Prison Justice
SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein had motive for cash presents to agency supervisor, prosecutors allege
August 11, 2025, 1:36 pm CDT
A superseding indictment in a tax fraud case in opposition to SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein consists of new allegations about makes an attempt to affect his regulation agency supervisor and misuse of a agency belief account. (Picture by Alex Brandon/The Related Press)
A superseding indictment in a tax fraud case in opposition to SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein consists of new allegations about makes an attempt to affect his regulation agency supervisor and misuse of a agency belief account.
The Aug. 7 superseding indictment provides allegations and new particulars however no new counts in opposition to Goldstein, Reuters studies.
An Aug. 7 docket entry for the case, filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Maryland, refers to a associated case however gives no particulars.
Prosecutors have described Goldstein, a retired U.S. Supreme Court docket litigator, as an “ultrahigh-stakes poker participant.” He was accused in a January indictment of hiding hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in earnings and cryptocurrency transactions on tax returns. He was additionally accused of utilizing his boutique agency, Goldstein & Russell, to assist cowl his money owed and of creating false statements to mortgage lenders.
The superseding indictment claims that, from about October 2020 to January 2021, Goldstein “repeatedly” provided his agency supervisor issues of worth, together with a $10,000 bonus, pupil mortgage funds and cryptocurrency, “at the very least partly to dissuade the agency supervisor from cooperating with the IRS’ ongoing felony investigation.”
Goldstein allegedly feared that the supervisor would offer details about a lady who didn’t work for the agency who was nonetheless listed as a agency worker and coated by a agency medical insurance coverage.
The brand new indictment additionally alleges that Goldstein used his agency belief account to protect almost $1 million belonging to him and his spouse from the Inside Income Service.
The superseding indictment says Goldstein and his spouse withdrew at the very least $960,000 from their retirement accounts in March 2021 to pay for a brand new house, and that Goldstein had the funds wired to Goldstein & Russell’s belief account to stop an IRS levy earlier than the acquisition. Goldstein transferred the funds to a agency enterprise account earlier than the closing after which wired the cash to the title firm, the superseding indictment alleges.
The brand new indictment additionally accuses Goldstein of falsely telling IRS representatives that almost $1.7 million in earnings reported on his 2016 tax type was correct, and that his solely poker traders have been for his video games with “California Businessman-2.”
Goldstein had beforehand sought to compel manufacturing of grand jury testimony from the regulation agency supervisor, arguing the federal government had wrongly characterised the provide of compensation as an try to bribe a witness. The federal government made the allegations whereas making an attempt to maintain in place situations of Goldstein’s pretrial launch.
Goldstein had instructed that there was one other rationalization for providing compensation to the supervisor: to retain the supervisor to help the agency in gathering supplies conscious of authorities subpoenas.
Goldstein beforehand pleaded not responsible and argued in Could case filings that some costs have been filed too late or based mostly on misguided authorized theories.
Goldstein is represented by attorneys from Munger, Tolles & Olson, who didn’t instantly reply to an ABA Journal request for remark.
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