Tom Girardi, the once high-flying but now disbarred lawyer whose fame grew with his marriage to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, was found guilty Tuesday of embezzling “tens of millions of dollars” from the clients of his now-shuttered law firm Girardi & Keese.
The jury convicted Girardi, 85, on all four counts of wire fraud after less than a day of deliberations. Prosecutors said Girardi diverted money from his law firm’s accounts to pay for private jet travel, luxury cars, jewelry, memberships to exclusive golf and social clubs and more than $25 million in expenses for Jayne’s company EJ Global. During the 13-day trial, some of Girardi’s former clients testified that they had been impressed with – and lulled into compliance by – Girardi’s record in helping secure the landmark $333 million settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric that was featured in the 2000 movie Erin Brockovich, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Tom Girardi built celebrity status and lured in victims by falsely portraying himself as a champion of justice,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement Tuesday. “In reality, he was a Robin-Hood-in-reverse, stealing from the needy to support [his] lavish, Hollywood lifestyle. Today’s verdict shows that the game is up. We can all now see this defendant for what he was and the victims he callously betrayed.”
Girardi’s sentencing has been set for December 6 and is facing a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for each count.
Prosecutors said that between October 2010 and late 2020, Girardi provided a “litany of lies” to clients so he could withhold their settlement money and use it for himself. Girardi would sometimes falsely deny the money had been received or claim that it couldn’t be released until “bogus” requirements such as tax obligations or judicial authorizations were satisfied or obtained, prosecutors said.
“I trusted him too much,” former client Joseph Ruigomez, who suffered catastrophic burn injuries as a teenager in a 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, testified at the trial, according to the Los Angeles Times. Some of Ruigomez’s $53 million settlement went to compensate other Girardi clients in what prosecutors reportedly described as a Ponzi scheme.
During the trial, Girardi’s public defenders reportedly said it was Christopher Kazuo Kamon, the chief financial officer of Girardi’s firm, who deserved the blame. Kamon, 50, was residing in the Bahamas at the time of his November 2022 arrest in the case and is awaiting his own trial scheduled for January 2025. Kamon is charged with multiple fraud counts for allegedly aiding and abetting Girardi’s scheme to defraud clients. Girardi and Kamon are also set to face trial in Chicago next year on charges they defrauded the loved ones of the victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash. In that case, the Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX series aircraft plunged into the Java Sea near Indonesia.
“Mr. Girardi was retained to advocate for clients who put their trust in him, but instead, lied to them and stole their money to fund his lavish lifestyle,” Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said Tuesday. “Girardi falsely promoted himself in the media as a pillar of the legal community with a heightened sense of justice, but the clients he wronged for many years have now found actual justice in today’s verdict.”
Girardi’s defense has repeatedly argued the disgraced lawyer is mentally incompetent. During the trial, a doctor testified that Girardi has dementia, the Los Angeles Times reported.