BREAKING: Tom Goldstein Found Guilty on 12 Counts in Poker-Related Tax Trial
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Superstar attorney Tom Goldstein was found guilty of 12 of 16 counts in a high-profile federal tax trial centered around high-stakes poker matches around the world where Goldstein won and lost millions in single sessions.
The trial of Goldstein, the founder of SCOTUSblog and one of the most prominent attorneys in Washington, garnered national media attention and featured testimony from celebrities, poker pros and billionaires. Goldstein faced tax and mortgage fraud charges stemming from ultra-high-stakes poker matches from Asia to Hollywood that produced $50 million in profit, as well as later matches that saw Goldstein losing $14 million.
Bloomberg Law first reported Wednesday that jurors in Greenbelt, Maryland had found Goldstein guilty on 12 of 16 charges after several days of deliberations.
He was found guilty on one count of tax evasion, all four counts of willful failure to timely pay taxes, all three counts of making false statements to mortgage lenders, and four of eight counts of aiding and assisting in preparation of a false tax return, per Bloomberg.
Goldstein faced 16 counts of tax and mortgage fraud related to poker winnings from between 2016 and 2023 that the US Department of Justice accused him of hiding from his accountants and the IRS. Prosecutors also accused Goldstein of diverting legal fees from his law firm to cover poker debts and lying about those debts in mortgage applications.
Sentencing is still to come, and Goldstein could face serious prison time on the convicted charges. He faces maximum penalties of five years in prison for the tax evasion charge, one year for each charge of willful failure to pay taxes, three years for each count of aiding in the preparation of false tax returns, and 30 years for each count of making false statements to mortgage lenders.
Goldstein declined to comment to PokerNews earlier in the trial. After the verdict, Goldstein's attorneys and US Department of Justice prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Testimony From Celebrities, Billionaires & Poker Pros
The January 2025 indictment against Goldstein rocked the legal world, where Goldstein was acknowledged as a top attorney who had argued dozens of cases before the US Supreme Court. The six-week trial in Maryland featured testimony from dozens of witnesses — including Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire, who testified about hiring Goldstein to recover millions in poker winnings from Texas billionaire Andy Beal.
Earlier this week, PokerNews revealed that Beal was the previously unnamed heads-up opponent who Goldstein won $51.4 million from beginning in 2022.
The witnesses, most of whom were called by the prosecution, included American billionaire Alec Gores, who told jurors about losing $26.4 million in heads-up matches against Goldstein in 2016; poker pros Andrew Robl and Keith Gipson, who spoke about to coaching Goldstein; and Rick Salomon of Paris Hilton sex tape fame, who, according to court documents reviewed by PokerNews, is up around $5 million in his poker dealings with the attorney.
Other witnesses included accountants, tax specialists, IRS investigators and mortgage lenders, who testified that Goldstein hadn't reported $15 million in poker debts on home mortgage applications.
The prosecution painted Goldstein as a reckless gambler and lavish spender who willfully hid poker income from his accountants. The defense, meanwhile, argued that Goldstein had relied on the tax expertise of his accountants, never intentionally hid income and had less gambling income than the government alleged.
Goldstein himself also testified, a move that surprised onlookers, and denied ever willfully hiding gambling winnings, while also admitting to downplaying his gambling debts on mortgage applications, which he said he did to hide the losses from his wife.
During the Feb. 13 cross-examination of IRS Special Agent Jack McDonald, Goldstein lead attorney Jonathan Kravis revealed that Goldstein had told agents in an interview that his tax trouble "all comes down to a catastrophic f*** up” by his tax preparers.
One of those tax preparers, Walter Deyhle of GRF CPAs & Advisors, testified that Goldstein had not provided him adequate information about his gambling income, but later admitted on cross-examination to making some errors on Goldstein's tax returns, and to unintentionally making incorrect statements to IRS investigators.
There were embarrassing moments for Goldstein throughout the investigation and trial, including later-dropped allegations that he held extramarital affairs with multiple women who were put on his law firm's payroll, as well as lavish spending on luxury items like a $225,000 Bentley despite having a massive tax bill.
Goldstein's attorneys accused the government of bringing up irrelevant personal matters in an effort to paint him in a bad light. In a letter sent to prosecutors ahead of the trial, his attorneys complained that witnessed had been asked "about Mr. Goldstein's sexual habits and proclivities, the details of his marriage, and his personal relationships" and accused the government of demanding that third parties "produced sexually explicit photographs and videos involving Mr. Goldstein."
"Needless to say, these topics and materials have nothing to do with any possible theory of criminal liability," reads the letter dated Jan. 6, 2025. "Instead, they reflect an inappropriate, prurient obsession with Mr. Goldstein's personal life."
Closing Arguments Capped Off High-Profile Trial
During closing arguments, a highly anticipated moment in the high-profile trial, prosecutors told jurors that the Goldstein lawyer lied to "everyone around him" about his life as as high-stakes poker player, according to Reuters.
"Mr. Goldstein is probably the smartest person in this courtroom," prosecutor Sean Beaty told jurors. "Smart people generally don't document their tax evasion. They hide it in the tall grass. The crime here is the concealment."
Jonathan Kravis, lead attorney for Goldstein, argued that his client had relied on accountants for tax matters and accused the government of "blindly" accepting the accountant's "made-up story" without adequately investigating, the Associated Press reported.
“Tom Goldstein is innocent," Kravis said.
High-Stakes Clients, Overall Loser in Poker
The trial offered insight into Goldstein's relationship with client and backer Paul Phua, who Goldstein represented in a 2014 illegal gambling case that saw Phua acquitted, as well as other high-stakes matches Goldstein played against prominent poker players like Dan "Jungleman" Cates, Tony Gregg and Chamath Palihapitiya — names that were revealed in what prosecutors called Goldstein's "secret poker ledger."
Goldstein's legal and poker worlds intertwined in other ways. He represented PokerStars and the Poker Players Alliance in the post-Black Friday online poker fight and represented his poker coach Keith Gipson in a gambling seizure case that reached to the Supreme Court.
In a tell-all interview with The New York Times Magazine ahead of the trial, Goldstein claimed to have won $88 million on his heads-up spree, personally clearing around $12 million as 75% went to backers. He later told jurors he was down over $10 million overall in poker, mainly due to ring-game losses.
“Playing ring poker against a bunch of people requires enormous discipline, enormous patience, and those are just not things in poker that I have," Goldstein told Times journalist Jeffrey Toobin. "If you’re playing against eight people, just mathematically, the odds that somebody has a hand that’s better than yours are quite high. If you’re playing against one person, you don’t have to be nearly as patient. What’s rewarded is being very aggressive. So heads-up, in essence, is built for me.”
The trial also offered insight into Goldstein's poker skills. While poker pros were happy to invest in Goldstein's heads-up matches, his coach and backer, Andrew Robl, testified that he would not back Goldstein in full-ring games.
"He was not a profitable player in ring games," Robl told jurors on Feb. 5. "He normally lost.”
Goldstein also played high-stakes poker in years that aren't covered in the indictment, which dealt with the period from 2016 to 2023. In July 2024, he "lost a substantial sum of money" to Robl at actor Kevin Hart's birthday bash in Mykonos, Greece.
Goldstein, who has been described as an aggressive and reckless poker player, had his only televised poker appearance in May 2024, when he infamously mucked the winning hand in a $540,000 pot during the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game. Over the course of the stream, Goldstein, who wore a mask and didn't reveal his identity, lost $2.7 million.
While Goldstein's secret life as an ultra-high-stakes poker player shocked the legal world, Goldstein's closest friends knew all about the poker vice that eventually to the superstar lawyer's criminal conviction. One of those friends, social media playboy Dan Bilzerian, wrote in his 2021 autobiography that he had "never met anyone with less respect for money proportionate to their net worth than Tom."
"He loved the action, but it was almost like he subconsciously wanted to lose," Bilzerian said. "I think he liked that everyone at the table loved him so much, and as a ruthless lawyer, he probably didn’t get that kind of a warm welcome elsewhere. The more he lost, the happier everyone around him got, and I think he was partially addicted to that feeling, but he was fully addicted to the rush of gambling."
