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November 7th 2006
WSOP champ Jamie Gold says Leyser deal was gift, not contract
Jamie Gold, the controversial 2006 WSOP Champion who is currently being sued for half his $12 million winnings, says the agreement he had with the plaintiff Bruce Crispin Leyser simply amounted to a gift and not a contract.
Nearly three months after Bruce Crispin Leyser filed a lawsuit against Jamie Gold in which he claimed the 2006 WSOP Champion had agreed to give Leyser exactly half of his winnings from the tournament, Gold and his team of lawyers have at last filed a Motion giving Gold’s side of the story.
Gold makes a number of assertions in the motion, the principle claim being that he agreed to give Leyser half of his potential winnings only AFTER Leyser had procured two celebrities to play in the WSOP for Bodog, and that he did so because he felt sorry for Leyser after Bodog had refused to buy Leyser into the main-event.
As Gold’s motion clarifies: “It was only after Plaintiff secured Lillard and Shepard (the two minor celebs recruited by Leyser), AND NOT IN EXCHANGE FOR THIS SERVICE, that Gold expressed a desire to assist Plaintiff by sharing a portion of any winnings. Gold's offer was nothing more than a promise to make a gift.”
Gold’s position is not an enviable one, given that he and his lawyers have already acknowledged the legitimacy of an answerphone recording left by Gold to Leyser on the final day of the 2006 WSOP main-event. In the recording Gold clearly states, and strongly emphasizes, that Leyser will definitely receive his half of Gold’s $12 million winnings.
In his filing Gold explains the answerphone message by saying that Leyser had begun incessantly harassing him as Gold went deeper into the tournament. Gold claims that as the main-event drew nearer to a conclusion Leyser and his wife began calling and texting him “almost hourly” even when Gold was playing at the poker table. On the final day of the WSOP Gold claims the phone calls became intolerable and it was then that he called Leyser, leaving the voice message in the hope of “remov(ing) Leyser as a distraction”.
Gold acknowledges in the motion that he “expressed a desire to take care of Leyser by sharing a portion of my winnings” but is adamant that this “did not mean he would receive fifty percent of my winnings”. In the voice recording Gold is clearly heard stating: “There’s no possible way you’re not going to get your half after taxes.”
After his win Gold claims the only reason he did not immediately hand over a portion of his winnings to Leyser was that he wanted to resolve any tax issues before he did so. Principally Gold did not want to have to shoulder the tax burden for the full $12 million if he was then going to give money to Leyser tax free. But Gold claims Leyser was totally unwilling to accept anything less than $6 million exactly, and adds that Leyser would not event allow the customary tip (for dealers) to come out of his share of the money.
Gold goes on to claim that he never fully intended to give Leyser, who Gold says has “serious financial problems”, an exact half of the winnings, but was instead planning to give Leyser “some” money to help him out. Gold says he only changed his mind after Leyser “unnecessarily” filed suit and stained Gold’s reputation.
Yesterday Bruce Crispin Leyser’s lawyers responded to Gold’s motion, branding his position that the promise was an unenforceable gift “absurd”. Richard Schonfield, Leyser’s attorney, said: “We're glad they finally took a position; even though we were extremely confident in our case, we are more confident now that we will prevail.”
Submitted: 07/11/2006 11:34:47
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