Six weeks earlier than Tom Girardi’s felony trial in Los Angeles is scheduled to start, federal prosecutors revealed that they intend to introduce key proof: that the disgraced former lawyer allegedly spent greater than $25 million of consumer and regulation agency cash on the profession of his actuality TV star spouse.
Till now, Erika Girardi — a mainstay of Bravo’s “Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills” — has hardly ever been talked about in her estranged husband’s federal prosecution. Tom Girardi — as soon as a celebrity plantiffs lawyer and influential Democratic Social gathering donor — and his regulation agency’s former chief monetary officer are accused of stealing $15 million from a number of purchasers in a years-long scheme.
In a courtroom submitting Friday, prosecutors stated they plan to point out the jury proof that Tom Girardi misappropriated way over that from his regulation agency, Girardi Keese, and his purchasers, together with the $25 million they allege he diverted to cowl the “illegitimate bills” of EJ International LLC, an organization he shaped for his spouse’s leisure profession.
“By directing Girardi Keese accounting personnel to make these funds for the advantage of EJ International, defendant [Tom] Girardi knowingly and deliberately funneled funds sourced from consumer funds for the improper private enrichment of his members of the family,” prosecutors wrote of their submitting.
No underlying proof was included within the submitting, and it’s unclear how prosecutors plan to show their assertion. They didn’t point out Erika Girardi by identify, nor did they accuse her of wrongdoing or data of her husband’s monetary practices.
As an alternative, prosecutors wish to rebut Tom Girardi’s protection technique of blaming the CFO by displaying that Girardi was additionally misappropriating cash to spend on his spouse and her profession.
Erika Girardi’s lawyer, Evan Borges, emphasised that prosecutors didn’t say the “Housewives” star did something improper and that it was undisputed that Tom Girardi and his agency dealt with the funds and accounting of EJ International LLC.
“She had no data of the actions of Tom Girardi or Girardi Keese concerning consumer issues or funds,” Borges stated, noting that one decide already dismissed a swimsuit in opposition to her due to “ZERO proof” of her involvement in consumer issues.
“Years in the past, Erika filed for divorce and separated from Tom Girardi, and lives in a rental,” Borges stated in a press release. “She is entitled to maneuver on together with her life.”
Prosecutors wish to convey within the proof associated to Erika Girardi’s firm, EJ International, due to what Tom Girardi’s attorneys revealed at a listening to on Thursday. Deputy Public Defender Charles Snyder indicated on the listening to that the protection will level a finger on the regulation agency’s CFO, Christopher Kamon.
Snyder stated his consumer wasn’t the one “working the machine” — it was Kamon, who oversaw the agency’s accounting division and 127 financial institution accounts.
In a separate federal prosecution, Kamon is charged with allegedly working a “facet fraud” through which he embezzled tens of millions from the regulation agency utilizing sham distributors, then spent the funds on house renovations, unique vehicles and “feminine escorts,” in accordance with courtroom papers. Kamon, who has pleaded not responsible in each instances, faces a second trial in October for the so-called facet fraud.
Girardi’s authorized staff plans to quote the alleged “facet fraud” by the CFO as a trigger for giant deficits in Girardi Keese’s accounts.
Additional, they plan to argue that Girardi was liquidating his private property and placing these funds again into the agency for payroll and bills to offset cash depleted by Kamon’s alleged scheme.
In courtroom Thursday, Snyder stated that Girardi’s lies to purchasers in regards to the whereabouts of their settlement cash — what prosecutors known as “lulling communications” meant to fend them off — weren’t meant to swindle victims however to allow Girardi himself to resolve his agency’s funds.
Kamon’s lawyer, Michael Severo, poured chilly water on the narrative: “It’s simply fiction,” he stated in courtroom.
With Girardi’s attorneys suggesting that they’ll shift culpability onto Kamon, prosecutors wrote of their submitting that proof of cash misappropriated to pay EJ International’s payments is “important” to telling “a coherent and full story of the charged scheme.”
“Excluding such proof would solely serve to distort the reality and depart the jury with the mistaken impression that solely defendant Kamon is accountable for such misappropriation when, in reality, defendant Girardi equally misappropriated tens of tens of millions himself,” the prosecutors wrote.
Girardi and Kamon are scheduled to go on trial collectively on Aug. 6. However late Friday, Girardi’s attorneys moved to strive them individually, partly as a result of their protection methods are “mutually unique.”
That’s, Girardi’s attorneys consider that every man will blame the opposite. They plan to argue that Kamon wished to cheat and deceive his boss and exploit an aged man going through cognitive decline. In addition they predict that Kamon will declare he was “pressured” into appearing at Girardi’s command, in accordance with courtroom papers.
Whether or not to strive the 2 males individually, or to permit proof of improper funds to Erika Girardi’s restricted legal responsibility firm, will likely be determined by U.S. District Choose Josephine Staton, who beforehand dominated Girardi competent to face trial.
Staton will even rule on a movement filed late Friday by Tom Girardi’s authorized staff, which asks the decide to suppress proof offered to prosecutors by the chapter trustee overseeing Girardi’s regulation agency, saying {that a} search warrant was by no means sought to acquire the agency’s inner information and information.
Girardi’s attorneys have argued that the 85-year-old, who resides within the dementia ward of a nursing house, has no short-term reminiscence and doesn’t acknowledge them or keep in mind the felony case in opposition to him.
However in her ruling earlier this yr, Staton stated Girardi “clearly understands the character of the costs in opposition to him.”
Girardi was as soon as a titan of the American authorized neighborhood who received billions of {dollars} in settlements for purchasers in a profession that spanned 5 many years. A landmark payout to residents of Hinkley, Calif., by Pacific Gasoline & Electrical and its subsequent portrayal within the movie “Erin Brockovich” helped increase Girardi’s public stature. However he was lengthy an insider in California politics, elevating sums for governors, senators and legions of native Democratic politicians.
His agency collapsed in late 2020 as proof emerged that he had misappropriated tens of millions of {dollars} of settlements that Boeing had paid to widows and orphans of an Indonesian aircraft crash. The cash by no means reached the households, prompting a federal decide in Chicago to freeze Girardi’s property and refer him for felony investigation.
Girardi and his agency had been pressured into chapter 11, and since then, scores of former purchasers have come ahead alleging they didn’t obtain all or a part of their settlements.
Girardi and his son-in-law David Lira, together with Kamon, additionally face federal felony costs in Chicago in reference to the misappropriation of $3 million from the Indonesian aircraft crash victims.
A trial in Chicago is scheduled for 2025.
