Hollywood celebs including Tobey Maguire, Nick Cassavetes sued over illegal poker winnings

Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire has been sued for $300,000 by a group of investors over illegal poker winnings. The lawsuit also includes film director Nick Cassavetes, Welcome Back Kotter TV star Gabe Kaplan and Paris Hilton's onetime sex video partner, Rick Salomon.

Maguire, 35, reportedly received illegal poker winnings from Bradley Ruderman, a hedge fund manager, in high-stakes poker games. Currently, Ruderman is serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison for embezzling millions of dollars from his client's money that includes $5.2 million he lost in stealthy poker.

Ruderman, the chief executive of Beverly Hills-based Ruderman Capital Partners, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in January for an investor Ponzi scheme that he ran from 2003 to 2009. He was found guilty in August last year to wire fraud investment advisory.

The lawsuit, brought by lawyers representing Rudeman's clients, said that Ruderman was a regular player in a series of exclusive, and illegal, Texas Hold'em games. These illegal poker games are held for celebrities and wealthy Hollywood business figures at various luxury hotels and private homes in L.A. and Beverly Hills, Reuters reported.

The lawsuit claimed that Maguire is not entitled to the winnings as they came from Ruderman's clients' money and the payments to him constituted fraudulent transfers of their money.

The lawsuit

The lawsuit was filed in federal bankruptcy court in Los Angeles in March. But it came to light after Radaronline.com posted it on Wednesday.

Radaronline said the clandestine poker games were invitation-only with no limit for money to put. They were held twice a week with a buy-in of $100,000. Ruderman's gambling debts to Maguire included a single losing poker hand of $110,000 in July 2007.

Howard Ehrenberg, the applicant of the lawsuit told Reuters that a total of $5.2 million have to be recovered for investors, for which he has filed 15 such court actions in connection with Ruderman's gambling debts.