Six weeks before Tom Girardi's criminal trial begins in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors revealed that they intend to present key evidence: that the disgraced former lawyer allegedly spent more than $25 million of clients' and law firms' money of lawyers in the career of their reality show. star wife
Until now, Erika Girardi, a mainstay on Bravo's “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” has rarely been mentioned in the federal indictment of her ex-husband. Tom Girardi, once a superstar plaintiffs' lawyer and an influential Democratic Party donor, and the former chief financial officer of his law firm are accused of stealing $15 million from several clients in a scheme that spanned years. .
In a court filing Friday, prosecutors said they plan to show jurors evidence that Tom Girardi misappropriated much more than that from his law firm, Girardi Keese, and his clients, including the $25 million they allege. which he diverted to cover “illegitimate expenses.” of EJ Global LLC, a company he formed for his wife's entertainment career.
“By directing Girardi Keese accounting staff to make these payments for the benefit of EJ Global, defendant [Tom] Girardi knowingly and intentionally funneled payments from client funds for the improper personal enrichment of members of his family,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.
No underlying evidence was included in the filing and it is unclear how prosecutors plan to prove their claim. They did not mention Erika Girardi by name, nor did they accuse her of irregularities or knowledge of her husband's financial practices.
Instead, prosecutors want to refute Tom Girardi's defense strategy of blaming the CFO by showing that Girardi was also embezzling money to spend on his wife and career.
Erika Girardi's attorney, Evan Borges, emphasized that prosecutors did not say the “Housewives” star did anything wrong and that it was indisputable that Tom Girardi and his firm handled the finances and accounting of EJ Global LLC.
“She had no knowledge of the actions of Tom Girardi or Girardi Keese regarding client matters or finances,” Borges said, noting that a judge has already dismissed a lawsuit against her due to “ZERO evidence” of her involvement in client matters. customers.
“Years ago, Erika filed for divorce and separated from Tom Girardi, and is living in a rental,” Borges said in a statement. “She has the right to move on with her life.”
Prosecutors want to present evidence related to Erika Girardi's company, EJ Global, because of what Tom Girardi's lawyers revealed at a hearing Thursday. Deputy Public Defender Charles Snyder indicated at the hearing that the defense will point the finger at the law firm's chief financial officer, Christopher Kamon.
Snyder said his client was not the one “running the machine,” but rather Kamon, who oversaw the company's accounting department and 127 bank accounts.
In a separate federal indictment, Kamon is accused of allegedly conducting a “side fraud” in which he embezzled millions from the law firm using bogus vendors, then spent the funds on home renovations, exotic cars and “female escorts,” according to documents. judicial. . Kamon, who has pleaded not guilty in both cases, faces a second trial in October for the so-called parallel fraud.
Girardi's legal team plans to cite alleged “secondary fraud” by the chief financial officer as the cause of the large deficits in Girardi Keese's accounts.
Additionally, they plan to argue that Girardi was liquidating his personal assets and returning those funds to the company for payroll and expenses to make up for money depleted by Kamon's alleged scheme.
In court Thursday, Snyder said Girardi's lies to his clients about the whereabouts of the settlement money — what prosecutors called “numbing communications” intended to scare them away — were not intended to defraud victims but to allow himself Girardi will get to the bottom of his company's finances.
Kamon's lawyer, Michael Severo, poured cold water on the narrative: “It's just fiction,” he said in court.
While Girardi's lawyers suggested they would shift the blame to Kamon, prosecutors wrote in their filing that evidence of money embezzled to pay EJ Global invoices is “essential” to telling “a coherent and complete story of the accused scheme.”
“Excluding such evidence would only serve to distort the truth and leave the jury with the erroneous impression that only defendant Kamon is guilty of such misappropriation when, in fact, defendant Girardi also misappropriated tens of millions,” the defendants wrote. prosecutors.
Girardi and Kamon are scheduled to go to trial together on August 6. But on Friday night, Girardi's lawyers decided to try them separately, in part because their defense strategies are “mutually exclusive.”
That is to say, Girardi's lawyers believe that each man will blame the other. They plan to argue that Kamon wanted to trick and deceive his boss and exploit an elderly man facing cognitive decline. They also predict Kamon will claim he was “pressured” to act on Girardi's orders, according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton, who previously ruled that Girardi was competent to stand trial, will decide whether to try the two men separately or allow evidence of improper payments to Erika Girardi's limited liability company.
Staton will also rule on a motion filed Friday night by Tom Girardi's legal team, which asks the judge to suppress evidence provided to prosecutors by the bankruptcy trustee who oversees Girardi's law firm, saying he never A search warrant was requested to obtain the firm's internal files and records.
Girardi's lawyers have argued that the 85-year-old man, who resides in the dementia ward of a nursing home, has no short-term memory and does not recognize them or remember the criminal case against him.
But in his ruling earlier this year, Staton said Girardi “clearly understands the nature of the charges against him.”
Girardi was once a titan of the American legal community who won billions of dollars in settlements for clients in a career that spanned five decades. A historic payment to residents of Hinkley, California, by Pacific Gas & Electric and his subsequent portrayal in the film “Erin Brockovich” helped raise Girardi's public stature. But he long was an insider in California politics, raising money for governors, senators and legions of local Democratic politicians.
His company collapsed in late 2020 as evidence emerged that he had misappropriated millions of dollars in compensation that Boeing had paid to widows and orphans from a plane crash in Indonesia. The money never reached the families, prompting a federal judge in Chicago to freeze Girardi's assets and refer him to a criminal investigation.
Girardi and his company were forced to file for bankruptcy, and dozens of former clients have since reported that they did not receive all or part of their settlements.
Girardi and his son-in-law David Lira, along with Kamon, also face federal criminal charges in Chicago in connection with the misappropriation of $3 million from plane crash victims in Indonesia.
A trial in Chicago is scheduled for 2025.
