Ex-Celebrity Lawyer Stole $15M From Clients

Tom Girardi found guilty of wire fraud
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 28, 2024 2:00 AM CDT
Ex-Celebrity Lawyer Stole $15M From Clients
FILE - Attorney Tom Girardi smiles outside the Los Angeles courthouse, July 9, 2014.   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

A lawyer once married to one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and who often appeared on the reality show himself, was convicted of wire fraud Tuesday in Los Angeles. The LA Times describes Tom Girardi as a onetime "legal titan," and ABC 7 goes with "legal heavyweight." But now, those and other outlets are using words like "disgrace" and "downfall" to explain what happened to Girardi, who was disbarred and faces up to 80 years behind bars. In a decade-long "Ponzi scheme" beginning in 2010, prosecutors said, Girardi—known for his involvement in the groundwater contamination case that inspired Erin Brockovich—embezzled at least $15 million of his clients' money and used it to fund a lavish lifestyle including private jets, jewelry, golf club memberships, and the aforementioned showbiz career of his estranged wife, Erika Jayne.

Lawyers for Girardi, 85, argued he's experiencing cognitive decline and was mentally incompetent, and accused others at his law firm, Girardi Keese, of "propping him up to keep the party going" in a situation they compared to Weekend at Bernie's. But prosecutors said those cognitive issues didn't begin until 2020. Girardi Keese's chief financial officer is also charged with wire fraud, accused of stealing more than $50 million. Girardi's trial included emotional testimony from former clients who never received their settlement money; in all, hundreds of the firm's former clients say hundreds of millions were stolen from them. Some of those clients include widows and orphans of an Indonesian plane crash. The case against Girardi, however, focused on just four clients, USA Today reports. (More wire fraud stories.)

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