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Tom Goldstein asked the court to suppress apparently unproven statements made by a U.S. Customs officer involving $968,000 the attorney and high-stakes poker player brought into the country.
The SCOTUSblog co-founder who faces federal tax evasion charges related to his alleged poker winnings has asked the judge to drop those charges. He also filed a pretrial motion on May 16 that brings into question where the nearly $1 million he flew with came from.
Goldstein, a retired prominent attorney, is alleged to have witheld reporting millions of dollars worth of poker winnings on his tax returns. Investigators claim he won upwards of $50 million in high-stakes private games. He also infamously appeared in the 2024 Hustler Casino LiveMillion Dollar Game where he folded the winning hand at showdown in a $540,000 pot.
The legal expert, court documents state, flew from Hong Kong to Dulles International Airport in Virginia on October 25, 2018. Goldstein, according to his attorneys, declared with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that he was carrying in excess of $10,000 in cash. The estimated amount was approximately $968,000.
The government alleges the money came from gambling winnings. This assertion was made based on statements made by IRS Special Agent Andrew Accardi, who claims a CBP officer he interviewed said Goldstein told him the almost $1 million in cash came from gambling winnings.
That's in contrast to Goldstein's claim, which is that the money was "a loan from a friend that he intended to use to pay his taxes," per court documents.
High-Stakes Poker Lawyer Tom Goldstein Won $51M Gambling Against Single Player
Goldstein's attorneys have asked the court to suppress the statements allegedly made to Special Agent Accardi on the basis that they violate the defendant's Fifth Amendment rights, which protects individuals from self-incrimination.
The defense argues that Goldstein provided a declaration form to CBP officials upon arrival at the airport, but he was still pulled aside for additional investigation and "forced to wait in a secondary screening area for a significant time."
"Carrying a large amount of into the country was lawful as long as Mr. Goldstein disclosed it — which he did," a court filing reads.
But Goldstein was still restrained and, his attorneys claim, "the officers did not warn Mr. Goldstein of his rights" prior to questioning. The conversation between Goldstein and a CBP officer is also in question as, per arguments made by the defense, the CBP officer didn't initially recall Goldstein's report when asked about it by Special Agent Accardi.
The Customs official later recounted the conversation to Accardi, claiming Goldstein said he'd won a bunch of money gambling. But the defense alleges there is a lack of any contemporaneous record proving the gambling statement occurred.
The dispute over where the money came from could serve as a key piece of evidence at trial, unless the defense team can suppress the CBP officer's statements in court. Goldstein, who is facing tax evasion charges, allegedly didn't report his poker winnings to the IRS in multiple years, including 2018.
Goldstein's counsel, arguing that the Fifth Amendment should come into play, cited a Supreme Court ruling — Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) — that states police, prior to questioning, must warn a suspect that they have a right to remain silent and that they have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. The defense claims that Goldstein wasn't read his Miranda warnings, thus making the alleged statements to the CBP officer inadmissable in court.
Goldstein, who was indicted in January 2025, has pleaded not guilty. The trial is scheduled to begin January 13, 2026 in the United States District Court Maryland Southern Division.
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