Some Investors Lost Life Savings in Spiderman High Stakes Poker Ponzi Scheme

Radar Online is reporting on Thursday that the court-appointed trustee for a lawsuit against Hollywood celebrity high stakes poker players attempted to settle beforehand with Toby Maguire and others.  Maguire is best known for his starring role in the Spiderman film franchise. 

The lawsuit alleges that hedge fund manager Brad Ruderman caused some investors to lose their life savings as part of a complex ponzi scheme and at least $300,000 of that money went to Maguire.  The Spiderman actor won that amount through his participation in clandestine underground high stakes poker games that were part of the scam.  Other celebrities named in connection with the high stake poker games include Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon.  So far, only Maguire has been served with the lawsuit. 

“The investors that I represent lost about $50 million dollars,” Ehrenberg told RadarOnline.com exclusively. “I contacted representatives for Mr. Maguire before I filed the lawsuit against him as a courtesy, because I didn't want to cause him embarrassment. My attempts to collect money from Mr. Maguire were unsuccessful and went unnoticed, and I was forced to file the lawsuit against him.

“I was appointed by the court as a trustee in this case, to get money for investors that lost their money. I'm not trying to garner any publicity for myself, I just want to get money that is owed to the investors in the Ruderman Capital Partners hedge fund."

Ehrenberg drew comparisons to the Bernie Madoff case. 

"Some of the investors did lose their life savings. This Ponzi scheme is very similar to the Bernie Madoff case, but in this matter, we are dealing with about $50 million dollars in losses. This scheme probably could have been much worse, if the stock market hadn't collapsed. The scheme ultimately unraveled when the stock market dropped.”

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com