By Jen Heger - Breaking Celebrity News Legal Editor

The court-appointed trustee for the Hollywood celebrity poker lawsuits tried to privately settle with Tobey Maguire, and other parties, before filing, to avoid negative publicity, Breaking Celebrity News has exclusively learned.

However, all attempts to do so were unsuccessful and trustee Howard Ehrenberg was forced to file against the Spider-man star and other Hollywood bigwigs in an attempt to reimburse money that investors lost in an elaborate Ponzi scheme hatched by hedge fund manager Brad Ruderman.

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“The investors that I represent lost about $50 million dollars,” Ehrenberg told Breaking Celebrity News 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 is a very well respected attorney in Southern California.

As Breaking Celebrity News previously reported, Maguire, 35, won more than $300,000 from a Beverly Hills hedge fund manager who allegedly embezzled investor funds and orchestrated a Ponzi scheme in a desperate bid to pay off his monster debt to the star and others, and Ehrenberg is attempting to recoup that money for the investors.