Jason Itzler

Jason Lubell Itzler (né Sylk; born February 23, 1967),^[2] also known as Mr. Based, is an American livestreamer, felon, and former prostitution ringleader. Itzler has an extensive criminal record, having been imprisoned multiple times for drug crimes, prostitution, assault, and money laundering and having been charged with aggravated assault with a weapon, burglary, and stalking in Florida.^[3][4]

Jason Lubell Itzler was born as Jason Lubell Sylk^[5] and is the only son of Ronnie Lubell and Leonard Allen Sylk.^[5] Itzler is Jewish.^[5] Following his parents' divorce, Itzler moved to New York with his mother.^[5] While growing up, Jason was influenced by his grandfather, Nathan Lubell, who was a founding partner in the Riviera in Las Vegas. Jason's mother remarried Ron Itzler,^[5] a lawyer in the firm of Fischbein, Badillo, Wagner, and Itzler, and so the family moved to the suburbs in New Jersey. Jason attended a number of private schools, including the Elisabeth Morrow School, the Dwight-Englewood School, and the Hotchkiss School. Jason spent many of his evenings at the New York Friars Club, and summers in the Catskills, where he worked as a cabana boy at the Concord Hotel.^[5] Jason graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in political science and art history.

Itzler enrolled in the Shepard Broad College of Law in the late 1980s and graduated with a J.D. in 1993. Itzler never took the Bar exam.

While in law school, he started a phone sex operation called M2 Communications, Inc., where he would charge $4.98-a-minute, soon becoming a young millionaire. The company averaged $1,500,000 a month.^[5] Due to his mother's untimely death from cancer in 1994, he abandoned his business and was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy in 1997.^[5] His next company was called SoHo Models, one of the first companies to supply webcam pornography, which he ran out of a rented 8,000-square-foot loft on the corner of Canal and Broadway in New York City.

Itzler was arrested in New Jersey in 2000 and again in 2003 for assaulting his then girlfriends. His 2003 arrest led to an assault conviction.^[6]

In 2001, Itzler was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport for trying to smuggle ecstasy into the United States.^[7] After serving seven months in jail for the drug charge, he was released on parole in 2003, after which he started an escort service named New York Confidential.^[7][5] To meet the condition of his parole that he maintain legitimate employment, Itzler was fraudulently listed as a paralegal in the office of his attorney, Paul Bergrin.^[7]

New York Confidential was run out of Itzler's Art Deco apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey.^[5] The company was doing well and the office was moved to a 5000 sq ft. loft at 79 Worth Street in Manhattan.^[5] In 2004, Itzler was averaging a gross of $55,000 a night.^[5] "That's because we were the best ... At NY Confidential, I told my girls that the pressure is on them because we have to provide the clients with the greatest single experience ever, a Kodak moment to treasure for the rest of their lives. Spreading happiness, positive energy, and love, that's what being the best means to me. Call me a dreamer, but that's the NY Confidential credo."^[5] It was this attention to detail and customer satisfaction that made the group successful, attracting a wide array of clients, including senators and famous athletes.^[5] When asked about the repercussions faced as a result of his ventures within New York Confidential, Jason stated, "The problem with NY Confidential was it didn't go far enough". There were even talks of franchising Confidentials in other cities, such as Las Vegas.^[5]

In 2005, authorities arrested Itzler, who was wanted by authorities in two other states for stalking, drug possession, and breaking parole. Itzler pleaded guilty to money laundering and promoting prostitution in 2006, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.^[7][8] According to court papers, police found heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, ketamine and marijuana in Itzler's office.^[9]

In March 2005, Itzler was transferred from The Tombs to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital. In an interview while in the psychiatric ward, Itzler said, "If I’m found innocent, I plan to go back into business opening up escort agencies all over the country. But I'll base it in Costa Rica – to play it a little safe."^[10]

In 2007, a transsexual Rikers Island inmate known as "Angelina Jolie" sent him to the hospital. Itzler stated, "She walked up to me and said, 'If you don't shut your mouth, I'm going to break your face.' Even though she has a penis, she looks like a woman. I've never hit a woman in my life." Itzler was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, where he said a CAT scan found "severe brain trauma".^[11]

In 2010 Itzler shared an apartment in Flamingo Towers in Miami, Florida with Hungarian photographer Zoltan Present (then Prepszent). Itzler had previously faced several charges in Florida including stalking, burglary, and aggravated assault with a weapon. This apartment was subject to controversy when former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student, Julia Sumnicht died in Miami in March of 2010. As a result of an interview with Itzler while he was in a Manhattan jail where he faced other unrelated charges, Itzler claimed to have also taken GHB himself the night that Sumnicht had visited their apartment. Additionally, Sumnicht's body was only discovered after she had visited the apartment of a different photographer later that night.^[12] After a detective identified himself in a call related to the investigation of Sumnicht's death, Itzler immediately hung up, a police report for the incident said.^[3]

In 2011, Itzler was arrested and arraigned by the Manhattan District Attorney and NYPD Organized Crime Investigation Division for prostitution and drug-related criminal offenses stemming from a scandal in which he allegedly provided a prostitute and heroin to country star Billy Ray Cyrus at Trump International Hotel in New York City. Itzler was running a second prostitution ring called "Rockstar Models & Party Girls". The judge decided to set Itzler's bail at $200,000 and suggested that Itzler have his head examined. An assistant district attorney, Eugene Hurley said that Itzler had been arrested many times in Miami, including for criminal charges like possessing weapons and trespassing.^[13][14]

On May 14, 2012, after his initial arraignment for his 2011 arrest, Itzler was sentenced to four years in prison for prostitution, money laundering, and drug charges after an investigation the previous summer found evidence that he had sold cocaine and provided a prostitute to a Manhattan customer.^[15]

Itzler began an online live stream show under the name "Mr. Based". In July 2024, YouTuber Alex Novell published a video on Sumnicht's death titled "When a Livestreamer Confesses to Murder" that included secretly recorded interviews with Itzler.^[16] On Aug 24, 2024, Itzler physically assaulted Novell in an incident near his apartment in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Novell started to bleed significantly following the attack with a severe laceration to his head, prompting widespread social media attention, reportedly going viral on X, with many internet personalities such as Keemstar covering the assault.^[17]

Itzler has been engaged nine times and has dated prostitutes he had employed, including the number one escort Natalie McLennan, known as Natalia.^[5] Natalia made as much as $2,000 per hour with a two-hour minimum working as an escort at New York Confidential.^[5] Asked if the work affected her relationship with Itzler, Natalia says he would sometimes get jealous of the time she spent away from him, but not of the men.^[5] It would only bother him if she slept with another man for free.^[5] In 2010, Natalia pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted money laundering in connection to New York Confidential.^[18] Itzler has had Hanuman and "Super Lucky" tattooed on his arms since the early 1990s.^[19] Itzler is a fervent advocate of the pseudoscientific practice of "sungazing".

Itzler has been featured on The View.^[20] He appeared several times on The Opie and Anthony show, including phoning in from prison. He also appeared as a guest twice on The Howard Stern Show.^[21][22]

• Procuring (prostitution)
• Live streaming

• www.nyconfidential.com on the Internet Archive