How Dan Bilzerian Lost $50 Million In 1 Year

[Music] dan bilzerian social media is full of cars models and money but we don't think he's going to be posing next to stacks of the 50 million dollars he lost his company in 2019 bilzerian has many images he's a trust fund kid poker player instagram celebrity and the ceo of a cannabis company that last venture hasn't gone so well but it's his quote experience before becoming a ceo that's really to blame for the way he led his company straight into a 50 million dollar loss with reports of him using the business like a personal atm here's how bilzerian tanked it so quickly and how he got enough money to put himself in the position in the first place for a man that likes to show off his fortune including his toys like this 1.8 million dollar shelby cobra and his 6 million dollar private plane losing 50 million dollars is probably not something dan delzerian wants to brag about but we're going to talk about it anyway because the loss seems to be almost entirely his fault dan bilzerian is the ceo of ignite international brands limited a cannabis company that operates in mexico canada ireland the uk and the us selling products like cbd infused toothpicks nicotine vape juice and marketing things like vodka clothing and water the company was trying to get in early on the newly legalized market but in june their annual report filed at the canadian stock exchange posted canadian 67 million dollars in losses in 2019 which is about 50 million dollars u.s so how did things get so bad for ignite after bilzerian confidently praised his entrepreneurial skills as he stepped into the new market well the money for ignite didn't all come from bilzerian which might be the reason why such a big loss wasn't quite as much of a bummer for the ceo and more of a blunder on the part of the investors ignite made money last year by issuing and selling shares of its company's stock but it also made a lot of money via debt ignite recorded 18.8 million dollars made from proceeds of issuance of shares another 14.9 million came from convertible debt while 17.8 million came from a short-term promisory note basically the company had a lot of other people's money that it had to be responsible for in order to make the business work unfortunately for them that responsibility seems to include spending large amounts of investors money on things like marketing even when the company wasn't making enough money to justify the spending apparently ignite liked to throw marketing parties at lavish places complete with tons of hired models expensive food and alcohol and celebrity guests that sounds like typical dan bilzerian but it's a whole other thing to party with your own money than to shell out investors money in 2019 ignite lost about 32.3 million dollars just on operational costs which includes things like the company's marketing and promotions leases on offices and compensation for staff and executives that's way over the company's proposed marketing budget of 16.7 million dollars and it's more than twice what the company managed to actually make according to its sales revenue for every dollar in sales which was about 7.2 million the company spent almost two dollars on general costs for a company busting total of 13.8 million dollars not that you should be surprised that bilzerian can burn through that much cash he's basically been using ignite like his own personal piggy bank he was actually just renting this exorbitant 12 bedroom mansion in the high-class beller neighborhood of la for 200 000 a month under the company's name the house often compared to a nightclub was being used for parties and various rich guy activities and recently hit the market for 75 million dollars this gives you more than just a hint at the kind of business activities bilzerian's company has been paying for bilzerian also happens to own stakes and other companies headquartered in montana and nevada cash from ignite has also ended up paying for salaries business expenses traveling expenses and even licensing fees for these companies yeah that doesn't seem fishy at all some of the specific amounts spent on strange business expenses have been reported by outlets like tmz and appear in court documents ignite is being sued by its former president curtis heffernan who says he was fired because he didn't approve of some of bilzerian's strange expenses he says these include fifteen thousand dollars for a ping pong table forty thousand dollars for a rock climbing wall and one hundred thirty thousand three hundred forty dollars on a bohemian photo shoot the company even paid 26 000 to boost bilzerian's instagram followers and paid for the travel expenses of the models who follow him everywhere he goes heffernan also claims there was 75 000 spent on a paintball field about 60 000 on a star wars gun set thirty one thousand dollars on pool renovations eighty eight thousand dollars on a vault and get this fifty thousand dollars on a bed frame now we're just left to wonder whether this was all personally used by bildarian or if he was shelling out expensive bed frames and star wars toys to other members of the company too although we know that he was definitely sharing some of these riches with his pack of models an auditor's report from june 2020 also points out a few more of these insane expenses including an ignite payment of 793 000 for a yacht rental 128 000 for a two-night stay in london and instacart deliveries for everyday things like laundry detergent razors and trash bags that seem like personal expenses rather than necessary business spending it was apparently after heffernan started making a fuss and told dan he'd have to get rid of his 200 000 a month la house rental that bilzerian had had enough and jumped in as chairman of the board at this point he said he needed the house for pool parties because apparently all good businesses need pool parties and then in june of 2020 heffernan was fired in response to the lawsuit against them ignite has promised to counter sue and has challenged everything that heffernan has brought into question so despite it being pretty clear that bilzerian's business is going under because of unnecessarily frivolous spending and a little shuffling of funds behind the scenes ignite's board of directors has released a statement that points out some other factors as to why the company isn't doing so hot in an attempt to damage control the company says it will need to raise capital in order to fund its operations and continue its existing and prospective expansion into strategic markets its needs for more capital comes from uncertain capital market conditions including those created by the pandemic an inability to secure strategic partnerships in key markets and an unfavorable perception of the ignite brand well at least the company is aware that people aren't viewing ignite as a lucrative business right about now the statement goes on to say that there is no assurance that it will be able to obtain adequate financing in the future or that such financing will be on terms that are acceptable to the company so operations could cease pretty easily if bilzerian and his budding business don't get their hands on some more cash fast they do have a strategy to make this happen though the company reported receiving almost 1.2 million dollars in paycheck protection program loans and ignite intends on applying for loan forgiveness do you think bilzerian's company deserves a bailout let's have a look at how dan earned his money in the first place to get an idea whether or not this entrepreneur can pull his company back from the precipice now dan bilzerian is the kind of guy who loves luxury and excessive luxury at that he says he's partied so hard that he had two heart attacks before age 35. he also started a fake campaign for the presidency and tried to trademark his face using a portrait painted of himself he's been blowing through cash but he claims that he's a self-made millionaire he has a net worth of about 200 million dollars and according to him it comes from playing poker being insta-famous and tons of endorsement deals dan bilzerian's poker career started humbly according to him he says he turned 750 into ten thousand dollars then flew to vegas and turned that ten thousand dollars into 187 000 and that's just how he got a start that same year the daily mail described him as a poker champion worth 100 million dollars since then he's stuck with a self-made stick comparing himself to bill gates and claiming he won over 50 million dollars playing poker but it's pretty fair to say that bilzerian didn't have to worry about money much growing up he receives at least some of his money from his father paul bilzerian paul actually owes the security and exchange commission sec about 62 million dollars and has paid back very little of that he also ended up serving time for fraud despite his father owing money baldarian has owned up to being a beneficiary of some trust fund money even though he hasn't said how much according to a paul bilzerian bankruptcy judgment in 2001 both dan and his brother adam's trust was worth roughly 11.96 million dollars in symmetric stock dan was entitled to half of that the bilzerian brothers ended up paying about 30 of that trust to the sec back in 2014 but dan did get the go-ahead to sell 1.7 million symmetric shares dan bilzerian is also involved with companies related to his father all of which seem to be designed to help protect his assets starting in april of 2007 he was listed as a president secretary treasurer and director of caligula corporation which was subject to dissolution by the florida secretary of state in 2013 for failing to file an annual report while paul bilzerian was never officially listed as an owner or worker in the company they were accused of using it as a vessel for him to discreetly conduct business with paul being accused of having control of the business operations even though dan was the owner during that time dan and his father's former lawyer had caligula enter into a partnership called haircut partners llp in an attempt to collect debts from bi-coastal holding company one of paul bildarian's companies but that was also accused in the florida court of being misused so basically the bilzerians seem to be doing everything they can to get their money back and make even more in the meantime though it won't look to you like dan bilzerian is in any sort of financial trouble i mean just take a look at his collection of vehicles which includes everything from a 250 thousand dollar rolls royce ghost a massive mercedes-benz g63 suv worth 975 000 and a 400 000 white lamborghini aventador that he sold on ebay in 2015 because he didn't have room for it in his garage anymore the loss of 50 million dollars also doesn't seem to be getting him down too much he spent a part of the summer on a massive yacht in croatia surrounded by ignite models leading people to wonder if he's really still spending ignite's money out in the open like that not that we'd be super surprised considering that people close to dan say he'll wrap anything in an ignite logo and call it an expense considering ignite's stock dropped 13 after the company's losses became public and the board of directors statement has shown the company's weaknesses it's going to be hard for the up-and-coming cbd company to bounce back from where it's fallen it's very likely that bilzerian isn't the only one responsible for the company blowing through its budgets but since he's the biggest name attached to it he can probably look forward to a lot more bad press where ignite is concerned but he's brushing it off and beaching it up with his posse right about now so perhaps bulgarian is less worried about the fallout than he should be or he just knows he always has a habit of making it out of financial turmoil without a scratch only time will tell if dan bilzerian will be on the hook for the company's failures or if being born rich really does give you a free pass for life even after you lose millions buying trampolines and star wars collectibles do you think any of dan bilzerian's self-made claims ring true do you think ignite will come back from a disastrous 2019 let us know in the comments down below don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe to the richest for more thanks for watching and see you next time

Channel: TheRichest

Views: 923,568

Rating: 4.8964171 out of 5

Keywords: the richest, therichest, dan bilzerian, paul bilzerian, ignite international brands, dan bilzerian cbd, dan bilzerian mansion, dan bilzerian luxury lifestyle, dan bilzerian cars, dan bilzerian net worth, curtis heffernan

Id: 4a7OYDvyMMw

Length: 11min 14sec (674 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 08 2020