:38:02.360 --> 00:38:04.820 value over substance and engagement over truth, 00:38:05.099 --> 00:38:09.059 is Dan Bilzerian really an outlier? Or is he 00:38:09.059 --> 00:38:11.559 the inevitable final boss of the system that 00:38:11.559 --> 00:38:13.820 we've all helped to create? Did he break the 00:38:13.820 --> 00:38:16.460 system? Or is he just the purest expression of 00:38:16.460 --> 00:38:18.260 what the system was designed to produce? That's 00:38:18.260 --> 00:38:20.860 a pretty terrifying thought. It really is. But 00:38:20.860 --> 00:38:23.659 it's why we do these deep dives. To try and look 00:38:23.659 --> 00:38:26.119 past the filters and the carefully constructed 00:38:26.119 --> 00:38:30.360 myths. Stay curious out there. And always, always 00:38:30.360 --> 00:38:32.500 check the footnotes. Always check the footnotes. 00:38:32.500 --> 00:38:34.059 Thanks for joining us. We'll see you for the 00:38:34.059 --> 00:38:34.400 next one.