Tobey Maguire has laid his cards on the table in a bizarre lawsuit filed against him last week.
In court papers filed in United States Bankruptcy Court and obtained by TheWrap, Maguire denies defrauding incarcerated hedge-fund manager Bradley Ruderman in high-stakes poker games at ritzy Los Angeles locations.
What he doesn't deny, however, is that he played in said poker games.
In the suit filed last week, Ruderman Capital Partners claims that Ruderman — who's currently in jail for running a Ponzi scheme against his clients — lost $311,300 to Maguire, including $110,000 in a single hand during a single hand, and says that the cash constitutes illegal earnings that the company is entitled to retrieve.
Also read: Tobey Magure and Others Sued for Being Too Good at Poker
While Maguire's response mostly claims that the "Spider-Man" star "lacks sufficient information and belief upon which to respond to the allegations," it does admit that the actor "was invited to participated [sic] in the Poker Games" and that Maguire "did receive checks from Ruderman." (The suit also claims that Maguire is "entitled to an offset" against any liability found against him "in the amount of $168,500" — money that he paid to Ruderman for poker losses.)
Maguire claims innocence in that the poker games weren't "controlled games required to be licensed by any governmental body."
And if Ruderman did lose all that money to Maguire, the response claims, it's his company's fault — for not taking sufficient steps to prevent Ruderman from blowing the money.
Overall, Ruderman is reported to have lost $5.2 million in the games.The suit alleges that Ruderman hatched his Ponzi scheme in an effort to make up for the poker losses.