By Nermeen Nabil Khear 
SCOTUSblog co-founder and former Supreme Court lawyer, Tom Goldstein was reportedly detained over crypto transfers amid a tax evasion case. A Maryland judge ruled that he violated pretrial release terms in the case tied to his high-stakes poker playing. Prosecutors suggest the lawyer moved more than $6 million in crypto in a span of five days using undisclosed accounts.
The Chief US Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan pointed out that Goldstein posed a flight risk as he could not be trusted. The judge had earlier allowed the former lawyer to fire his defense and represent himself. A report revealed that the SCOTUSblog co-founder held a net worth of over negative $3.3 million.
Former supreme court lawyer in legal trouble
As per a report, Goldstein is now in federal custody after allegedly offering “things of value” to a potential witness. The offerings included millions of dollars in crypto assets. The SCOTUSblog co-founder, who argued in more than 40 Supreme Court cases is now representing himself in court after firing his lawyers. He is accused of failing to pay more than $5.3 million in taxes.
The lawyer was indicted last month on 22 counts of tax evasion. He allegedly underreported gambling income and used law firm funds to cover debts. Prosecutors also claim that he offered crypto to a potential witness to stop them from cooperating. However, he pleaded not guilty on January 27 and bagged a pretrial release.
The prosecutors highlighted that the ex-apex court lawyer’s receipt and transfer of millions of dollars to other wallets suggests that he might be getting ready to move these assets offshore and flee. Meanwhile, he is bound to reveal all of his financial accounts in court.
Court filings fuel speculation
The man in focus, Goldstein reportedly rejected the claim that he owned or even controlled those accounts. Later, the Chief US Magistrate announced that there was no clear and convincing evidence supporting that the lawyer violated the conditions.
The report added that the accused didn’t disclose one of the wallets after his indictment in January. He was allegedly using the wallet to send more than $73.6 million. He also received around $75 million in crypto assets since November 2022.
Filings suggest that there were assets in the wallet linked to Goldstein when he got indicted in January. On February 4, around $10 worth of USDT was sent to it. This was six days after he appeared in court. However, $8 million worth of USDT was sent to the wallet just an hour later. It gets more suspicious that $6 million USDT was sent out of the wallet in two transactions within the next two hours.
Tether is the biggest stablecoin and the fourth largest crypto in the market. It holds a market cap of almost $142 billion. Its 24-hour trading volume hovered around $76 billion on Tuesday.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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