[2] His father, a civil servant, and his mother later divorced, leading to troubled teenage years for Bilzerian; he would later describe himself as a "juvenile delinquent".
[6] In June 2014, Bloomberg News reported that Paul Bilzerian had become one of the licensed service providers who processed applications for the same Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship-by-investment program which his son had used.
[7] The government of Saint Kitts and Nevis responded in a statement the following week that Bitcoin was not an acceptable payment method for participation in the program.
[8] One of Bilzerian's first business deals was an investment in the 1970s in a Tampa Bay-area radio station, WPLP, which he made with two Army colleagues from the Vietnam War who had experience in the broadcasting industry.
[16] But the United States government chose to grandfather Bilzerian's hostile bid, preventing the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 from disallowing sales of assets in certain acquired businesses to be treated as capital gains for tax purposes.
[19] The SEC then went after Bilzerian – focusing its investigation on whether he had failed to timely make two Schedule 13(d) filings and whether he was required to disclose investors in his partnerships.
[21] Then, in December 1988 Rudy Giuliani announced that Bilzerian had been indicted in Manhattan by a federal grand jury for Schedule 13(d) disclosure violations with respect to Cluett Peabody and Hammermill Paper Company[20] and general claims regarding failed takeovers of H. H. Robinson and Armco.
[22] Bilzerian claims he was "the first person ever to be indicted for 13d disclosure violations as the hundreds of previous cases were civil and resolved with consent decrees and without fines or penalties.
"[23] In January 1989, Bilzerian pleaded not guilty to the charges amid growing public controversy and demanded a speedy trial to clear his name.
[3] In an article in New York magazine, Christopher M. Byron questioned the entire basis of the case against Bilzerian, describing it as fueled by "Puritan envy".
[24] Daniel Fischel, Dean of the University of Chicago Law School, argued Bilzerian was an innocent victim of an overzealous prosecutor, Rudy Guliani, and never should have been indicted as he was viewed as a hero to the shareholders of Cluett Peabody and Hammermill Paper Company.
[25] After two days of deliberations in June, the jury found Bilzerian guilty on nine counts including conspiracy, making false statements, and securities law violations.
[26] In September, Judge Robert Joseph Ward sentenced Bilzerian to four years in prison and a fine of $1.5 million because he "now must pay the price" for testifying in his own defense.
[23] On June 11, 2001, while Bilzerian was in prison, FBI agents raided his family's residence on the strength of a sealed warrant and seized computers, files, and a Beretta firearm.
[42] Bilzerian unsuccessfully sued the FBI agent for filing a sworn affidavit that contained mostly false statements, but a federal judge dismissed the case.
[43] In May 2004, Steffen sold her residence for $2.55 million to a partnership controlled by a Belgian businessman; SEC attorneys approved the unusually low price.