Supreme Court Lawyer Tom Goldstein Convicted in Tax Case Tied to High-Stakes Poker Millions
Posted on: February 26, 2026, 05:04h.
Last updated on: February 26, 2026, 05:04h.
- Supreme Court lawyer convicted of tax evasion and fraud
- Secret multimillion-dollar poker games hid from IRS, prosecutors say
- Goldstein faces up to 30 years in prison
Tom Goldstein, the celebrated US Supreme Court lawyer who led a double life as a high-stakes poker player, was convicted by a federal jury in Maryland Wednesday of evading millions of dollars in taxes and of lying on mortgage applications.
Prosecutors claimed the 56-year-old lied to conceal his gambling activities from the IRS and mortgage lenders. From 2016 onward, he won and lost multiple millions playing some of the biggest heads-up games in the world.
Goldstein pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying he handled his finances in good faith. He attributed any tax underreporting to mistakes by himself, his accountant, or office managers.
“The mistakes – responsibility for those tax years – is mine. I may end up continuing to pay for this for a long time,” Goldstein testified at trial. “That’s my responsibility. It’s just very different from whether I committed a crime.”
‘Smartest Man in the Room’
But the idea that a meticulous lawyer – one who had argued more than 40 cases before the Supreme Court – could be so sloppy ultimately proved too much for the jury to swallow. Goldstein was convicted of 12 of the 16 counts he faced.
Mr. Goldstein is probably the smartest person in this courtroom,” prosecutor Sean Beaty told jurors during closing arguments. “Smart people generally don’t document their tax evasion. They hide it in the tall grass. The crime here is the concealment.”
As a lawyer, Goldstein was high-profile, representing then–Vice President Al Gore before the Supreme Court in the Bush v. Gore case following the disputed 2000 presidential election. He also successfully defended Google in its 2021 copyright dispute with Oracle.
As a poker player, though, he flew under the radar, but he was “ultra-high-stakes … 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 court documents.
Poker Rampage
In 2016, Goldstein won $26.4 million in a series of heads-up matches against a Beverly Hills businessman. Although the opponent was not identified in the indictment, Goldstein disclosed in an interview with The New York Times that this was Alec Gores, the billionaire founder of the Gores Group.
That same year, he recorded additional major wins in the Philippines, taking $13.8 million from a gambler known as “Tango” and $9.96 million from a player referred to as “The Chairman.” In total, the games produced roughly $50 million in gross winnings, though Goldstein had sold 75% of his stake.
When the chance came to play US real estate investor and private equity executive Bob Safai, Goldstein chose to stake himself entirely. He lost $14 million.
At the time of his arrest, he was engaged in a two-year series of heads-up matches with the billionaire Texas banker and legendary high-stakes player Andy Beal, according to court documents. Goldstein was ahead by $51.4 million.
On Wednesday, however, Goldstein lost the biggest case of his career – and he faces up to 30 years in prison. US prosecutors said Thursday, without stipulating why, they will seek to have him jailed pending sentencing. They have previously argued he may be a flight risk.
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