LOS ANGELES — “Spider-Man” star Tobey Maguire is among over a dozen Hollywood celebrities being sued in connection with a illegal gambling ring that ran high-stakes underground poker games in Beverley Hills, according to a bombshell report.
The actor won more than $300,000 from a Beverly Hills hedge fund manager who had allegedly embezzled funds and orchestrated a Ponzi scheme in a desperate effort to repay his debt to the actor and others, RadarOnline.com and Star magazine reported today.
An FBI investigation into Brad Ruderman, the former CEO of Ruderman Capital Partners, uncovered how he lost a staggering $25 million in illegal poker games held twice-a-week in suites at the posh Beverly Hills hotel, Four Seasons and the Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard.
A-listers such as Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and his buddy Matt Damon also played in the Texas Hold ’em tournaments, RadarOnline reported.
The actors paid $100,000 to get into the underground poker games.
Other bold face names that took part included billionaire businessman Alex Gores, “The Notebook” director Nick Cassavetes, “Welcome Back, Kotter” star Gabe Kaplan, Paris Hilton’s infamous sex tape partner, Rick Salomon, record label owner Cody Leibel and Las Vegas nightlife entrepreneur Andrew Sasson, RadarOnline reported.
Ruderman, 46, is currently in a Texas prison until 2018 after he was convicted last year on two counts of wire fraud and two counts of investment adviser fraud. The SEC claimed Ruderman bilked investors out of $44 million.
The poker games were “exclusive events, by invitation only, and that there was a regular roster of players consisting of wealthy celebrities, entrepreneurs, attorneys and businessmen,” according to the lawsuit filed against Maguire in the United States Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles.
Ruderman lost $311,300 to Maguire, including one losing hand of $110,000, on July 30, 2007, according to court papers.
“As part of the scheme, funds invested in [Ruderman] were transferred to persons such as [Maguire], who received the funds on account of Ruderman’s gambling losses and on account of Defendant’s gambling winnings,” according to the lawsuit.
In their attempt to win back Ruderman’s losses, the trustee claims Maguire is “not entitled to receive the transfers from the [Ruderman], which transfers were compromised of improperly-diverted investor funds.”
In a deposition of the alleged ringleader of the operation, which took in tens of millions of dollars beginning in 2006 through 2009, Maguire is described as a “very, very frequent player,” in the games, which ended in 2009.
Under California law, it is against the law for money to be won at underground poker clubs. None of the participants are under criminal investigation.
With AP