Tom Girardi has been found guilty of embezzling more than $15 million from his now-defunct law firm Girardi & Keese’s clients. After less than a full day of deliberations, a federal jury presented its verdict at a downtown Los Angeles courthouse Tuesday. The former attorney, 85 — who was disbarred in July 2022 — was charged with wire fraud the following February.
Girardi — the estranged husband of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne — was found guilty on all four counts, which each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. During the weeks-long trial, prosecutors told the jury that the once-revered lawyer ran a Ponzi scheme by misappropriating millions of dollars of his clients’ settlements. They said he would use the money to pay back other clients and fund a luxurious life for himself and Jayne, 53.
His federal public defenders, however, insisted the firm’s chief financial officer and Girardi’s co-defendant, Chris Kamon, was to blame for the missing and misappropriated money. Despite being diagnosed with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and dementia three years ago, Girardi still took the stand last week and emphatically denied any wrongdoing. “The last thing I would do would be to take someone’s money,” he testified.
“I wouldn’t think of it.” Girardi — who insisted that he “didn’t intentionally ever tell anyone the wrong thing” — also repeated several times during his testimony that he never gave himself a sal.