LOS ANGELES — Disgraced and disbarred legal professional Tom Girardi, as soon as celebrated for profitable big settlements, has been indicted by federal grand juries in Los Angeles and Chicago on prices that he stole greater than $18 million from shoppers, prosecutors made. introduced Wednesday.
The allegations are the newest authorized blow to a once-powerful participant who has been at odds with politicians and celebrities. As one of many nation’s most outstanding attorneys, Girardi was identified for high-profile lawsuits, such because the case that led to a $333 million settlement, depicted within the film “Erin Brockovich.”
Lawyer Tom Girardi smiles outdoors the Los Angeles Courthouse in 2014. Damian Dovarganes/Related Press, file
On a weekly radio present referred to as “Champions of Justice,” Girardi stood as much as massive companies on behalf of people that have been harmed by air pollution, medical merchandise, and vehicles. On the identical time, nonetheless, he robbed a few of these shoppers, Los Angeles U.S. Lawyer Martin Estrada mentioned at a information convention.
“He claimed to be preventing for the much less lucky,” Estrada mentioned. “However our investigation has proven that behind this public persona (he) dedicated fraud on a big scale.”
The plans embrace defrauding a Los Angeles couple whose son was paralyzed in a automobile accident, an Arizona widow whose husband died when a ship unexpectedly accelerated at speeds of as much as 120 miles per hour and overturned, and family members of victims in a 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 folks, in line with the indictments.
Girardi, 83, who as soon as performed a supporting position in “Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills,” which starred his now-estranged spouse Erika Jayne, was disbarred final summer season for siphoning cash from shoppers. His agency Girardi Keese in Los Angeles is bankrupt and he’s mentioned to be affected by dementia and is underneath court docket order.
US prosecutors in Chicago mentioned Girardi, his lawyer, son-in-law and their firm’s chief monetary officer took cash for 5 shoppers who settled with Boeing, makers of Indonesia’s Lion Air 737 Max that crashed into the Java Sea in October. crashed. 29, 2018 and killed 189 folks.
“The substantial embezzlement alleged on this swimsuit exacerbated the grief and anguish of the purchasers who misplaced family members within the Lion Air crash,” mentioned John Lausch, U.S. Lawyer for the Northern District of Illinois.
A Chicago legislation agency concerned within the Lion Air case filed a racketeering lawsuit final yr alleging that Girardi and his associates basically ran a Ponzi scheme, skipping $100 million from their shoppers, attorneys that they labored collectively and others.
“The actual story is one which resembles one from a John Grisham novel: Girardi Keese was little greater than a felony enterprise disguised as a legislation agency,” mentioned the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by the Edelson legislation agency. “Certainly, the agency of Girardi Keese operated what we now know to be the biggest felony racketeering operation in plaintiff legislation historical past.”
Girardi made his identify and made his cash by taking over {powerful} companies and public establishments, together with Hollywood’s main film studios, Lockheed, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Pacific Gasoline and Electrical in a case referred to as “Erin Brockovich”, the 2000 Julia, impressed Roberts movie a few California desert neighborhood whose water has been poisoned. Girardi served as a advisor on the Oscar-winning movie.
“That exact case revolutionized folks’s eager about all of the poisonous issues they’re uncovered to,” he advised Lawyer at Legislation journal in 2015.
Girardi married Jayne in 2000. She joined the forged of ‘Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills,’ during which he appeared a number of occasions. He spent some huge cash financing her failed musical profession.
Jayne filed for divorce in 2020.
Whereas Girardi’s authorized and monetary woes solely got here to public mild lately, shoppers have filed greater than 200 complaints in opposition to him in 4 many years, The State Bar of California revealed in November. Almost 60% of complaints had been about accounts set as much as safeguard buyer funds.
Till he was suspended in June, he had by no means been publicly punished.
Ruben Duran, the chair of the bar’s supervisory board, issued a mea culpa about “critical flaws” within the disciplinary system.
“No apology is obtainable right here,” Duran wrote. “Girardi has brought about irreparable hurt to a whole bunch of his shoppers, and the State Bar might have accomplished extra to guard the general public. We mustn’t ever let one thing like this occur once more.”
An ongoing investigation by an out of doors legislation agency is trying into whether or not Girardi’s affect or connections on the bar helped him evade self-discipline for the weird variety of complaints.
Girardi and legal professional David Lira, 62, his son-in-law and firm CFO Christopher Kamon, face eight counts of wire fraud and 4 counts of felony contempt of court docket in Chicago.
Girardi, 49, and Kamon are going through prices in Los Angeles on wire fraud for embezzling greater than $15 million from clients, prosecutors mentioned.
In a single case, detailed within the LA indictment, Girardi settled a $53 million case involving a person who was severely burned in a 2010 PG&E gasoline line explosion in San Bruno, California. However he advised the shopper that the settlement was $7.25 million.
Greater than half of the settlement was then embezzled, and half was used to pay bills, fastened money owed and different shoppers whose funds had additionally been embezzled. In the meantime, funds to the burn sufferer had been delayed by a sequence of delaying techniques.
When requested how an Alzheimer’s analysis Girardi acquired throughout his conservatory trial would have an effect on the felony case, Estrada mentioned it will be as much as the court docket to judge his psychological competence.
“The indictment alleges misconduct over a 10-year interval,” he mentioned. “When Mr. Girardi was a practising lawyer, we consider the proof reveals he was competent on the time.”
Girardi is predicted to seem in U.S. District Courtroom in Los Angeles on Monday. Indictments had been scheduled for Feb. 7 in Chicago.
Kamon, who has custody, has pleaded not responsible to a different fraud case during which he’s accused of embezzling funds from a legislation agency to renovate two homes in LA, pay for discount hunts and rent an escort.
Attorneys for Girardi and Kamon didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Lira’s lawyer mentioned his shopper is harmless, will plead not responsible and can contest the fees.
“David Lira was not concerned in any fraud scheme,” legal professional Damon Cheronis mentioned in an electronic mail. “Mr. Lira is a extremely revered legal professional and has been for greater than three many years.”
Foody reported from Chicago. Related Press journalist Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.
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