‘Real Housewives' hubby Girardi sentenced to 7+ years for embezzlement
U.S. District Court for Central California Judge Josephine Staton on Tuesday sentenced Girardi, 86, to seven years and three months in federal prison.
Staton also ordered Girardi to pay $2.3 million in restitution and fines and on Monday ruled his dementia won't keep him out of prison.
Girardi is the estranged husband of the reality show's Erika Jayne, and a federal jury in August convicted him on four counts of wire fraud for embezzling millions from his clients over 10 years.
His victims include relatives of some of the victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash in the Java Sea that killed 189 people.
Girardi embezzled $3 million from several surviving family members of the tragedy's victims.
Instead of ordering Girardi to stay in a long-term care facility due to his dementia, Staton ordered him to report to prison to start serving his sentence on July 17.
Staton presided over a three-hour hearing on Monday, during which two medical experts brought by the prosecution testified about Girardi's medical condition.
Two witnesses also testified on Girardi's behalf, and he took the stand to testify in his defense.
Girardi's testimony indicated confusion and a lack of awareness regarding his current situation.
He told the court he recently traveled the country and has an active case in Oklahoma.
Girardi, though, was a resident in an assisted living home in California and kept in its secure memory care area for the past two years.
He also underwent psychological evaluation for six weeks in North Carolina at the start of the year.
During Monday's hearing, Girardi at times said he has "serious memory loss" when asked about his current situation.
Staton ruled that his responses demonstrated Girardi's self-awareness.
As Girardi exited the witness stand, his trousers began to drop, but he quickly righted them, which Staton said further demonstrated his mental awareness.
His attorneys asked Staton to require him to stay at his current assisted living facility, but she sentenced him to serve his time at an appropriate federal prison facility.
Girardi formerly was among attorneys representing victims during the 1993 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. lawsuit that inspired the "Erin Brockovich" film starring Julia Roberts that was released in 2000.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
21 minutes ago
- UPI
7 Amish die in 2 crashes involving their rented van, buggy
Aug. 13 (UPI) -- The Amish community in Michigan is in mourning after seven died on the same day in two separate crashes 86 miles apart in the central part of the state. In Tuscola County, six Amish died when a driver ran a stop sign and the truck t-boned the van with 10 occupants in a crash reported at 4:45 p.m. EDT Tuesday. About 30 minutes later in Montcalm County, which is directly east of Tuscola County, a 4-month-old girl died after a driver crashed into a buggy while trying to pass. The Tuscola County Sheriff's Office said the van was traveling west on M-138 when it was struck by the truck traveling south. Several passengers were ejected with three others in the van hospitalized. The truck had three occupants, with one person dying, WJRT-TV in Flint reported. "They had a paid driver in the van," Undersheriff Robert Baxter told The Detroit News on Wednesday. "I'm not sure where they were headed or where they were coming from. They're county residents." Amish generally don't drive, and instead travel in horse and buggy. Families often hire van drivers for longer distances. "It's not uncommon for Amish families to hire a non-Amish driver (who owns a van) to transport them places that are further than buggy-driving distance," Steven M. Nolt, professor of History and Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa., told the newspaper. "This might be a trip to a doctor's office 30 miles away from their home or it might be an interstate trip of hundreds of miles." In the second crash, reported at 5:19 p.m., a pickup traveling east attempted to pass a buggy occupied by seven Amish family members. The truck driver, noticing an oncoming vehicle, attempted to swerve back into the right lane and struck the buggy, Michigan State Police reported. Five children, all under 5, and a 24-year-old woman were taken to a hospital. The 4-month-old child died. On Wednesday, two children were released, the mother and a 1-year-old girl were in stable condition, and a 2-year-old boy was listed in critical condition. A man in the buggy and the pickup driver had minor injuries. The horse pulling the buggy was euthanized. "The Amish ... community will band together," Kevin Williams, who writes a syndicated Amish newspaper column, told The Detroit News. "There will be very large funerals that will draw thousands, many coming from states away to pay their respects. "The Amish will lean heavily on their faith and view the accident as God's will. Their grief is tempered by their faith." Several Amish have been involved in other crashes in the state. Last week, six Amish were hurt when an SUV crashed into a horse-drawn buggy in southwest Michigan. On the Fourth of July, a 22-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy in a buggy were injured when a man crashed into them in the central lower peninsula. The man was arrested on a drunken-driving charge. In March, a crash between a vehicle and a horse-drawn buggy killed an 8-year-old girl and seriously injured a 12-year-old boy in southwest Michigan. The Amish community in Michigan, which is estimated at 18,000, is spread in 52 settlements from Hillsdale and Branch County in the south to several in the Upper Peninsula, according to Amish America. The first Amish settled in the state in 1895. In North America, there are an estimated 411,060 Amish with a presence in 32 states, including 61% in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, and three Canadian provinces, according to the Amish Studies' Young Center at Elizabeth College.
UPI
4 hours ago
- UPI
U.S. Treasury Department targets timeshare fraud by Mexican cartel
Aug. 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned four Mexican nationals and 12 companies in Mexico linked to a "brutally violent" cartel involved in a timeshare fraud of resorts in Puerto Vallarta. The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization "that is increasingly supplementing its drug trafficking proceeds with alternative revenue streams such as timeshare fraud and fuel theft." Sanctions include blocking all U.S. property owned by the people and the companies named, and the assets must be reported to OFAC. Violations may include civil and criminal penalties. The agency is reminding current timeshare owners in Mexico: "If an unsolicited purchase or rental offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Those considering the purchase of a timeshare in Mexico should conduct appropriate due diligence." The FBI has a timeshare fraud resource page. Victims of timeshare fraud can file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Complaint Center. Elderly customers can contact the Department of Justice's National Elder Fraud Hotline. Timeshares are fractional ownership for a vacation property, often one week a year, that are not considered an investment and often are tough to resell. There are 56 timeshare developments in Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast, a popular tourist destination that includes beaches, nightlife and cultural attractions. There are 578,000 residents. "We are coming for terrorist drug cartels like Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion that are flooding our country with fentanyl," Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said. "These cartels continue to create new ways to generate revenue to fuel their terrorist operations. At President Trump's direction, we will continue our effort to completely eradicate the cartels' ability to generate revenue, including their efforts to prey on elderly Americans through timeshare fraud." Approximately 6,000 U.S. victims reported losing nearly $300 million between 2019 and 2023 in timeshare fraud in Mexico, according to the FBI. In 2024, there were 900 complaints with reported losses of more than $50 million. Beginning in 2012, the Treasury Department said the cartel took control of timeshare fraud schemes in Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco and the surrounding area. "These complex scams often target older Americans who can lose their life savings," the release said. "The lifecycle of these scams can last years, resulting in financial and emotional devastation of the victims while enriching cartels like CJNG." After information on timeshare owners is received, call center personnel claim to be U.S.-based third-party brokers, attorneys or sales representatives. Fraud may include timeshare resale, re-rent and investment scams. People are asked to pay advance "fees" and "taxes" via international wire transfers to accounts at Mexican banks and brokerage houses before receiving money supposedly owed to them, the Treasury Department said. The money never comes to the consumers and they are told to pay more "fees" and "taxes." Then they may be further victimized when impersonated law firms claim they can initiate proceedings to recover lost funds. Sometimes, government officials are impersonated, claiming the victims have been involved in suspicious transactions with more "fees" required to release the funds or risk prison time. The Treasury Department said it had blocked all property and interests in property of the persons named, or in possession or control of U.S. people. This also applies to entities owned at least 50% by one of more blocked people. In addition, Americans are not allowed to be involved in the property of people blocked. And secondary penalties may be imposed on participating foreign financial institutions. The Treasury Department listed three senior cartel members most involved in the fraud, who "orchestrate assassinations of rivals and politicians using high-powered weaponry." They are Julio Cesar Montero Pinzon (Montero), Carlos Andres Rivera Varela (Rivera), and Francisco Javier Gudino Haro (Gudino). Five companies "explicitly acknowledge their involvement in the timeshare industry" are Akali Realtors, Centro Mediador De La Costa, S.A. de C.V., Corporativo Integral De La Costa, S.A. de C.V., Corporativo Costa Norte, S.A. de C.V. and Sunmex Travel, S. de R.L. De C.V. They "explicitly acknowledge their involvement in the timeshare industry." Other companies were involved involved in timeshare-related transactions or involvement in real estate activities.
UPI
4 hours ago
- UPI
Energy Dept. offers $1B for critical minerals and materials funding
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday announced $1 billion in federal funding opportunities to improve domestic mining and production of critical minerals to lessen the nation's dependence on foreign suppliers. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo Aug. 13 (UPI) -- The Energy Department will offer up to $1 billion to support mining and processing of critical minerals and manufacturing technologies in the United States. The department will issue notices of funding opportunities for critical minerals procurement in accordance with President Donald Trump's "Unleashing American Energy" executive order. "For too long, the United States has relied on foreign actors to supply and process the critical materials that are essential to modern life and our national security," Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a news release on Wednesday. "The Energy Department will play a leading role in reshoring the processing of critical materials and expanding our domestic supply of these indispensable resources," Wright said. The Energy Department identified five areas and the total available funding amounts for each. As much as $50 million is available through the department's Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office to support improvements in the domestic rare-earth magnet supply chain and the refining and alloying of gallium, gallium nitride, germanium and silicon carbide for use in semiconductors. That fund also will support cost-competitive technologies for direct lithium extraction and separation, and the development of critical-material separation technologies that enable the production of useful products from scrap and byproducts. The Energy Department's Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Office will offer up to $250 million to support the production of mineral byproducts from existing industrial operations. The Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains is offering up to $135 million to improve domestic production of rare earth minerals to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign suppliers. The MESC also is funding up to $500 million to expand the nation's critical mineral and materials processing and related battery manufacturing and recycling, including. lithium, graphite, nickel, copper, aluminum and other minerals. Another $40 million will help to pay for the recovery of critical minerals from industrial wastewater. The Energy Department's announcement does not mention China, which is restricting the supply of critical minerals to Western defense contractors. More than 80,000 parts in weapons used by the Defense Department rely on critical minerals supplies that China controls, The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 3.
