A distinguished Supreme Courtroom litigator was sentenced on Friday to 6 years in jail for evading a multimillion-dollar IRS tax debt and fascinating in mortgage fraud, a case that solid a highlight on his secretive way of life as a high-stakes poker participant and featured trial testimony from a Hollywood film star.
Thomas Goldstein, who additionally revealed a well-liked weblog in regards to the nation’s highest courtroom, had requested US District Choose Lydia Kay Griggsby to spare him from a jail sentence. As an alternative, the decide sentenced Goldstein to 5 years of supervised launch after his jail time period and ordered him to pay over $3.1 million in restitution, based on a spokesperson for the US Lawyer’s Workplace in Maryland.
Goldstein, 56, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, co-founded SCOTUSblog and argued over 40 circumstances earlier than the Supreme Courtroom earlier than retiring in 2023 at age 52. He was a member of Democrat Al Gore’s authorized staff within the Supreme Courtroom litigation over the 2000 election finally received by Republican President George W. Bush.
Many associates and colleagues didn’t know the extent of Goldstein’s playing till his January 2025 indictment, which despatched shock waves by means of the authorized neighborhood in Washington, D.C.
A jury discovered Goldstein responsible of 12 of 16 counts, together with eight felonies, after a six-week trial that led to February. Jurors convicted him of 1 rely of tax evasion, 4 counts of aiding and aiding within the preparation of false tax returns, 4 counts of willfully failing to pay taxes and three counts of mortgage fraud.
The trial in Greenbelt, Maryland, included testimony by “Spider-Man” star Tobey Maguire, an avid poker participant who enlisted Goldstein’s assist in recovering a playing debt from a billionaire.
Prosecutors beneficial a jail sentence of simply over eight years for Goldstein. They are saying he hid greater than $25 million in earnings between 2016 and 2023, depriving the federal authorities of over $9.5 million in unpaid taxes.
“His motivation was singular: pure, unrelenting greed,” prosecutors wrote. “Whether or not funneling playing earnings by means of offshore financial institution accounts, shaving thousands and thousands off his true legislation agency earnings, or mendacity to his lenders, Goldstein’s crimes at all times sought to advance and preserve his exorbitant way of life, replete with Bentleys, globe-trotting holidays, and a $200,000 watch.”
Goldstein’s attorneys argued that sparing him from jail would permit him to repay money owed and handle his extreme habit to playing. He maintains that his conduct, whereas self-destructive, wasn’t unlawful.
“He ought to be retiring with important life financial savings or, if he needed to, persevering with to follow legislation on the highest ranges,” protection attorneys wrote. “As an alternative, he has spent a few years playing with cash he didn’t have, and playing away cash that he received, to the detriment of himself and his family members.”
Prosecutors say Goldstein diverted cash from his legislation agency to pay playing money owed and falsely deducting playing money owed as enterprise bills. Goldstein additionally was accused of mendacity to IRS brokers and hiding his playing money owed from his accountants, workers and mortgage lenders. He omitted a $15 million playing debt from mortgage mortgage purposes whereas on the lookout for a brand new dwelling in Washington, D.C., together with his spouse in 2021, his indictment alleges.
Goldstein, who testified at his trial, stated he repeatedly instructed his legislation agency’s employees and accountants to appropriately characterize his private bills. In a 2014 electronic mail, he instructed a agency worker that “we at all times play fully by the principles.”
Goldstein spent years playing cash he didn’t have, his attorneys say.
“He isn’t rich sufficient to maintain the losses of the billionaires he has performed in opposition to, and he isn’t ok at poker to win on the fee of pros,” they wrote.
Prosecutors say Goldstein’s crimes had been motivated by “pure, uninhibited greed” and his “apparent disdain for the tax system.”
“We will and will anticipate extra from each legal professional and officer of the courtroom — not to mention one among Goldstein’s standing,” they wrote.
