Thomas Goldstein is accused of tax evasion relating to his high-stakes poker playing
Thomas Goldstein, a former US Supreme Court advocate, challenged evidence alleging tax evasion and other tax crimes in connection with his poker playing, which included games both in the US and overseas and stakes worth millions of US dollars.
The former appellate lawyer pleaded not guilty in January and requested dismissal of the criminal charges, which primarily concerned his federal income taxes for the 2016–21 tax years, said an article from Reuters.
According to Reuters, Goldstein – previously a partner at Goldstein & Russell, P.C. and co-founder and publisher of the SCOTUSblog news site – retired from legal practice two years ago after handling over 40 US Supreme Court cases and acting for significant corporate clients.
The indictment stated that Goldstein won and lost millions of US dollars in poker matches and covered his debts through improper payments via his law firm. Prosecutors alleged that he unlawfully deducted salaries and health benefits from four women who were not firm employees for minimal work, Reuters said.
Prosecutors also claimed that Goldstein informed a US customs official that the cash of around $968,000 that he was holding at the time was gambling income, Reuters reported.
Pretrial filings brought by defence lawyers at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP before a federal judge in Maryland requested the disclosure of more information about the allegations and the exclusion of the statements that Goldstein had allegedly made to customs officers in 2018, Reuters’ article said.
Goldstein alleged that he should have been informed about his right to remain silent and other protections while he was under custody and that prosecutors withheld witness statements from firm employees and other information that would benefit his defence, Reuters said.
He also argued that no evidence established that he instructed his firm’s office managers to misclassify personal transactions as business expenses and that some offences in the charges went beyond the six-year filing window under the applicable US tax laws, Reuters added.
Reuters noted that Goldstein’s trial is set for next January.
Back in February, Reuters reported that a federal judge in Maryland ordered Goldstein’s release from incarceration and set new release conditions on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to establish that he had hidden recent cryptocurrency transactions from the court.
The new release conditions entailed tracking his internet use and prohibiting him from spending, receiving, or transferring cryptocurrency, given that the judge saw a possibility that he would access funds that would enable him to escape prosecution, Reuters’ article said.
Prosecutors had claimed that Goldstein had transferred millions of US dollars in cryptocurrency via hidden accounts after his initial pretrial release, which had resulted in a second arrest and detention, Reuters said. Goldstein countered that the cryptocurrency transfers occurred in 2023 and that he did not own the accounts involved, Reuters added.
