$5.95-million buys Bilzerian mansion

By BILL COATS
Published April 28, 2006

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TAMPA - The area's most controversial mansion was auctioned Thursday night for a reported $5.95-million to an undisclosed bidder.

Although auction manager John Haney would not release details, an associate of bidder Mary Haire said $5.95-million was the winning bid.

Haire, president of the corporation controlling the house, bid $4.2-million but nothing higher, said Fred Shrum, the secretary-treasurer of the Guerrini Corp.

Nearly a dozen bidders gathered in the mansion's cavernous foyer, flanked by winding staircases, for the auction. They bid for ownership of 11 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms and a full-size gym overlooking a lake.

The 30,000-square-foot mansion, the biggest in Hillsborough County, was built in the early 1990s in the walled Avila community near Lutz by corporate raider Paul Bilzerian. Bilzerian had made huge killings in a series of stock-buyout attempts.

But by the time the home was completed in 1992, Bilzerian had been convicted of federal securities violations. He served 13 months in prison and lost a judgment for $62-million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ownership of the mansion was transferred to an offshore corporation controlled by Bilzerian's wife, Terri Steffen.

Bilzerian declared bankruptcy and told the SEC he had no assets.