Once-powerful attorney Tom Girardi was found guilty Tuesday of four counts of defrauding his terribly injured or grieving clients out of about $15 million in settlement fees.
The disgraced 85-year-old attorney and estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne was impassive, showing little emotion as Judge Josephine Staton announced the verdicts, which carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison for each count.
Dressed in wrinkled khakis, a blue-and-white plaid shirt with the collar open and the same worn gray jacket with dangling blue lining that he wore for most of the three-week trial, Girardi was virtually unrecognizable as the superlawyer whose $2,000-plus designer suits once landed him on best-dressed lists and whose success in winning huge settlements in personal injury cases landed him on magazine covers.
The jury, made up of seven men and five women, needed only four and a half hours of deliberation to reach its guilty verdict: two hours on Tuesday and two and a half hours yesterday.
Disgraced attorney Tom Girardi has been found guilty of stealing more than $15 million from his clients. He is seen ahead of the verdict on Tuesday
Girardi, who created the prestigious Los Angeles law firm Girardi & Keese after his fight against a California utility giant inspired the Oscar-winning film Erin Brockovich, was charged with four counts of wire fraud, all of which he has pleaded not guilty to.
His successful 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.
During the trial, the jury heard that between 2010 and 2020 the disgraced lawyer used his clients’ settlement funds “like a personal piggy bank.”
“Girardi Keese was a den of thieves and Tom Girardi was the thief in chief,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Paetty told the court Monday.
‘Girardi Keese was a house of cards built on Tom Girardi’s lies.’
The once-super lawyer, who looked tired and somber Monday, was dressed in a blue-and-white striped shirt, khaki pants and the same wrinkled gray jacket he wore for much of the trial.
The former lawyer and ex-husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne has been charged with four counts of wire fraud.
Girardi ran a massive Ponzi scheme, lying to his clients and using the embezzled millions to pay for his own lavish lifestyle, complete with private jets, luxury cars, memberships at exclusive clubs, expensive jewelry for his third wife, former go-go dancer Jayne, 52, and $20 million to fund her acting career.
The couple was together for 21 years, but their divorce (which Jayne filed shortly after the allegations against Lion Air) has been delayed since Girardi Keese filed for bankruptcy in 2021 with more than $100 million in debts. Jayne never showed up for her soon-to-be ex-husband’s trial.
Girardi, who was disbarred in 2022 following the allegations against him, was described by his defense team as suffering from dementia.
“He got older, he got sick, he lost his mind,” his lawyer, Charles Snyder, told the court.
“All the lights were on but no one was home. He lost touch with reality.”
Girardi’s defense team has consistently argued that he is mentally unfit to stand trial due to cognitive impairment. However, a federal judge ruled earlier this year that he is competent to move forward with the case.
Girady and his legal team also pointed the finger at another man, Christopher Kamon, 49, Girard Keese’s chief financial officer, who they say stole between $50 million and $100 million from the company.
Kamon faces an upcoming separate trial in which he is charged with similar charges to Girardi.
During the trial, prosecutors told jurors that Girardi preyed on clients who were “in their darkest hours,” suffering terrible injuries or grieving the deaths of loved ones.
Girardi told Joe Ruigomez, who desperately needed money to pay massive medical bills for horrific injuries he suffered in a 2020 gas explosion at his home that killed his girlfriend, that his settlement with utility company PG&E was for $5 million, when it was actually $50 million.
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 April 2018.
Girardi earned $500,000 for her, but today, more than four years after the settlement, she is still owed a large portion of that sum.
It also halted the $2.5 million settlement Erica Saldana needed to pay medical bills for devastating injuries her 1-year-old son suffered in a car accident.
And Josie Hernandez had to file for bankruptcy because Girardi failed to pay her money owed from a settlement for an injury caused by a medical device.
In all of these cases, when clients called or emailed Girardi to ask when they would receive their money, he would make up excuses such as that there was a lien or “hold” on the agreement, that there was a problem with the IRS, or that a judge had to “give approval” before he could pay out the money. All of these claims were false.
“He lied to his clients over and over again about why they weren’t getting paid,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ali Moghaddas told the court. “He lied to them because he didn’t want to give them their money because it was gone — it was already spent.”
“Behind the scenes, he stole money from his clients. It was cruel to treat victims in this way.”
“He was buying two private jets while his clients were not getting paid… This case is a simple and sad story of violated trust and greed.”