Billionaire Andy Beal Allegedly Initially Dodged $15M Poker Debt to Tobey Maguire
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A-list actor Tobey Maguire testified on Wednesday in the criminal tax trial of Tom Goldstein about the time he hired the embattled attorney to collect a multi-million-dollar poker debt from a "Texas Businessman." That businessman was revealed to be billionaire banker Andy Beal, a longtime poker player whose heads-up escapades are well-documented.
Maguire, a witness for the prosecution, told jurors in Maryland he had hired Goldstein to recover a $7.8 million gambling debt — Maguire's share of $15.6 million he won off Beal in a December 2019 poker match. Bloomberg Law reported that Beal was the billionaire in question.
Beal Tried to Settle Poker Debt
The testimony from Maguire, best known for his role in the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man, came as the trial entered its third week.
According to Reuters, Maguire testified that he met Goldstein through "poker circles" and paid him $500,000 in legal fees for helping him succeed in recovering the poker debt.
The indictment against Goldstein offers insight into the high-stakes poker match between Maguire and Beal, which took place in Dallas in December 2019. It alleges that Goldstein beat Beal for $15.6 million and that Beal "failed to timely pay the Actor (Maguire) and the side bettors — to whom the Texas Businessman (Beal) separately owed hundreds of thousands of dollars on the side bets."
"The Texas Businessman's failure to pay the Actor continued into 2021, although in the interim the Texas Businessman proposed to the Actor and the side bettors a settlement of his poker debts that involved paying an amount significantly less than what was actually owed," the indictment reads.
Maguire refused to agree to the reduction and hired Goldstein to serve as his legal representative to collect the payment. After recovering the debt, Maguire paid Goldstein a $500,000 legal fee and wired the payment to California real estate mogul Bob Safai to pay down Goldstein's poker debt.
In cross-examination, Maguire told jurors it isn't uncommon in the poker world for such transactions to go undocumented, Bloomberg Law reported.
Beal's heads-up matches are the stuff of legend and are documented in the classic poker book The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time. The book tells the story of Beal coming to Las Vegas in search of the biggest poker games and battling a team of elite poker players that included Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Jen Harman and Ted Forrest.
Beal has also reportedly played against fellow billionaire Alec Gores, who testified earlier in the trial and who Goldstein beat for over $26 million in 2016.
High-Stakes Poker Pro Testifies
The third week of the trial has also featured testimony from high-stakes poker player Vivek Rajkumar, who has over $8 million in Hendon Mob earnings and finished fifth in the 2019 Triton Million for Charity for $3.6 million.
Rajkumar testified to winning between $200,000 and $300,000 in poker matches with Goldstein, according to Reuters, while Bloomberg Law reported that the poker pro gave Goldstein a $200,000 short-term loan in March 2020.
Also this week, prosecutors subpoenaed New York Times journalists Jeffrey Toobin and Rudy Lee over a feature story and tell-all interview with Goldstein published in December 2025.
In a motion to quash the subpoenas obtained and reviewed by PokerNews, an attorney for Toobin and Lee wrote that the subpoenas pose a "serious intrusion into the newsgathering process that will chill future journalism."
The charges against Goldstein include tax evasion, falsifying tax returns, failing to pay taxes, and making false statements to two separate mortgage lenders. The trial is expected to wrap up in mid-February.
