A sufferer of a gasoline explosion that killed his girlfriend. A consumer injured by a medical gadget and combating chapter. A lady who misplaced her husband in a boating accident. One other whose 1-year-old son grew to become paraplegic after a drunk driver hit the household automobile.
They’d all gone to Tom Girardi’s regulation agency, trusting and believing that he would assist them get the settlements they deserved, Assistant U.S. Atty. Ali Moghaddas informed jurors in closing arguments Monday.
As an alternative, Moghaddas mentioned, all have been additional victimized by Girardi — as soon as a authorized legend who’s on trial on 4 counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors have accused Girardi of stealing greater than $15 million from 4 purchasers between 2010 and 2020.
“He picked these folks within the darkest hour of their life and informed them what he thought they’d imagine,” Moghaddas informed the jury on the twelfth day of the trial. “What you noticed on this case is, for years, the defendant was working a Ponzi scheme.”
For almost two hours Monday, Deputy Public Defender Charles Snyder pushed again on the federal government’s case, referring to his 85-year-old consumer as an “aged man with cognitive decline” and laying the blame for a large case of fraud on the toes of Chris Kamon, the previous chief monetary officer for the now-closed regulation agency, Girardi Keese.
The protection attorneys accused Kamon of stealing greater than $50 million from the agency. There was a scheme to steal from purchasers throughout that 10-year timeframe, Snyder mentioned, however it wasn’t Girardi’s.
“This was Mr. Kamon’s scheme,” Snyder mentioned. “This was completely not [Girardi’s] fraud.”
Kamon can also be charged with wire fraud in reference to the theft of consumer cash, together with a separate case through which he’s accused of embezzling funds from the agency to finance the acquisition of houses and a $20,000-per-month cost to his girlfriend.
However simply because Kamon stole, Assistant U.S. Atty. Scott Paetty mentioned in rebuttal, doesn’t imply Girardi is harmless.
“It simply makes Girardi Keese a den of thieves, and it makes Girardi the thief-in-chief,” Paetty mentioned.
The closing arguments capped off an at-times emotional trial that has lasted for weeks and included shocking testimony from Girardi in his personal protection, denying that he’d misled purchasers and saying they bought paid each penny they have been owed.
Prosecutors referred to as a number of of the agency’s former purchasers to the stand; they described Girardi as a well-known lawyer in whom that they had totally positioned their belief.
There was Joseph Ruigomez, who received a settlement of greater than $50 million for burns he suffered within the San Bruno, Calif., gasoline explosion. Judy Selberg, who bought a $500,000 settlement after her husband died in a boating accident. Erika Saldana, for whom the agency secured a $17.5-million settlement after her 1-year-old son had been badly injured when a drunk driver crashed into their automobile in 2015.
Emails offered throughout trial, from purchasers to regulation agency staff, illustrated the difficulties as funds lagged. Selberg mentioned she desperately wanted the almost $300,000 she was owed to pay payments, together with property taxes. Josefina Hernandez, who was ready on settlement funds associated to her pelvic mesh lawsuit, mentioned her checking account was within the pink. Saldana mentioned her household wanted it to purchase a brand new home with more room for her son.
Saldana, who at occasions testified in tears, mentioned in an e mail to a accomplice on the regulation agency that the household had held off on shopping for a hospital mattress their son desperately wanted as a result of their condo was too small. She gave her son baths on his mattress due to the wrestle to suit him into the bathe.
“We’ve got already misplaced so many alternatives to purchase a home,” Saldana wrote in an April 2020 e mail to Girardi and one other accomplice on the agency. “It’s been virtually a 12 months since our case settled and we nonetheless haven’t obtained the steadiness of our settlement.”
Girardi, she testified, gave various excuses as to why they might not get the cash: Her son’s belief wasn’t established but. There was a tax subject with the IRS. A choose didn’t need to log off on the discharge of the cash.
The extra it stretched out, Saldana testified, it felt like “reopening a wound” that they had tried to shut.
The household by no means obtained an excellent $1 million they have been owed.
Throughout his trial, Girardi took notes as former purchasers testified and sometimes appeared to confer along with his attorneys. At occasions, Girardi joked with courtroom employees.
“Received a great doorman right here,” Girardi mentioned to the courtroom clerk, as he held the door open for Girardi after a break at some point.
Girardi’s attorneys contended their consumer was mentally incompetent, unable to help his personal attorneys — not to mention retain any short-term reminiscence — and within the throes of progressive cognitive decline. A federal choose final 12 months dominated he was match to face trial.
“Mr. Girardi bought previous and he bought sick and he misplaced his thoughts,” Snyder informed the jury on Monday.
Snyder argued that Girardi was working the agency in title solely and referred to as it a “Weekend at Bernie’s” scenario the place companions on the agency have been “propping him as much as preserve the get together going.”
Throughout the trial, Girardi’s federal public defenders referred to as greater than 10 witnesses, together with Dr. Helena Chui, who testified that Girardi has dementia; his former housekeeper of about 20 years; and his secretaries on the regulation agency.
Their final witness was Girardi himself, and one among his attorneys, Samuel Cross, appeared to check his consumer’s psychological acuity for jurors, asking him if his regulation agency was nonetheless open, to which he answered sure.
“Tom, what’s my title?” Cross requested him.
“I do not know,” Girardi replied. “Dangerous, imply, horrible, it’s a type of.”
At occasions, Girardi testified, funds have been withheld from purchasers due to medical liens, purchasers going via divorce, or drug points. Girardi mentioned the holdbacks have been “not for me to take the cash.”
Snyder informed the jury Monday, concerning Girardi’s testimony, “The lights have been on however no one was house.”
Snyder described his consumer to jurors as a person who repeatedly “took on Goliath” and prevailed. By the point the alleged fraud scheme started, Snyder mentioned, Girardi had received each award there was to win and “didn’t need to cheat to win.” He informed the jury he wasn’t saying that Girardi by no means informed lies, however that “a lie alone doesn’t equal fraud.”
“I believe you all perceive what’s at play right here for an 85-year-old man,” Snyder informed the jury in his closing argument. “Your resolution on this case will endlessly alter the trajectory of Mr. Girardi’s life.”
In his rebuttal, Paetty mentioned Girardi “selected himself time and again,” and used consumer cash to underwrite an exorbitant way of life. He argued that Kamon stole thousands and thousands and wanted Girardi to do it, however added that Girardi wanted Kamon as nicely.
“[Girardi] wanted a morally versatile individual in that job,” Paetty mentioned.
Paetty mentioned when new consumer funds got here in, Girardi would use these to pay one thing to the previous purchasers he nonetheless owed. And similar to any Ponzi scheme, Paetty mentioned, it got here crashing down when the cash stopped.
“The home of playing cards that was Girardi Keese crumbled round him as a result of it was constructed on lies,” Paetty mentioned.
The jury started deliberating Girardi’s destiny Monday afternoon. He might face a decades-long jail sentence if convicted.
