Social media influencer Dan Bilzerian found in contempt of court in B.C.

Dan Bilzerian at the 2016 Maxim Halloween Party at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on October 22, 2016. (Shutterstock) (Shutterstock)

An American social media influencer, whose extravagant playboy lifestyle has earned him tens of millions of followers online, has been found in contempt of court in British Columbia for failing to surrender control of an Instagram account to a company he once controlled.

Dan Bilzerian, known to many as the “King of Instagram,” was ordered by a B.C. Supreme Court judge to hand over the passwords for the Instagram account of Ignite International Brands Ltd., a lifestyle-marketing company that sells liquor, clothing and nicotine products.

Bilzerian was ousted as Ignite’s CEO and has been battling to regain control of the company in a B.C. court since last year.

The company’s majority shareholders accuse Bilzerian of causing “significant harm” to Ignite by allegedly making antisemitic statements on his personal social media accounts, thereby undermining the company’s relationships with customers, suppliers and employees.

“After his removal as director, Dan Bilzerian has continued to cause disruption to Ignite’s business through his continued antisemitic social media posts, his refusal to provide Ignite with access to its own social media accounts and his communications to employees,” the company said in a submission to the court.

Bilzerian denies the claims and says the company’s attempts to remove him as director through a shareholder vote were improper.

Justice Michael Tammen ordered Bilzerian in October to relinquish the passwords for the @Ignite Instagram account while the larger matter of the company’s leadership was decided.

By last month, however, Bilzerian had not complied with the order, prompting the judge to find him in contempt of court.

“Mr. Bilzerian still does not accept that he is no longer the sole director of Ignite,” the judge wrote in his Feb. 11 decision. “To date, Mr. Bilzerian has not succeeded in persuading a court that he should be reinstated.”

‘Intentionally failed to comply’

As part of the judge’s orders, Ignite was instructed to refrain from using Bilzerian’s name or image in its Instagram posts until the court had decided the case.

If the court ultimately finds that Bilzerian should be reinstated as Ignite’s chief director, then control of the Instagram account would be returned to him by order of the court within three days, the judge declared.

However, those orders were contingent on Bilzerian providing the company access to the account in the first place.

“There is no doubt that Mr. Bilzerian has intentionally failed to comply with the order,” the judge wrote.

While the social media star did file an appeal of the surrender order, he did not seek a stay to suspend the order’s actual enforcement, the judge noted.

“Mr. Bilzerian says he does not trust those currently running Ignite to abide by that court order (to refrain from using his name and likeness),” the judge continued. “That is not a reason for Mr. Bilzerian to choose not to comply with the obligations imposed on him by the order.”

Bilzerian to pay $10,000

A lawyer for Bilzerian told the judge that his client has filed a similar legal claim to take back control of the company in a court in Nevada, where Bilzerian lives.

“Mr. Bilzerian seems to believe that if he turns over control of the social media account @Ignite to the current directors, that in some way his legal position in the Nevada litigation will be impaired,” the judge wrote.

As a result of the finding of contempt, Bilzerian was ordered to pay $10,000 to Ignite for special costs.

While the dispute over Ignite’s ownership continues in Vancouver, the company is facing a securities commission investigation in the U.S. related to allegations of conspiracy and fraud. A federal court in California has accused Paul Bilzerian, the influencer’s father, of funnelling millions of dollars into Ignite and secretly running the company himself.

“On paper, Ignite’s CEO was Bilzerian’s son, D.B. – a professional poker player who gained notoriety on social media for his glamorous and ostentatious lifestyle,” the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said in a September statement. “In fact, (the elder) Bilzerian exercised de facto control of the company.”

The statement describes the senior Bilzerian, 74, as a “corporate takeover specialist and convicted felon” who owes the U.S. government more than US$180 million for allegedly dodging a decades-old decision against him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The charges have not been proven or tested in court.