Double-life lawyer
A jury trial in a Maryland federal court this week has brought prominent ex-US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) advocate Tom Goldstein back into the limelight. It comes after the shock revelation in January 2025 of Goldstein’s double life involving high-stakes gambling.
not reporting millions of dollars
Goldstein will appear in court this week facing allegations from federal prosecutors that he falsified tax returns by not reporting millions of dollars he won in poker games.
Highly respected during his long career as a Washington attorney, Goldstein is also accused of lying on his mortgage applications and making improper payments via his law firm to bankroll his high living.
The man regarded as a “legal pioneer” has, however, twice rejected plea deals from the Justice Department, maintaining: “I have never, ever believed that I did anything wrong.”
Moonlighting DC-style
Reuters cited ex-DOJ lawyer York Faulkner, who claimed defense lawyer Jonathan Kravis’ strategy is likely to persuade jurors. Kravis is arguing that Goldstein tried to comply with tax laws but sometimes made errors because of his busy schedule and that his “small law firm lacked a sophisticated accounting operation.”
Faulkner, who has prosecuted tax cases, said in cases like these “what you are looking for is a systematic way of hiding or diverting money.” He added the federal indictment makes Goldstein “seem like someone who was scrambling to put out fires.”
Goldstein’s indictment in January 2025 came as a shock to the legal community, with George Washington University law professor JP Collins echoing many when he stated “the allegations against him were unbelievable.”
high stakes gambling, mistresses in the workplace”
“Fraud, tax evasion, high stakes gambling, mistresses in the workplace,” explained Collins. The professor added that Goldstein’s story would bomb at pilot stage if it were a TV show “because no one would believe it.”
According to the feds, the legal wiz hired investors to fund his high-stakes poker games, like the one in 2016 where he won $26m playing a California exec.
Casanova of DC
The indictment also alleged that “between 2016 and 2022, Goldstein was involved in, or pursued, intimate personal relationships with at least a dozen women, transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to them.”
Goldstein was, however, successful in having his extra-marital affairs thrown out as evidence with regard to tax evasion charges.
They just put in those charges to dirty me up”
“Those charges have nothing to do with taxes,” Goldstein told the New York Times. “They just put in those charges to dirty me up, to make the jury dislike me.”
