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Disgraced former Los Angeles celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi has been convicted of four counts of wire fraud for embezzling at least $15m of his clients’ money.
Girardi, 83, who once played a supporting role on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alongside his now-estranged wife Erika Jayne, was disbarred last summer for siphoning funds intended for clients. His firm Girardi Keese is bankrupt and he’s said to be suffering from dementia and is under a court conservatorship.
“Tom Girardi built celebrity status and lured in victims by falsely portraying himself as a ‘Champion of Justice,’” US Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement announcing Girardi’s conviction. “In reality, he was a Robin-Hood-in-reverse, stealing from the needy to support of a lavish, Hollywood lifestyle.”
The charges alleged he stole money from his clients over the course of a decade from October 2010 to late 2020, including $3m from family members of the victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people.
He pled not guilty to the charges in Los Angeles last year. Girardi could get as much as 80 years in prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for December 6. A judge has allowed him to remain free until then.
Tyler Hatcher, special-agent-in-charge for the IRS criminal investigation unit, said that Girardi “exploited his clients’ misfortunes on a grand scale.”
“His clients sought his help in the wake of significant trauma and injury, yet he violated their trust to steal from them and fund his own lavish lifestyle, and he will now face the consequences of his actions,” Hatcher said.
In one case described in the indictment, Girardi settled a case involving a man severely burned in a utility explosion for $53m. He told the client the settlement was for $7.25m.
More than half the settlement was then embezzled and used to pay expenses, firm liabilities and other clients whose funds had also been misappropriated. Payments to the burn victim, meanwhile, were delayed through a series of stall tactics.
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The federal public defender representing Girardi, Charles Snyder, argued that his client’s cognitive impairment had worsened following diagnoses with dementia and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Snyder alleged members of Girardi’s now-closed Girardi Keese law firm were stealing funds “hand over fist.”
Snyder said “Girardi was not paying close attention” to the firm’s operations as he “got old, got sick, and lost his mind.”
Judge Josephine Staton, who oversaw the LA trial, ruled earlier this year that Girardi was competent to stand trial despite the dementia claims.
Girardi made his name, and his money, taking on powerful corporations and public institutions, including Hollywood’s major movie studios, Lockheed, The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Pacific Gas and Electric in a case that inspired the 2000 Julia Roberts film Erin Brockovich, on which he served as an adviser.
He married Jayne in 2000. She became a member of the cast of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, on which he made several appearances. He spent considerable money funding an unsuccessful musical career for her.
Jayne filed for divorce in 2020.
