Poker playing lawyer Tom Goldstein is in jail after his pre-trial bail was revoked following the discovery of two undeclared cryptocurrency accounts.
Goldstein previously pleaded not guilty to 22 charges related to tax evasion and was awaiting trial, apparently confident that the case would be found to have been a misunderstanding.
But the rails have come off of his defence following the discovery of millions of dollars worth of crypto transactions, violating his bail conditions.
Goldstein was rearrested on Monday when U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan at the US District Court for the District of Maryland declared that he made false statements to pretrial service officers.
Millions of dollars worth of crypto were both sent and received during last week, according to the US Government, a charge Goldstein’s lawyers strongly deny.
“The government has made a mistake. Its motion to revoke the release order of defendant Thomas Goldstein is premised entirely on the assertion that Mr. Goldstein owns two cryptocurrency wallets that have been used for large financial transactions in the last few days. That assertion is false.”
The US Government claims that retrieved text messages demonstrate that Tom Goldstein operates these accounts.
He is alleged to have received $8 million and sent more than $6 million over a five-day period last week.
The latest prosecution filing stated:
“At 10:28 AM EST, approximately $8 million of USDT was sent to the wallet. Less than an hour later, at 11:18 AM EST, approximately $3 million of USDT was sent out of the wallet, leaving approximately $5 million in the wallet.
“On February 6, 2025, at 11:41 PM EST — approximately 30 minutes after the Government filed its motion to strike Defendant’s pro se motion — approximately $3 million more of USDT was sent out of the wallet, leaving approximately $2 million in the wallet.”
Prosecutors also allege that Goldstein instructed third parties to destroy evidence related to the case.
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