Sports Illustrated publisher takes swimsuit models on private jet months after agreeing to buy magazine: sources

Five-Hour Energy Drink Founder Manoj Bhargava has not wasted any time trying to get the most out of some of Sports Illustrated’s most prized assets.

Months after he signed a deal to buy SI publisher Arena Group, which still has not closed, he met the 2024 swimsuit models at an SI event.

Billionaire Bhargava then invited Detroit Lions Quarterback Jarred Goff’s fiancé Christen Harper, Rob Gronkowski’s girlfriend Camille Kostek, actress Brooks Nader, Nicole Williams English and Katie Austin to fly on his private plane to his 5-Hour Energy campus in Michigan, sources said.

He arranged the trip which occurred around Oct. 10 with Hillary Drezner, the general manager of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, who along with others on the SI Swimsuit staff went with them, sources said.

“Manoj asked the models to work on selling his energy drink,” the source close to the situation said.

The trip also included flying to Minnesota where they toured Bhargava’s recently acquired ShopHQ network, sources said.

Some of the models have their own jewelry and clothing lines and Bhargava was pitching them on the idea of selling their brands on ShopHQ where they would share profits with the network, sources said.

“He had just bought ShopHQ and saw an opportunity to get famous well-known models to help him,” the source close to the situation said.

Soon after, he sent the swimsuit models boxes of lab-grown diamonds from a company he invested in, Peace Jewelers, so they could wear and promote them at a Dec. 7 Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino event in Hollywood, Fla. celebrating sports betting.

“They wore the diamonds but he didn’t pay them,” the source close to the situation said.

Meanwhile, Arena’s license to publish Sports Illustrated was terminated in January after it did not make a scheduled payment to magazine owner Authentic Brands.

Bhargava is now trying to win back the license with a new deal bidding against suitors including Player’s Tribune Owner Minute Media.

Authentic Brands is expected to name a winner in a matter of days, and Arena is still publishing SI on an interim basis.

Sports Illustrated, which publishes its annual swimsuit calendar in May, has been promoting models in recent years that are sometimes older and do not have traditionally classic physiques. 

But Bhargava seemed more interested in the former cheerleaders models and fit the more traditional view of physical beauty.

Bhargava declined to comment, and Arena did not return calls.