Tobey Maguire sued over illegal poker

Well loved by fans for his bravura performance as SpiderMan, Tobey Maguire is now among major Hollywood names being sued for taking part in illegal poker games.

Court papers allege the 35-year old actor was part of an illicit gambling ring that ran high-stakes poker games at least twice a week at upscale locations like the Beverly Hills hotel, the Four Seasons and Sunset Boulevard’s Viper Room.

Other players included Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Nick Cassavetes, who directed ‘The Notebook,’ Gabe Kaplan from ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ and Rick Salomon who co-starred in Paris Hilton’s famous tape.

According to the lawsuit filed against Tobey in LA’s Bankruptcy Court the games were “exclusive events, by invitation only, and there was a regular roster of players consisting of wealthy celebrities, entrepreneurs, attorneys and businessmen.”

Players had to stake at least $100,000 just to get into a game.

Tobey’s believed to have won over $311,000, just from the man running the ring – former Hedge Fund manager, Brad Ruderman. But the FBI found Ruderman had blown over $25-million of his clients money on poker and started a Ponzi scheme to pay off that debt, so he’s now in jail.

Mr. Ruderman was convicted of two counts of wire fraud and two more of investor fraud and he’s in a jail in Texas until 2018. His former clients are now suing Tobey and some other players to recover their money, and he and his pals could have a pretty bad time.

Tobey won as much as $1-million a month at the games, which ran from 2006 to 2009, but the clients want it all back. Unlicensed games are illegal in California and they say he’s “not entitled to receive the transfers from the Debtor [Ruderman,] which were compromised of improperly-diverted investor funds.”

Tobey has now hired an attorney and their plan is to argue in court that the games were never illegal, so his winnings were lawfully earned.

This story could run in the courts for months, if not years. We’ll keep you advised…

Source: Radar