Former Supreme Court lawyer gets six years in poker tax case
Former Supreme Court litigator Thomas Goldstein was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for tax evasion and mortgage fraud tied to millions gambled on poker. A federal judge also ordered more than $3.1 million in restitution after jurors convicted him on 12 of 16 counts.
The ruling ends a high-profile fall for a lawyer once known for arguing dozens of cases at the U.S. Supreme Court and co-founding SCOTUSblog. For more celebrity legal drama, see our Celebrity Breaking News hub.
Key Takeaways
- Thomas Goldstein received a six-year prison term for tax evasion and mortgage fraud linked to high-stakes poker.
- U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby also ordered more than $3.1 million in restitution and five years of supervised release.
- A Greenbelt, Maryland, jury convicted him on 12 of 16 counts after a six-week trial that ended in February.
- Prosecutors said he concealed more than $25 million in income between 2016 and 2023, leaving over $9.5 million in unpaid taxes.
- Goldstein had asked to avoid prison, citing gambling addiction and a plan to repay debts.
What sentence did Thomas Goldstein receive?
According to Politico and other Friday reports, Goldstein, 56, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was sentenced to six years in federal prison. Judge Griggsby also imposed five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay over $3.1 million in restitution, a U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland spokesperson said.
Prosecutors had recommended a little more than eight years. Goldstein had asked the court to spare him from prison so he could repay debts and address what his lawyers called a severe addiction to gambling.
How did poker figure into the tax case?
The case put a spotlight on Goldstein’s secretive lifestyle as a high-stakes poker player. Prosecutors said he diverted law firm money to cover gambling debts, falsely deducted gambling debts as business expenses, and hid debts from accountants, employees, and lenders.
They alleged he omitted a $15 million gambling debt from mortgage loan applications while seeking a new Washington, D.C., home with his wife in 2021. The Baltimore Sun also described the lead-up to sentencing as defined by secret gambling and a lavish lifestyle that helped wreck his marriage and his boutique firm.
Jurors found him guilty of one count of tax evasion, four counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, four counts of willfully failing to pay taxes, and three counts of mortgage fraud — eight of them felonies.
Why does this sentencing matter?
Goldstein argued more than 40 Supreme Court cases and retired in 2023 at age 52. Friends and colleagues largely did not know the scale of his gambling until his January 2025 indictment stunned Washington’s legal community.
The Greenbelt trial even featured testimony from Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire, an avid poker player who enlisted Goldstein’s help recovering a gambling debt from a billionaire. Prosecutors called his motive “pure, unrelenting greed,” pointing to Bentleys, globe-trotting vacations, and a $200,000 watch.
Goldstein maintains his conduct was self-destructive but not illegal and said he repeatedly told staff to play by the rules. His lawyers argued he gambled money he did not have against billionaires and was not skilled enough to win like professionals — a defense that failed to keep him out of prison.