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

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.”

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.

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).”

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.