Tom Goldstein, who writes SCOTUSblog.com, poses for {a photograph} in entrance of the Supreme Court, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, in Washington.
Alex Brandon | AP
A high Supreme Court lawyer who co-founded a preferred weblog concerning the excessive court docket was indicted Thursday in Maryland on federal tax evasion charges that allege he did not declare tens of millions of {dollars} in poker winnings and used his legislation agency’s cash to pay his playing money owed.
SCOTUSblog writer Tom Goldstein, who can be charged with making false statements to 2 mortgage lenders, has appeared earlier than the Supreme Court extra occasions than practically some other lawyer in personal apply in fashionable occasions.
The indictment alleges that for the tax years 2016 by means of 2021, Goldstein willfully did not pay greater than $5.3 million in taxes he owed the IRS.
Goldstein, 54, has taught at Harvard Law School and was one in all a number of legal professionals who represented then-Vice President Al Gore within the Bush v. Gore case on the Supreme Court, which ceased the recounting of Florida ballots within the disputed 2000 presidential election. He has additionally efficiently represented Google on the Supreme Court within the case the place its use of Oracle software program code in Android was accused of violating U.S. copyright legislation.
In November, Goldstein authored a New York Times visitor essay that known as for the top of legal circumstances in opposition to President-elect Donald Trump.
Goldstein additionally has been “an ultrahigh-stakes energy participant, steadily enjoying in matches or sequence of matches within the United States and overseas involving stakes totaling tens of millions, and even tens of tens of millions, of {dollars},” in keeping with the 22-count indictment in opposition to him in U.S. District Court in Maryland.
In a sequence of matches in opposition to a international gambler in Asia in 2016, the indictment says, Goldstein gained about $13.8 million. Several months later, in a sequence of matches in opposition to a California businessman in Beverly Hills, Goldstein gained $26.4 million, in keeping with the indictment.
The indictment says he diverted authorized charges owed to his Bethesda, Maryland, legislation agency, Goldstein & Russell, which specialised in appellate litigation, to pay his poker-related money owed.
The indictment additionally alleges that from 2016 by means of 2022, “Goldstein was concerned in or pursued intimate relationships with a minimum of a dozen girls,” and paid journey and different bills for a lot of of them whereas owing “substantial quantities of cash to the Internal Revenue Service.”
Four of these girls have been nominally employed by his agency and paid with well being advantages whereas performing “little or no work for the agency,” the indictment alleges.
Goldstein, who co-founded SCOTUSblog together with his spouse, Amy Howe, in 2002, informed the Reuters information service in early 2023 that he was ending his authorized apply and retiring from his agency, which has since been renamed.
Goldstein’s legal professionals, John Lauro and Christopher Kise of Continental, in an announcement to CNBC stated, “Mr. Goldstein is a outstanding lawyer with an impeccable popularity. We are deeply dissatisfied that the federal government introduced these fees in a rush to judgment with out understanding all the essential information.”
“Our shopper intends to vigorously contest these fees and we anticipate he might be exonerated at trial,” the attorneys stated.
The indictment says Goldstein used greater than $1.1 million in agency funds to pay private money owed in 2016, together with playing money owed to poker gamers.
He additionally allegedly understated his playing winnings by greater than $3.9 million on his 2016 federal tax return and omitted greater than $3.4 million in playing revenue on his tax return for 2017.
Goldstein additionally allegedly “submitted false mortgage functions to 2 separate mortgage lending firms, searching for financing to buy a $2.6 million residence in Washington, D.C.” in 2021, in keeping with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland.
“On these mortgage functions — which required Goldstein to record all his liabilities and money owed — Goldstein allegedly omitted tens of millions of {dollars} of liabilities, together with over $14 million he owed on the time on two promissory notes, in addition to taxes he owed to the IRS,” the workplace stated. “Goldstein’s false statements to one of many mortgage lenders allegedly resulted in his acquiring a $1.98 million mortgage.”
An October 2008 Washington Post article about Goldstein’s poker enjoying quotes him as saying, “I used to be a type of individuals who simply acquired caught up watching poker on ESPN,” and notes that he beat 130 gamers earlier that yr to earn a seat on the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
“He lasted simply two days,” the Post famous. “But throughout a break from the event, the soft-spoken litigator made a reputation for himself at an 18-hour money recreation on the Bellagio: Goldstein began with a $12,000 stack of chips and constructed it to greater than $100,000, profitable and dropping fingers with greater than $70,000 within the pot.”
Goldstein is charged with tax evasion, aiding and aiding the preparation of false tax returns, willful failure to pay taxes, and false assertion on mortgage functions.
