High-flying lawyer Tom Goldstein has pleaded not guilty to 22 counts related to tax evasion and is banned from playing poker while he awaits trial.
Dan Bilzerian’s buddy was in a federal court on Monday to continue insisting that he is innocent of tax evasion.
Goldstein entered a plea of not guilty as previously indicated by his legal team, and also signed a legally binding agreement not to gamble in any fashion in the run up to his trial date.
This might surprise a few, but being cooperative now stands a chance of helping him if the outcome is not a positive one down the road.
Goldstein also faces several more tough restrictions on his lifestyle: a travel ban is in place, preventing him from leaving the Washington D.C. metro area. He will also have to hand in his passport.
Getting drunk or being in possession of a firearm were the other stipulations.
Doug Polk Breaks Down the Case Against Tom Goldstein
There are few commentators that can break down a story like Doug Polk, and so, in typical style, that’s exactly what the Upswing Poker founder set about doing.
Polk begins by making it clear that Tom Goldstein is part of the cream of the crop when it comes to the legal profession in the United States.
Goldstein was a founder of the boutique law firm Goldstein & Russell, P.C., and the first curious point that Polk picks up on is that the company did not employ an in-house accountant or bookkeeper.
Instead, the duties were performed by a recent college graduate who also took care of several personal tasks for Goldstein, such as looking after his cars.
Court documents also clearly detail that the defendant took part in “ultra-high” stakes poker games involving tens of millions of dollars.
Digging deeper into the documents, we learn that Goldstein funded his poker activities by borrowing money from as early as 2014.
A billionaire client agreed to lend Goldstein $10 million after he signed a promissory note, agreeing the interest rate.
Between March 2014 and November 2016, Goldstein borrowed $9.5 million, and lost almost the entire sum playing poker. Originally agreeing to repay any outstanding funds by December 2015, he extended the loan period several times.
Incredibly, by the end of 2022, Goldstein still had $8.89 million outstanding; more than eight years later.
The details then get a bit more personal as we learn how at least a dozen women involved in romantic relationships with Goldstein were used as mules to funnel six-figure sums through their bank accounts.
Prosecutors claim that Goldstein registered these women as sham employees of his firm in order to further facilitate the movement of funds to cover up his activities. They added that they performed “little to no work” for the firm.
Polk seemed a little perplexed at the court document alleging that one of these sham employees was paid $4,000 per month when the sum of Goldstein’s money problems likely ran into tens of millions of dollars. How much could all this have helped in the big scheme of things?
Now the really juicy details come out. Goldstein is alleged to have used more than $1.1 million of G&R company money to pay personal debts. He is also said to have made a false declaration of his gambling winnings by more than $3.9 million in 2016.
What followed was a long list of six-figure sum accusations from prosecutors, all of which are fully detailed. In other words, the investigation appears to have been characteristically thorough.
One interesting part of the document tells us that Goldstein played three poker matches against “ultra-wealthy” individuals in 2016 — two in Asia and one in Beverly Hills.
Two professional poker players, named only as “Professional Gambler-1” and “Professional Gambler-2” are said to have helped him prepare for these heads-up battles.
Unfortunately Polk had no idea of the identity of these people but he did reveal that Goldstein sent a basic SMS text to a friend telling that he had won almost $14 million in a match and then failed to declare this amount on his tax return.
But that was only the first match…
The Beverly Hills match netted Goldstein over $26 million and the match against the second Asian gambler more than $8.8 million. Almost $50 million in only a few months!
The average win rate was calculated at $660K per hour over 77 hours of playing, and needless to say the taxman says he didn’t get his piece.
Check out the video below to read more about Tom Goldstein’s poker activities because the story is so murky it’s really difficult to follow. Polk reckons there must be a lot more going on than what the authorities know about.
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