A prominent Supreme Court litigator has been sentenced to six years in prison for evading a multimillion-dollar IRS tax debt and engaging in mortgage fraud in a case that cast a spotlight on his secretive lifestyle as a high-stakes poker player WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent Supreme Court litigator was sentenced on Friday to six years in prison for evading a multimillion-dollar IRS tax debt and engaging in mortgage fraud, a case that cast a spotlight on his secretive lifestyle as… District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby to spare him from a prison sentence.
Instead, the judge sentenced Goldstein to five years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay over $3.1 million in restitution, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.Goldstein, 56, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, co-founded SCOTUSblog and argued over 40 cases before the Supreme Court before retiring in 2023 at age 52. He was a member of Democrat Al Gore's legal team in the Supreme Court litigation over the 2000 election ultimately won by Republican President George W.
Bush.Many friends and colleagues didn’t know the extent of Goldstein’s gambling until his January 2025 indictment, which sent shock waves through the legal community in Washington, D.C.A jury found Goldstein guilty of 12 of 16 counts, including eight felonies, after a six-week trial that ended in February. Jurors convicted him 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.The trial in Greenbelt, Maryland, included testimony by “Spider-Man” star Tobey Maguire, an avid poker player who enlisted Goldstein’s help in recovering a gambling debt from a billionaire.Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of just over eight years for Goldstein. They say he concealed more than $25 million in income between 2016 and 2023, depriving the federal government of over $9.5 million in unpaid taxes.“His motivation was singular: pure, unrelenting greed,” prosecutors wrote.
“Whether funneling gambling income through offshore bank accounts, shaving millions off his true law firm income, or lying to his lenders, Goldstein’s crimes always sought to advance and maintain his exorbitant lifestyle, replete with Bentleys, globe-trotting vacations, and a $200,000 watch.”Goldstein's attorneys argued that sparing him from prison would allow him to…
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