Disgraced attorney Tom Girardi still owes a client $11 million 11 years after settling a lawsuit over horrific injuries he suffered in a gas explosion that also claimed the life of his girlfriend, a federal court in Los Angeles heard Wednesday.
Joe Ruigomez, 33, and his family hired the one-time top lawyer to sue California utility giant PG&E after a 2010 pipeline explosion destroyed his home in San Bruno, California, leaving him in a coma for two months, he told the jury of seven men and five women on the second day of Girardi’s trial.
Girardi and his family reached a settlement with PG&E three years later, in which Ruigomez would receive $5 million plus an annuity, he said.
And when Ruigomez asked to see the full agreement, Girardi promised to send it to him. “But he never did.”
Tom Girardi arrives at the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse on August 7, 2024. A former client of Girardi, Joe Ruigomez, said the disgraced attorney still owes him $11 million from a 2010 settlement.
The fake lawyer, who co-founded the now-bankrupt Girardi & Keese, appeared on Bravo’s reality show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alongside Erika Jayne, his third wife.
Girardi, 85, the ex-husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, is charged with four counts of wire fraud in which he allegedly defrauded his clients out of $15 million in settlement funds they were owed for injuries they suffered. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The former super-lawyer, who appeared in court Wednesday in a gray blazer, open-necked blue plaid shirt, black pants and white sneakers, built a powerful law firm after his fight against a utility company inspired the Oscar-winning film Erin Brockovich.
But Girardi’s high-flying career came crashing down in 2020 when he was accused of stealing millions in settlements he had won for victims of the 2018 Lion Air plane crash in Indonesia.
The allegations from that crash, which killed 189 people, are the basis for other criminal charges against Girardi that are still pending in Chicago. Girardi has also pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles contend on the first day of trial Tuesday that between 2010 and 2020 the disgraced lawyer — who faces 20 years in prison if convicted — lied to his clients and used their embezzled millions to pay for his own lavish lifestyle of “private jets, luxury cars, expensive jewelry” with his third wife, former go-go dancer Jayne, 52, including $20 million to fund her acting career.
Jayne previously said she no longer speaks to her ex-husband. They are seen in 2016 above
Girardi faces 20 years in prison if convicted of embezzling millions from his clients
Meanwhile, Girardi’s defense attorneys claim it was not their client but the CEO of his law firm, Christopher Kamon, 49, who looted the victims’ settlement funds, embezzling some $50 million.
They say Kamon took advantage of Girardi’s dementia, which prevented him from keeping track of his company’s business affairs.
Kamon has been charged with wire fraud similar to Girardi’s, but is being tried separately. He is also accused of embezzling $10 million from Girardi’s law firm, Girardi Keese, which is now bankrupt with $100 million in debt. Kamon has pleaded not guilty to all the charges he faces.
In a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday, Ruigomez — who is limping from more than 30 surgeries following the explosion 14 years ago — told jurors he had not pressed Girardi further for a copy of the settlement agreement “because I trusted Tom. I had confidence in him.”
Both Ruigomez and his mother, Kathleen Ruigomez, who was also a witness Wednesday, described how they hired Girardi after he dazzled them with his boasts about multimillion-dollar deals — even billions of dollars — he had won against major corporations such as Exxon, Lockheed, Shell and Ford.
“He bragged about Erin Brockovich and how much money he made for his clients and his wife, who was a TV star,” said Ruigomez, who was also impressed by magazine covers and articles about Girardi’s growing law practice.
Girardi’s defense attorneys say it was not their client but the CEO of his law firm, Christopher Kamon, 49, who looted the victims’ settlement funds, embezzling some $50 million.
His mother, Kathleen, added: “Tom talked about having lunch with presidents and judges. He always bragged about his connections.”
Ruigomez said Girardi — whose law firm claimed a 25 percent contingency fee (meaning they did not collect legal fees but instead received 25 percent of the settlement amount) — reached a settlement with PG&E in January 2013.
But a year later, he still had not received any money from Girardi Keese, who was supposed to have put the settlement money into a trust fund that earned six and a half percent interest.
When asked about the delay, Girardi said he received “excuses and apologies” and claims the payment had to be signed off by a judge who was reluctant to give a large sum of money to a young man who might not know how to handle it.
“Tom always flattered me, called me Babe and told me he was going to take care of me,” Ruigomez told the court.
Nearly three years after the settlement, he had only received a “fraction” of $666,000 of the money he was owed and began to lose patience with Girardi’s excuses, which continued until Ruigomez hired a financial adviser and demanded his money.
In 2019, he threatened legal action, prompting Girardi to make several payments to him totaling $10 million, he said.
But with interest, he was still owed much more, and he hired a lawyer, sued Girardi in civil court and won a judgment for $12 million, the court said.
Jayne was spotted with her ex-husband and their son Tommy Zizzo when he was still a child.
One of the excuses Girardi used for not paying Ruigomez, the court heard, was that his family told the lawyer not to pay because, after his long stint in hospital following the explosion, he became addicted to painkillers.
Girardi has paid only $1 million of that amount, said Ruigomez, who agreed when prosecutor Ali Moghaddas asked him: “As of today, the defendant has not paid the balance of $11 million.”
Under questioning by defense attorney Sam Cross, Ruigomez admitted that $25 million of the $53 million settlement was used to buy him a Berkshire Hathaway annuity that pays him $40,000 a month for the next 20 years.
But when Cross suggested that other Girardi Keese attorneys, not just Girardi, were responsible for his case, he insisted: “Tom was the lead attorney.”
One of the excuses Girardi used for not paying Ruigomez, according to the court, was that his family told the lawyer not to pay because, after his long period in the hospital following the explosion, he became addicted to painkillers.
“That is not true at all,” Ruigomez said.
Another Girardi client, Judy Selberg, hired the once-acclaimed attorney to file a wrongful death lawsuit after her husband Paul died in a boating accident in Lake Havasu, Arizona, in April 2018.
In court Wednesday, Selberg told jurors that Girardi won a settlement for her in March 2020 for $500,000, of which Girardi Keese took a 33 percent contingency fee.
The half million was paid to the law firm in June 2020, but despite months of protesting phone calls and emails to Girardi, she did not receive her money. She eventually resorted to hiring another attorney and after that, she received $150,000.
But today, more than four years after the settlement, “I have never received a cent” of the $185,000 balance owed to me.
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