SEC defendant Bilzerian headed for court, sort of
U S Securities and Exchange Commission (U:*SEC)
Friday October 31 2025 - Street Wire
by Mike Caswell
Defendants in the case against Paul Bilzerian, the St. Kitts resident facing civil and criminal charges in the United States for manipulating the revenue of Ignite International Brands Ltd., have asked a judge to allow Mr. Bilzerian to remotely participate in their criminal trial. They claim that Mr. Bilzerian, who remains wanted in the case, could provide exonerating evidence, but will be unable to attend the trial in person. They are requesting that the judge permit Mr. Bilzerian to appear as a witness through a two-way video link.
The request comes as part of a case that federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have been pursuing over a scheme in which Ignite, a former Canadian Securities Exchange listing, reported $4.6-million in sales that never occurred. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) According to the government, Ignite sent a distributor a large amount of product just ahead of its year-end in 2020. The distributor never paid for the product, while Ignite reported that it had achieved the "highest monthly sales in the Company's history."
Authorities claim that Mr. Bilzerian directed much of the scheme, but they have yet to take him into custody on the charges. According to Mr. Bilzerian, he has not been served with the indictment and there has been no effort to extradite him to the United States from his home in St. Kitts. Despite that, he says that he would like to testify at trial on behalf of his co-accused. He claims that he has been unable to secure a visa to travel to the U.S., as his application has not been returned.
The request, should the judge grant it, would see Mr. Bilzerian testifying before a jury while remaining wanted in the case. Ordinarily, a witness at a criminal trial must appear in person, but defence lawyers claim that this represents an unusual circumstance in which the judge should allow testimony by video. "Live remote testimony will allow the jury to hear directly from Bilzerian and allow for ... essential exculpatory defence evidence," the motion reads.
Prosecutors have not responded to the request, but they filed a motion on Sept. 30, 2025, in which they made it clear that they would prefer to have Mr. Bilzerian incarcerated (which would, of course, make him available as a witness). Even though he is not in U.S. custody, they sought pretrial detention for him, citing a "serious risk defendant will flee." Prosecutors have not yet given full details of that request, but should Mr. Bilzerian be arrested on the charges, he would be entitled to a detention hearing.
The defendants awaiting trial, meanwhile, are Ignite International Brands Ltd. itself and the company's former accountant, Scott Rohleder. He previously pleaded not guilty. The request to have Mr. Bilzerian appear at the trial is set out in a motion that Mr. Rohleder's lawyer filed on Oct. 29, 2025.
The motion comes over one year after the charges became public, with federal prosecutors and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing parallel cases on Sept. 27, 2024. The case, as set out by the SEC, arose from events that occurred when Ignite was touting itself as a cannabis company and as a supplier of disposable vape pens. The stock traded on the CSE in Canada and on the OTC Link in the United States.
The SEC identified Mr. Bilzerian as a convicted fraudster who had no formal title with the company but was its directing mind. Others named in the SEC's civil case (and not criminally charged) included Paul Dowdall, an Ontario resident who served as Ignite International's chief financial officer. Also charged by the SEC was the company's former president and chief operating officer, John Schaefer of New York.
The events at issue, as set out by the SEC, occurred in late 2020. Mr. Bilzerian had one of Ignite's customers accept product on the understanding that the customer would not be paying for the product, the SEC said. Ignite then sent invoices for $2.1-million, $770,000 and $2.2-million in the weeks leading up to its year-end, according to the SEC.
With the invoices sent, Ignite issued a news release on Jan. 19, 2021, in which it reported that "December revenues were the highest monthly sales in the Company's history." A quote in the news release from Mr. Schaefer said that the results reflected the "successful efforts of the new management team to reduce costs and increase revenue." After the news release, the stock went to $1.20, up from 42 cents, on volume of 3.5 million shares.
The arrangement, as set out by the SEC, went awry within weeks, as Ignite's auditor started asking for confirmation of the invoices. According to the SEC, Mr. Bilzerian attempted to have the customer confirm the sales, but it refused. Mr. Bilzerian then had a company he controlled nominally purchase the inventory, the SEC claimed.
The SEC is seeking appropriate fines and bans for the men. In the criminal case, Mr. Bilzerian and Mr. Rohleder face up to 20 years in prison.
For Mr. Bilzerian, the charges are not his first legal trouble. He was criminally convicted in 1989 over fraudulent stock purchase schemes. He received four years in prison on those charges, and the SEC later won a $33.1-million civil judgment against him, with the amount still owing.
Ignite no longer trades, the company having gone private on Aug. 29, 2022. The company was often associated with Mr. Bilzerian's son, poker player and social media guru Dan Bilzerian, but he was not among those charged. The stock last traded at 55 Canadian cents
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