Lawyer Accused of Tax Evasion Played Million Dollar Poker Game in Disguise

Posted on: January 22, 2025, 03:08h. 

Last updated on: January 22, 2025, 03:28h.

Tom Goldstein, the SCOTUS lawyer indicted last week for tax evasion, appeared in the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game II last May while disguised as a “European businessman.”

Tom Goldstein, Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game II, Dan Bilzerian, tax evasion
Tom Goldstein playing in the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game II as a “European businessman” known only as “Thomas,” above. The game didn’t end well for Goldstein, who is facing a raft of federal charges related to his poker profits and losses. (Image: Hustler Casino Live/YouTube)

The game, which was streamed live from the Hustler Casino in Los Angeles, featured Goldstein wearing a facemask, baseball cap, and hoodie to conceal his identity.

It wasn’t an auspicious occasion for Goldstein, who lost $1.6 million in the game and at one point misread his hand, leading him to muck a winning straight for a $540K pot.

‘Ultra-High Stakes’

Goldstein is accused of failing to declare millions of dollars of high-stakes poker winnings and of willfully failing to pay more than $5.3 million in taxes from 2016 to 2021.

His legal career saw him represent Al Gore in the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. Meanwhile, moonlighting as an “ultra-high stakes poker player,” Goldstein won more than $50 million in a series of heads-up matches against wealthy businessmen in Asia and California who are unnamed in the 22-count indictment.

There were big losses too, including the time he dropped $16 million to a different California businessman.

Goldstein is accused of using funds from his Bethesda, Md. law firm, Goldstein & Russell, to pay his poker debts. He also concealed his debts on two separate mortgage applications, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors also allege that Goldstein installed four women he was in a relationship with onto the payroll at Goldstein & Russell. The women did “little or no work” for the firm, prosecutors claim.

Lawyers, Guns, and Money

Goldstein features in “The Setup,” the autobiography of his friend and fellow high-stakes poker player, Dan Bilzerian. Goldstein even wrote the foreword for the book, describing their relationship as involving “desert driving, firing automatic weapons, paintballing, and playing poker (net winner) and chess (I’m hopeless).”

Of Goldstein, Bilzerian writes: “To this day, I have never met anyone with less respect for money proportionate to their net worth than Tom. And I’ve met some true degenerates.”

Goldstein’s legal team describe their client as a “prominent attorney with an impeccable reputation” who will “vigorously contest” the charges and expects to be exonerated at trial.

“We are deeply disappointed that the government brought these charges in a rush to judgment without understanding all of the important facts,” they said.