Maquire pays back $80,000 in poker winnings
Los Angeles (CNN) — Tobey Maguire has settled a lawsuit that sought repayment of hundreds of thousands of dollars the “Spider-Man” actor allegedly won in secret high-stakes poker games at Beverly Hills luxury hotels, according to court documents filed last week.
A series of federal suits, including the one against Maguire, said the poker winnings were paid with funds stolen from investors who had been lured into an illegal Ponzi scheme.
Maguire agreed to pay $80,000 to the estate of Bradley Ruderman, 48, who is serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for tax, wire and investor advice fraud convictions.
The lawsuit against Maguire, filed in March, alleged that the actor won $311,000 from Ruderman in 2007 and 2008.
Nick Cassavetes and Gabe Kaplan, along with professional poker player Dan Bilzerian, two nightclub owners and a Los Angeles lawyer are among at least 10 other people sued by a bankruptcy trustee.
None of the defendants in the civil lawsuits faced criminal charges, but the bankruptcy trustee for Ruderman’s estate said they had to return at least $1.5 million of their alleged gambling winnings.
What each defendant allegedly has in common is that they beat Bradley Ruderman in “regularly held, high stakes and clandestine ‘Texas Hold ’em’ poker games” held at several hotels and homes in the Beverly Hills area.
