Tobey Maguire Resists Trustee’s Move to Collect Poker Money

Blame the game, not the player.

Actor Tobey Maguire can’t help his natural knack for winning Texas Hold ‘Em-style poker. The “Spider-Man” hero recently denied any wrongdoing when he collected $300,000 from poker matches that were organized by a convicted investment scammer and held at upscale Beverly Hills hotels and private residences, according to recent court documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles.

Maguire wants to keep that money instead of turning it over to a bankruptcy trustee, who’s going after a roster of high-profile celebrities and businessmen that allegedly benefited from Beverly Hills hedge-fund manager Bradley L. Ruderman’s lousy gambling luck.

Maguire’s lawyer argued he also lost money during the invitation-only games, which were held during a three-year period starting in 2006, court documents said. By the same token, Maguire’s lawyer argued that he should be credited for the nearly $170,000 he left on the table.

Maguire also denied that the games—designated as “high stakes, clandestine poker games” in court documents—lacked  the proper licenses required by some states.

But what the games lacked in licenses, they made up for in star power. Court documents identified other high-rollers who sat at the table across from Ruderman as “The Notebook” director Nick Cassavetes, Paris Hilton’s onetime sex-video partner Rick Salomon and “Welcome Back Kotter” star Gabe Kaplan, who now plays poker professionally.

Also named as a player was private-equity investor Alec Gores, whose has been hard-pressed for luck these days after his firm lost its bid to serve as the lead bidder at the bankruptcy auction for bookseller Borders Group Inc.

Chapter 7 trustee Howard M. Ehrenberg, who is recovering money for investors left behind by Ruderman Capital Partners, filed a round of lawsuits in March against 22 people who played in the game in an effort to recapture $4 million for the company estate.

Ruderman was sentenced last year to more than 10 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to five criminal accounts filed against him.