Supreme Court Litigator, High-Stakes Poker Player, and Tax Felon?

This morning, a friend texted me, “Russ, you MUST read this!” with a link to this story about Supreme Court litigator Tom Goldstein.  Mr. Goldstein was indicted on numerous tax-related charged regarding how he handled his high-stakes poker playing.

Mr. Goldstein is well known in the legal community as an appellate attorney who has argued numerous cases in front of the Supreme Court.  He was successful, and one of his hobbies was playing poker.  Not just the typical games played in a casino; he played really, really high-stakes games for millions of dollars.  He spent the requisite time studying, and he appears to have been an overall winning player.

In reading through the 22-count, 50-page indictment, one can see he played in very high-stakes games in Macau, Beverly Hills, and elsewhere; he had wins and losses of $10 million or more.  But the Department of Justice alleges that when he won those winnings they didn’t find there way to his tax returns, and his losses were sometimes paid out of his firm as business expenses.  Adding in alleged lies to mortgage companies and then not paying his taxes, there are big problems facing Mr. Goldstein.  Of course, these are just allegations today.

The indictment is quite readable and, in fact, reads far more like a plot of a novel.  A very successful attorney allegedly engages in sinful behavior, cheats the government, womanizes, and gets caught.  A helpful hint to anyone who is prominent: Just pay those taxes!  Mr. Goldstein, who certainly knows a lot about the law, allegedly forgot that lesson.

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