button in SafariHigh-Stakes Lawyer Tom Goldstein Won $1.7 Million Right Before Being Indicted
Embattled attorney and ultra-high-stakes poker player Tom Goldstein won seven figures gambling the same year he was indicted and ordered not to play poker, but he says he won the $1.7 million before his January 2025 arraignment.
Goldstein, who was convicted earlier this year on tax charges stemming from heads-up poker matches that saw him winning and losing tens of millions, filed a motion in March to delay his sentencing that is currently scheduled for June 16. The former superstar attorney also requested a retrial or full acquittal, arguing that the jury's verdict "is directly traceable to a series of legal errors."
Prosecutors opposed pushing back sentencing, arguing that Goldstein "poses a serious risk of flight in the face of just punishment" and pointing to his desire to play heads-up poker against Texas billionaire Andy Beal. And now, they are pointing to his 2025 gambling winnings.
$1.7 Million in New Gambling Winnings
In an opposing motion to Goldstein's request for a continued sentencing hearing, prosecutors wrote that Goldstein reported over $3 million in taxable income in 2025, including over $1.7 million in gambling income. Goldstein was indicted on Jan. 16, 2025, and was shortly after ordered to not gamble or play poker.
"Those numbers call into question his repeated claims that he could not pay his attorneys, and also his compliance with release conditions barring gambling and engaging in financial transactions without first notifying Pretrial Services," federal prosecutors wrote on May 6. "And even if he did not technically mislead the Court or violate any conditions, his willingness to file a tax return for a year (2025) when he was barred from gambling only highlights his choice not to file returns for years (2022-2024) when he was still actively gambling."
Prosecutors further argued that Goldstein's gambling income in recent years, including over $21 million in 2022, supports the idea that he "presents a substantial flight risk" and that a continuance "would give him more time and opportunity to flee."
But bank records, his attorneys argued in a Monday filing, show that the 2025 gambling winnings were deposited before Goldstein's Jan. 27 arraignment, and therefore "before release conditions were imposed in this case." Further, Goldstein reported these gambling winnings to Pretrial Services in January 2025, according to his attorneys.
Goldstein's attorneys accused prosecutors of continuing a "troubling pattern of reckless and false allegations about Mr. Goldstein."
"After the government filed its opposition, the defense requested the government’s evidence showing that Mr. Goldstein violated these release conditions in 2025 — the government has not responded," they wrote. "In fact, Mr. Goldstein has been fully compliant with his release conditions since they were imposed, including the conditions that he not gamble and that he disclose certain financial transactions to Pretrial Services."
Judge Denies Bid to Delay Sentencing
Also on Monday, U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby denied Goldstein's motion to continue sentencing, noting that Goldstein "has not shown good cause" to do so.
Judge Griggsby, who oversaw Goldstein's high-profile trial in Maryland earlier this year, ordered that Goldstein's sentencing remain on June 16 and that a hearing on his motion for acquittal or a new trial be heard the same day.
In calling for a continuance, Goldstein's attorneys noted that lead attorney Jonathan Kravis has a scheduling conflict and that post-trial briefing had raised "a number of complex issues" that will require time and attention.
Goldstein was found guilty in February on one count of tax evasion, four counts of willful failure to timely pay taxes, three counts of making false statements to mortgage lenders, and four counts of aiding and assisting in preparation of a false tax return.
