Prominent Supreme Court lawyer Tom Goldstein was arrested after prosecutors claimed he violated the terms and represented a serious risk of flight from his previous federal tax evasion case. Maryland federal prosecutors stated that Goldstein reportedly failed to provide details regarding two cryptocurrency wallets with which he sent more than $6 million and received more than $8 million over the past week.
SCOTUSblog Publisher and Supreme Court lawyer Tom Goldstein was Arrested for masking cryptocurrency transactions!
Leading Supreme Court lawyer from the United States Tom Goldstein was in federal custody on Monday for reportedly breaching his terms in his pretrial release on the previous tax evasion charges related to his high-stakes poker playing. Goldstein was previously indicted in January for allegedly failing to declare the millions of dollars in poker winnings and even using the money from his law firm to pay the gambling debts.
A federal judge on Monday ordered Tom Goldstein to be arrested and held in jail without bail since he represented a serious risk of flight from his previous criminal federal tax evasion case. Chief Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan stated that there was clear and convincing evidence that Goldstein had violated the conditions of his release.
He further noted that no conditions or combination of conditions could be established to reasonably assure compliance, given the seriousness of the violations and the Court’s continued concern regarding the risk of flight.
The prosecutors alleged in their new arrest warrant that Goldstein received more than $8 million and sent more than $6 million in cryptocurrency over the previous five days. They demanded that the SCOTUSblog Publisher’s bail be revoked since he failed to disclose his latest cryptocurrency transactions and comply with the terms of his pretrial release.
Prosecutors reported that over the last five days, Goldstein had sent more than $6 million in cryptocurrency from those wallets despite being ordered by a judge not to transfer any funds without approval. They also stated that Goldstein had offered things of value, including cryptocurrency, to a potential witness in the case who had intimate knowledge of his and his law firm’s finances and income.
Goldstein explained that the accounts involved in this allegation are not his, and he did not engage in those transfers either. However, The filing stated that the defendant’s conduct demonstrated that he was a serious risk of flight, that he could not abide by the conditions of release, and that he had lied to the court and pretrial services.
It also indicated that a rebuttable presumption that the defendant was a danger to the community now applied and that the defendant’s conditions of release should be revoked. Goldstein currently waiting for the bail review hearing in this case.
Tom Goldstein’s Previous Tax Crime
Tom Goldstein was indicted on January 16th in Maryland federal court for failing to disclose and report millions of dollars he received from poker matches and reportedly used his former law firm’s account to repay his gambling debts. The prosecutors characterized Tom Goldstein as a high-stakes poker player who was involved in multiple malicious activities like not reporting his gambling winnings, using funds from his firm to pay debts and tax evasion, etc.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA vs THOMAS C. GOLDSTEIN
According to the arrest warrant and revocation of release order by the court of the district of Maryland, the defendant had at least two crypto wallets that he had not disclosed to pretrial services or the court. The first cryptocurrency wallet ending in digits 935 B and the second wallet ending in the digits 54E3 are unhosted.
The pieces of evidence show that these wallets were controlled by the defendant and used to receive and transfer millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. Tom Goldstein’s 935 B wallet was initially used on November 14, 2022, and it contained multiple transactions using cryptocurrencies like USDT and USDC. According to the court order, this wallet reportedly received cryptocurrency worth $75,627,319.54 and $73,626,044.00 of crypto had been sent from the wallet.
The court found him a serious flight risk and danger to the community, The court order stated that the defendant’s concealment of his cryptocurrency wallets and recent transfers of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, combined with his already extensive international ties, sophistication, and resources, indicated that he was a serious flight risk. It was accordingly noted that the defendant should be detained, as he owed millions of dollars in unpaid taxes to the federal government and private individuals. The order warned that should the defendant flee, or continue to conceal and dispose of millions of dollars in assets, both the public and the defendant’s private creditors would be substantially harmed.
