Supreme Court lawyer accused of tax evasion on poker winnings

A prominent Supreme Court lawyer, co-founder of a popular blog about the high court, was indicted Thursday in Maryland on federal tax fraud charges, alleging he failed to report millions of dollars in poker winnings and that he used money from his law firm to pay off his gambling debts.

SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein, who is also accused of making false statements to two mortgage lenders, has appeared before the Supreme Court more times than almost any other lawyer in private practice in modern times.

Goldstein, 54, taught at Harvard Law School and was one of several lawyers who represented then-Vice President Al Gore in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, which ended ballot recounts in Florida during the disputed 2000 presidential election. He also successfully represented Google before the Supreme Court in the event that its use of Oracle Android’s software code has been accused of violating US copyright law.

In November, Goldstein wrote a guest essay for The New York Times calling for an end to the criminal prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.

Goldstein was also “a powerful, ultra-high stakes player, frequently playing matches or series of matches in the United States and abroad involving stakes totaling millions and even tens of millions of dollars,” according to the 22-count indictment against him. in the U.S. District Court of Maryland.

The indictment says he diverted legal fees owed to his Bethesda, Md., law firm, Goldstein & Russell, to pay his poker-related debts.

The indictment also alleges that from 2016 to 2022, Goldstein had or maintained intimate relationships with at least a dozen women, and paid the travel and other expenses of many of them while owing ” significant sums of money to the Internal Revenue Service.”

Four of those women were allegedly hired by his company and paid with health benefits while performing “little or no work for the company,” according to the indictment.

Goldstein, who co-founded SCOTUSblog with his wife, Amy Howe, in 2002, told the Reuters news service in early 2023 that he was ending his legal practice and retiring from his firm, which has since been renamed.

Goldstein’s attorneys, John Lauro and Christopher Kise of Continental, said in a statement to CNBC: “Mr. Goldstein is a distinguished attorney with an impeccable reputation. We are deeply disappointed that the government has rushed to make these accusations without understanding all the reasons. the important facts. »

“Our client intends to vigorously contest these charges and we hope he will be exonerated at trial,” the attorneys said.

The indictment says Goldstein used more than $1.1 million in firm funds to pay personal debts in 2016, including gambling debts to poker players.

He also allegedly underreported his gambling winnings by more than $3.9 million on his 2016 federal tax return and omitted more than $3.4 million in gambling income on his 2017 tax return.

Goldstein also allegedly “submitted false mortgage applications to two separate mortgage companies, seeking financing to purchase a $2.6 million home in Washington, D.C.” in 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland.

“In those mortgage applications – which required Goldstein to list all of his liabilities and debts – Goldstein allegedly omitted millions of dollars in debts, including more than $14 million he owed at the time on two promissory notes, as well as the taxes he owed the IRS,” the office said. “Goldstein’s false statements to one of the mortgage lenders allegedly allowed him to obtain a $1.98 million loan.”

An October 2008 Washington Post article about Goldstein’s poker game quotes him saying, “I was one of those people who got caught up in watching poker on ESPN” and notes that he beat 130 players earlier that year to earn a spot in the World Championship. Poker series in Las Vegas.

“He only lasted two days,” the Post noted. “But during a break from tournament play, the soft-spoken litigator made a name for himself during an 18-hour cash game at the Bellagio: Goldstein started with a $12,000 stack and increased it to more than $100,000, winning and losing hands with over $70,000 in the pot.”