Top SCOTUS Lawyer Tom Goldstein Moonlit as High-Stakes Poker Player and Avoided Millions in Taxes, Feds Claim

Posted on: January 17, 2025, 12:44h. 

Last updated on: January 17, 2025, 12:44h.

A leading US Supreme Court lawyer was indicted in Maryland Thursday for tax evasion after he allegedly failed to declare millions of dollars in poker winnings.

Tom Goldstein, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, tax evasion, poker
Tom Goldstein, above, was “an ultra-high-stakes poker player” who won multiple millions but failed to declare this to the IRS, according to a federal indictment. (Image: CNBC)

From 2016 to 2021, Tom Goldstein, 54, willfully failed to pay more than $5.3 million in taxes, according to the indictment. He is also accused of using funds from his Bethesda, Md. law firm, Goldstein & Russell, to pay his poker debts.

As a lawyer specializing in appellate work, Goldstein represented then-Vice President Al Gore in the Bush v. Gore case in the Supreme Court, following the disputed 2000 presidential election. He also successfully defended Google in its 2021 copyright case versus Oracle Systems.

He has twice been named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the nation by the National Law Journal. He also taught Supreme Court Law at Harvard and Standford and co-founded SCOTUSblog with his wife, Amy Howe, in 2002.

Under the Radar

As a poker player, Goldstein flew under the radar as an “ultra-high-stakes … 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,” prosecutors said.

In 2016, he won $26.4 million in a series of matches against an unnamed businessman in Beverly Hills, prosecutors claim. That same year, he won roughly $13.8 million against a gambler in Asia, according to the indictment.

Curiously, Goldstein was part of the team that represented fellow high-stakes poker player and alleged bookie Paul Phua in 2014 when the latter was arrested for running an illegal sports betting operation out of a luxury villa in Caesars Palace during the FIFA World Cup.

Goldstein successfully challenged the government’s case, arguing that the FBI conducted an illegal search of Phua’s villa by posing as internet repair technicians to gather evidence without a warrant.

A judge later ruled the evidence obtained in the raid was inadmissible, leading to the eventual dismissal of the charges against Phua.

Eye for the Ladies

The indictment also claims that from 2016 to 2022, Goldstein hired four women with whom he was in intimate relationships to “work” at Goldstein & Russell. These women were paid with health benefits while doing “little or no work” for the firm, prosecutors claim.

Mr. Goldstein is a prominent attorney with an impeccable reputation,” his lawyers, John Lauro and Christopher Kise of Continental, said in a statement. “We are deeply disappointed that the government brought these charges in a rush to judgment without understanding all of the important facts.”

Goldstein intends to “vigorously contest” the charges and expects to be exonerated at trial, they added.