Disgraced attorney Tom Girardi is found fit to stand trial for stealing $18m from clients despite being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s: RHOBH star’s ex Erika Jayne is due to appear in August
- A court-appointed psychologist has assessed Tom Girardi, 84, and confirmed he is mentally fit to stand trial, two years after he was found unfit
- Girardi will face trial in federal court on August 3.
- The fake lawyer, who co-founded now-bankrupt Girardi & Keese, was featured on Bravo’s reality show, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
Disgraced attorney Tom Girardi, ex-husband of RHOBH star Erika Jayne, has been cleared to stand trial for embezzling $18 million from clients, including victims of the Lion Air crash.
Dr. Diane Goldstein, a court-appointed psychologist, assessed Girardi, 84, and confirmed he was mentally capable of facing the judge at his August 3 federal trial despite a previous diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. .
The fake lawyer, who co-founded now-bankrupt Girardi & Keese, was featured on Bravo’s reality show, ‘Real Housewives of Bevery Hills’, alongside Jayne, 51, his third wife.
The couple had been together for 21 years and have been in the midst of a suspended divorce since the law firm filed for bankruptcy in 2021. He was disbarred from practicing in 2022 after allegations of embezzlement.
Prosecutors alleged he lied to his clients and defrauded them of more than $18 million from 2010 to 2020 – $3 million of that money was supposed to go to the families of victims of the Lion Flight 610 crash Air in 2018 in Indonesia.
Disgraced attorney Tom Girardi is pictured leaving the federal courthouse in February 2023
He was featured on Bravo’s reality show, “Real Housewives of Bevery Hills,” alongside Erika Jayne, 51, Girardi’s third wife.
Girardi was charged with five counts of wire fraud in February. He was also charged in a second criminal case, filed in Chicago, where he faces eight more counts of wire fraud. The crime is punishable by a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
He remains free on $250,000 bail.
Others involved in the scheme include the company’s former chief financial officer, Christopher Kamon, 49, who faces charges similar to Girardi’s and David Lira, Girardi’s son-in-law.
Federal prosecutors revealed in a court filing last week written by neuropsychologist Dr. Diana Goldstein that she “completed her examination and found, among other things, that [Girardi] is competent to stand trial,” she wrote.
It is not clear the basis for this conclusion and its full analysis.
Goldstein’s report was filed under seal and partially redacted by Girardi’s attorneys, and even the prosecutors who withheld it don’t have access to the full document, Yahoo News reported.
California forensic and clinical psychiatrist Dr. Nathan Lavid wrote in a sworn affidavit that Girardi suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and late-onset dementia, the outlet reported.
Girardi’s brother Robert had acted as curator on his brother’s behalf after the Girardis underwent a mental evaluation in February 2021, The New York Post reported.
