Deja Vu: Jamie Gold Faces New Lawsuit Over 2006 WSOP Winningshttp://news.bluffmagazine.com/deja-vu-jami...-winnings-7119/Jamie Gold, the controversial 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event champion who has already had to settle one lawsuit out of court over a deal made for part of his winnings, is once again facing legal action over a broken promise.
This time around the plaintiff is
Francis DellaVecchia, an event producer and promoter from Los Angeles who was the man responsible for setting Gold up with Bodog prior to the beginning of the 2006 WSOP. In an interview with BLUFF Magazine last week, DellaVecchia told us all about how he came to know Jamie Gold, how he ended up owning part of Gold’s action, and how he ended up filing suit to recover the money he says he is owed despite taking measure after measure to avoid legal resolution. Jamie Gold, meanwhile, did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
June 2006. Francis DellaVecchia had been hired on by Bodog’s media company, Riptown Media, to put together a Bodog celebrity poker team for the upcoming WSOP Main Event. He landed some of Hollywood’s better-known poker aficionados, like comedian Brad Garrett and actor Mekhi Phifer, to wear Bodog gear and take a shot at conquering the biggest tournament in poker’s history. When a mutual friend introduced DellaVecchia to Gold and the future champ said he could help to bring some celebrities on board in exchange for his own seat in the tourney, DellaVecchia says that the quality of the names Gold claimed to be managing - talent like Charlie’s Angels star Lucy Liu and The Sopranos leading man James Gandolfini - was enough for him to accept Gold’s offer of assistance.
But soon it became apparent that the kind of talent Gold was landing - actors
Matthew Lillard (Scooby Doo) and Dax Shepard (Punk’d), found with the help of one Bruce Crispin Leyser - wasn’t really what Bodog was looking for. DellaVecchia offered to act as an intermediary to get Gold a sponsorship for the Main Event based on what he had been able to provide for the celebrity poker team, with the agreement that
Gold would pay 1% of any winnings as a fee for being hooked up with his seat in the tournament. Gold agreed without mentioning his other agreement with Leyser, whom DellaVecchia didn’t meet until almost halfway through the Main Event.
Jamie Gold may have had just 49% of his own action in the Main Event, but once he won he seemed intent on keeping 100% of his winnings. Leyser quickly filed suit to lay claim to his half of the $12 million prize, and when word of the lawsuit went public it was the first DellaVecchia had heard of the deal. As a result of Leyser’s lawsuit, Gold called DellaVecchia and requested a delay in paying the agreed one percent, which he was granted. Once a settlement was reached with Leyser in early 2007, Gold again asked DellaVecchia for a delay until the financial arrangements of that settlement could be worked out - and again his request was granted. DellaVecchia says the requests for delays continued until communication finally stopped altogether.
After three years of seeking, and failing, to collect his debt outside of the court system, DellaVecchia says he had no choice but to file suit in order to collect the money he is owed. “This was a deal we had, and I would like him to fulfill his end of the bargain,” says DellaVecchia. “I would be very happy for this to be settled without it needing to go before a judge and take up everybody’s time, but this is the only option that seems to be left to me.“
With bonuses and other compensation included, DellaVecchia’s accounting of Gold’s total winning in the 2006 WSOP Main Event comes to $13,250,000. Whether he gets his one percent of that total will now be a matter for the court to decide - unless, of course, Gold decides to settle again.
Has Jamie Gold accomplished anything more in poker...besides getting his ass sued?NOTE: At this year's WSOP, Jamie Gold was seen with The Maven...probably getting ready to release his awesome poker strategy to the world.
29 Apr 2009 - 17:42
18 Feb 2008 - 5:10
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