If you want a detailed history of the life story of Paul Bilzerian, father of Instagram playboy Dan Bilzerian, please read this article. It's a pretty crazy story. I'll cover the major points of Paul's life in the story below…
Dan Bilzerian was born in Tampa, Florida in December 1980. His parents are Terri and Paul Bilzerian. For the first 10 years of Dan's life, the family was the epitome of the go-go-get-rich-yuppie 1980s thanks to Paul's high-flying career in corporate finance. In a later court filing, Paul would estimate that at the peak of his career in the late 1980s, his net worth was somewhere in the range of $50 – $80 million. That's the inflation equivalent of being worth $115 and $180 million today.
Using their newfound wealth, the Bilzerians built a dream mansion in Tampa. They completed construction in 1991.
Located within a guarded gated community called "Avila" on a lake in the suburbs of Tampa, the Bilzerian's dream mansion spanned 28,000 square-feet over 3.4 lush acres. The home has 10 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, a movie theater, a wine room, four fire places and a swimming pool with a water slide and waterfall. There's an entire "athletic wing" featuring an indoor basketball court, racquetball court and full professional gym.
The home was constructed on an unique plot of land that allows it to be lakefront in both the front and backyards. And to top it all off, it's just minutes away from a par-71 Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course.
Unfortunately, the Bilzerians were not able to enjoy their mansion for very long.
Just after they moved in, Paul Bilzerian was arrested and charged with securities fraud. Paul ended up serving 13 months in prison and was ordered to forfeit all of his profits from what was called an illegal stock manipulation scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission also won a $62 million judgment.
I'm not going to get into all the details because they get a bit wonky, but the Bilzerians managed to stay in the home for about twenty years while Paul's lawyers continued fighting the SEC and refusing to pay a nickel of the judgment. Stunningly, that legal battle went on for more then 30 years. Long story short, Paul maintains that he is factually and legally innocent and therefore did not need to pay the judgement.
In 2004 the family appeared to have sold the home… but it was later alleged that they actually sold it to an LLC that was controlled by a family friend. When this alleged arrangement was discovered in 2006, a bank seized the property.
In 2007 Paul and Terri left the United States for St. Kitts in the West Indies. In 2019, Paul Bilzerian renounced his American citizenship in protest of what he described as "a long and disappointing experience in the federal judicial system that has been consistently unjust and shown little regard for the law or the truth."
The Bilzerian dream mansion has remained abandoned since 2007 or 2008. A bank tried to sell the home at one point in 2008 for $13 million but did not get any offers. In September 2016 it sold in a bankruptcy auction for $2.85 million. But again, for some reason nobody ever occupied the mansion. According to the current listing agent, one of the bedrooms reportedly still contains some of Dan's personal items including trophies and little league memorabilia.
If you have any desire to live in Dan Bilzerian's childhood home, it can be yours today for $5.133 million.
Here's a video tour that was just posted on Wednesday morning:
