How Africa News
Tom Giradi, a disgraced Los Angeles attorney and the estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday, February 1, for allegedly stealing more than $15 million from his clients.
According to the Department of Justice, Giradi, a co-founder of the now-defunct Los Angeles law firm Girardi Keese, will now face five counts of wire fraud, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Girardi and Christopher Kazuo Kamon, the former controller and chief financial officer of Girardi Keese, are accused of defrauding their clients of settlement funds.
The attorney and his former CFO allegedly used the clients’ winnings to fund payroll, other clients’ previously misappropriated settlement funds, and personal expenses.
The DOJ detailed Girardi and Kamon’s alleged crimes, noting that the pair would tell their duped clients that they needed to meet certain requirements in order to access their money.
Among the challenges were claims that clients had to eliminate alleged tax obligations, obtain court authorizations, and satisfy medical liens and other debts.
One of the alleged victims named in the indictment was a family of two adults and a child who were paralyzed in a car accident.
Girardi negotiated a $17.5 million settlement for their injuries in the accident in July 2019, but $5,119,449 of that money was deposited into a bank account controlled by him.
The indictment comes nearly three months after it was revealed that Girardi got away with a number of complaints during his legal career because the State Bar of California ignored hundreds of complaints filed against him and did not disbar him as a result.
Giradi was disbarred in California in July 2022, following the initial accusations of embezzlement, and he has since been diagnosed with Alzheimer?s and placed under a conservatorship.
United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a press release;
?Mr. Girardi and Mr. Kamon stand accused of engaging in a widespread scheme to steal from their clients and lie to them to cover up the fraud.
?In doing so, they allegedly preyed on the very people who trusted and relied upon them the most-their clients. Actions like the ones alleged in the indictment bring disrepute upon the legal profession and will not be tolerated by my office.
