A federal court jury in Los Angeles on Tuesday found Tom Girardi, once a legal titan and now a disgraced former attorney, guilty of wire fraud for embezzling tens of millions of dollars from clients.
The guilty verdict concluded a 13-day trial in which prosecutors elicited emotional testimony from former clients, including a burn victim and a widow whose husband died in a boating accident, employees of the now-closed law firm Girardi Keese and an outside attorney who struggled to get a woman the settlement money she’d been granted.
Girardi, 85, had been on trial on four counts of wire fraud; he was found guilty on all four.
The jury began deliberating Monday and delivered the verdict at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Girardi, in the same gray blazer he’d worn throughout the 13-day trial, swiveled back and forth in his chair as he waited to hear his fate.
He turned to watch Judge Josephine Staton as she read the verdict, face impassive. As she read the final guilty verdict, he rubbed his forehead.
After the proceedings ended, Girardi was asked by a reporter if he wanted to comment on the verdict. He chuckled and said, “No. No.”
Kathleen Ruigomez, the mother of a teenager who had been injured in an explosion, sat in the front row of the courtroom. She’d testified for the prosecution and cried as the verdict was read.
Federal public defenders and the prosecutors in the case declined to comment.
US attorney E. Martin Estrada addresses the media after litigator Tom Girardi was convicted in federal court of running a massive 10-year Ponzi scheme in which prosecutors said he siphoned at least $15 million in settlement funds from four of his clients.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
In a written statement, U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada said, “Tom Girardi built celebrity status and lured in victims by falsely portraying himself as a ‘Champion of Justice.’ In reality, he was a Robin-Hood-in-reverse, stealing from the needy to support of a lavish, Hollywood lifestyle. Today’s verdict shows that the game is up – we can all now see this defendant for what he was and the victims he callously betrayed.”
Sentencing is set for Dec. 6. Girardi will remain free until then. Staton said he is neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk.
As clients went unpaid, prosecutors told the jury, Girardi spent money on private jets, country clubs and the entertainment career of his now-estranged wife, Erika Girardi, a star of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
Throughout the trial, Girardi’s federal public defenders had laid the blame on the firm’s longtime chief financial officer, Chris Kamon, accusing him of stealing more than $50 million from Girardi Keese.
Over the course of his decades-long career, Girardi cultivated close ties with mayors, governors, senators, judges and Supreme Court justices. A once-legendary plaintiff’s attorney, he was revered — and feared — by fellow attorneys for the nine-figure settlements he brokered and the powerful officials he counted as friends.
His law firm imploded in late 2020 amid evidence that he stole settlements from widows and orphans in an Indonesian plane crash, and hundreds of former clients and vendors came forward saying they were collectively cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars. He was disbarred in July 2022.
During the trial, former clients of the firm told the jury they had been impressed by Girardi’s record of successes — including securing a $333-million settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric featured in the movie “Erin Brockovich.” He made promises that everything would be fine and told them not to worry, they said.
“I trusted him too much,” testified Joseph Ruigomez, who suffered catastrophic burn injuries as a teenager in a 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, which killed his girlfriend.
After Girardi negotiated a $53-million settlement for the family, Ruigomez and his mother detailed late payments and excuses piling up. An IRS agent later testified that some of the Ruigomez settlement funds went to compensate other Girardi clients whose settlements he had previously misappropriated.
In voicemails and letters presented in court, Girardi repeated the same refrain to frustrated clients asking for the money they were owed: “Don’t be mad at me.”
“He picked these people in the darkest hour of their life and told them what he thought they’d believe,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Ali Moghaddas told the jury in closing arguments Monday. “What you saw in this case is, for years, the defendant was running a Ponzi scheme.”
Throughout the trial, Girardi’s federal public defenders blamed Kamon, who is also charged with wire fraud in connection with the theft of client money, along with a separate case in which he is accused of embezzling funds from the firm to finance the purchase of homes and a $20,000-per-month payment to his girlfriend.
“This was Mr. Kamon’s scheme,” Deputy Public Defender Charles Snyder said in closing arguments. “This was absolutely not [Girardi’s] fraud.”
Girardi’s lawyers also contended their client was mentally incompetent, unable to assist his own attorneys — let alone retain any short-term memory — and in the throes of progressive cognitive decline. A federal judge last year ruled he was fit to stand trial.
“Mr. Girardi got old and he got sick and he lost his mind,” Snyder told the jury on Monday.
Snyder argued that Girardi was running the firm in name only and called it a “Weekend at Bernie’s” situation where partners at the firm were “propping him up to keep the party going.”
During the trial, Girardi’s federal public defenders called more than 10 witnesses, including Dr. Helena Chui, who testified that Girardi has dementia; his former housekeeper of about 20 years; and his secretaries at the law firm.
Girardi faces another trial in 2025 in Chicago on charges that he and others at the firm stole payouts made by Boeing to families whose loved ones died in an Indonesian plane crash.
Times staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.