A top Supreme Court lawyer has been indicted on federal tax evasion charges after he allegedly paid off hefty amounts of debt accrued from high-stakes poker games using money from his law firm.
Tom Goldstein, a Supreme Court lawyer who founded the popular blog SCOTUSblog about the nation's highest court, allegedly did not pay $5.3 million he owed the IRS from 2016 to 2021.
During this same time period, from 2016 to 2022, "Goldstein was involved in or pursued intimate relationships with at least a dozen women," paying for their travel and other expenses while refusing to pay "substantial amounts of money to the Internal Revenue Service."
The 54-year-old has been described as "an ultrahigh-stakes power player, frequently playing in 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 indictment against him in U.S. District Court in Maryland obtained by CNBC.
Furthermore, the indictment alleges that in 2016, Goldstein won $13.8 million and then $26.4 million a few months later from a series of high-stakes gambling matches. He then diminished these winnings by $3.9 million on his 2016 federal tax return and understated over $3.4 million in winnings on his tax return for 2017.
He then diverted legal fees from his law firm, Goldstein & Russell based in Bethesda, Maryland, using the money to pay off his gambling debts, the indictment claims.
Furthermore, in 2021, Goldstein allegedly "submitted false mortgage applications to two separate mortgage lending companies, seeking financing to purchase a $2.6 million home in Washington, D.C." reported the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.
"On those mortgage applications — which required Goldstein to list all his liabilities and debts — Goldstein allegedly omitted millions of dollars of liabilities, including over $14 million he owed at the time on two promissory notes, as well as taxes he owed to the IRS," the office said. "Goldstein's false statements to one of the mortgage lenders allegedly resulted in his obtaining a $1.98 million loan."
"Mr. Goldstein is a prominent attorney with an impeccable reputation. We are deeply disappointed that the government brought these charges in a rush to judgment without understanding all of the important facts," said his lawyers, John Lauro and Christopher Kise, in a statement to CNBC.
"Our client intends to vigorously contest these charges and we expect he will be exonerated at trial," the attorneys added.
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