Courts and Legal Profession

Thomas Goldstein, co‑founder of SCOTUSblog and a Supreme Court litigator, was convicted by a jury on 12 of 16 counts — including 1 count of tax evasion, 4 counts of aiding/assisting false returns, 4 counts of willful failure to timely pay taxes, and 3 counts of making false statements on loan applications — in a case tied to income from high‑stakes poker. The Department of Justice says he diverted law‑firm funds to pay gambling debts, falsely deducted those debts as business expenses, and omitted about $15 million in gambling debt on mortgage applications while shopping for a Washington, D.C. home. Prosecutors say the scheme unraveled after another gambler reported a 2016 debt to the IRS; Goldstein reportedly earned about $50 million in poker winnings in 2016 (roughly $22 million in Asia), and testimony included actor Tobey Maguire saying he hired Goldstein to recover a gambling debt.