Home / Poker News May 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Hollywood Celebrities off the Poker Hook
The Poker Grapevine – Hollywood Celebrities off the Poker Hook
Posted by: Randy Williams - Thu, 2012-05-17 15:32
Bradley Ruderman had rubbed shoulders with the right type of A-listers when he set up his poker-trap, conning investors out of an estimated $5.2 million with the apparent ‘help’ of a bunch of Hollywood celebrities, who can breathe a collective sigh of relief and start tending to the mending of their public image, now that the case has been settled out of court.
Howard Ehrenberg - the trustee whose task it is to try to recoup as much of the above said sum as possible – is the one who broke the news that all 22 defendants involved in the case have settled for a total of $1.75 million.
The underground game had quite a select crowd of participants: Tobey Maguire was named in the lawsuit, together with Nick Cassavettes and Gabe Kaplan of HSP fame. Other actors rumored to have taken part in the games, but never actually named in the suit were Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Apparently Alex Rodriguez had also been involved.
The real culprit in the case was Bradley Ruderman though, who ran a high-profile Ponzi-scheme to settle his debts, and committed various offenses including but not limited to wire-fraud. His scheme ended up $25 million in the red, after which he kicked off the high stakes poker gig to try to recoup the money. Ruderman is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence.
In other news: Wednesday was a big day for the WPT. The organization unveiled the first part of its upcoming season 11 schedule, making it clear that it had every intention to expand and to grow. In addition to the 12 regular WPT stops, no fewer than 13 regional
poker tournaments have made the schedule. The season kicks off on August 4 in Cyprus with the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic. The buy-ins for the WPT season 11 main events will be between $3.5k and $10.3k.
