Tom Goldstein, who writes SCOTUSblog.com, poses for {a photograph} in entrance of the Supreme Court docket, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, in Washington.
Alex Brandon | AP
A prime Supreme Court lawyer who co-founded a well-liked weblog concerning the excessive court docket was indicted Thursday in Maryland on federal tax evasion charges that allege he didn’t declare hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in poker winnings and used his regulation agency’s cash to pay his playing money owed.
SCOTUSblog writer Tom Goldstein, who can also be charged with making false statements to 2 mortgage lenders, has appeared earlier than the Supreme Court docket extra instances than almost another legal professional in non-public apply in fashionable instances.
Goldstein, 54, has taught at Harvard Legislation Faculty and was certainly one of a number of legal professionals who represented then-Vice President Al Gore within the Bush v. Gore case on the Supreme Court docket, which ceased the recounting of Florida ballots within the disputed 2000 presidential election. He has additionally efficiently represented Google on the Supreme Court docket within the case the place its use of Oracle software program code in Android was accused of violating U.S. copyright regulation.
In November, Goldstein authored a New York Times visitor essay that referred to as for the tip of felony circumstances towards President-elect Donald Trump.
Goldstein additionally has been “an ultrahigh-stakes energy participant, often taking part in in matches or sequence of matches in the USA and overseas involving stakes totaling hundreds of thousands, and even tens of hundreds of thousands, of {dollars},” in keeping with the 22-count indictment towards him in U.S. District Court docket in Maryland.
The indictment says he diverted authorized charges owed to his Bethesda, Maryland, regulation agency, Goldstein & Russell, to pay his poker-related money owed.
The indictment additionally alleges that from 2016 via 2022, Goldstein was concerned in or pursued intimate relationships with no less than a dozen ladies, and paid journey and different bills for a lot of of them whereas owing “substantial quantities of cash to the Inner Income Service.”
4 of these ladies had been purportedly employed by his agency and paid with well being advantages whereas performing “little or no work for the agency,” the indictment alleges.
Goldstein, who co-founded SCOTUSblog along with his spouse, Amy Howe, in 2002, instructed the Reuters information service in early 2023 that he was ending his authorized apply and retiring from his agency, which has since been renamed.
Goldstein’s legal professionals, John Lauro and Christopher Kise of Continental, in an announcement to CNBC stated, “Mr. Goldstein is a distinguished legal professional with an impeccable fame. We’re deeply dissatisfied that the federal government introduced these prices in a rush to judgment with out understanding all the essential info.”
“Our consumer intends to vigorously contest these prices and we count on he can be exonerated at trial,” the attorneys stated.
The indictment says Goldstein used greater than $1.1 million in agency funds to pay private money owed in 2016, together with playing money owed to poker gamers.
He additionally allegedly understated his playing winnings by greater than $3.9 million on his 2016 federal tax return and omitted greater than $3.4 million in playing revenue on his tax return for 2017.
Goldstein additionally allegedly “submitted false mortgage purposes to 2 separate mortgage lending firms, searching for financing to buy a $2.6 million residence in Washington, D.C.” in 2021, in keeping with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Maryland.
“On these mortgage purposes — which required Goldstein to listing all his liabilities and money owed — Goldstein allegedly omitted hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of liabilities, together with over $14 million he owed on the time on two promissory notes, in addition to taxes he owed to the IRS,” the workplace stated. “Goldstein’s false statements to one of many mortgage lenders allegedly resulted in his acquiring a $1.98 million mortgage.”
An October 2008 Washington Post article about Goldstein’s poker taking part in quotes him as saying, “I used to be a type of individuals who simply obtained caught up watching poker on ESPN,” and notes that he beat 130 gamers earlier that yr to earn a seat on the World Collection of Poker in Las Vegas.
“He lasted simply two days,” the Put up famous. “However throughout a break from the event, the soft-spoken litigator made a reputation for himself at an 18-hour money sport on the Bellagio: Goldstein began with a $12,000 stack of chips and constructed it to greater than $100,000, successful and shedding palms with greater than $70,000 within the pot.”
Source link