'RHOBH' alum Tom Girardi sentenced to 7 years in federal prison for embezzling tens of millions of dollars
Tom Girardi, the famed personal injury attorney who was depicted in the Oscar-winning movie Erin Brockovich and is also the estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, has been sentenced to more than seven years behind bars for bilking his clients out of millions of dollars.
The U.S. Attorney's Office of the Central District of California announced Tuesday that Girardi, who was disbarred in 2022, was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for leading an embezzlement scheme that defrauded his clients of tens of millions of dollars, much of it meant for treatment for serious physical injuries. Girardi, 86, was also ordered to pay a $35,000 fine and more than $2 million in restitution, and to surrender to federal authorities by July 17.
"This self-proclaimed 'champion of justice' was nothing more than a thief and a liar who conned his vulnerable clients out of the millions of dollars," U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement.
IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher added, "This sentencing brings a level of recompense for countless victims of Mr. Girardi's long-running scheme to enrich himself on the backs of clients who trusted him in some of their worst days."
An attorney for Girardi didn't immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment.
Girardi was indicted on charges of stealing more than $18 million from clients in 2023 and found guilty on four counts of wire fraud last August. The 13-day trial found that the disgraced attorney operated his firm, Girardi Keese, "like a Ponzi-scheme," federal prosecutors said, diverting millions won from settlements toward unrelated expenditures between 2010 and 2020. Families of victims of tragedies like a 2018 Lion Air plane crash, for example, were awarded millions in cases fought by Girardi and his co-conspirators, but said they never saw the money.Former Girardi Keese CFO Christopher Kazuo Kamon pleaded guilty two two counts of wire fraud in October, was sentenced to 121 months in custody, and was ordered to pay nearly $9 million in restitution. Another Girardi Keese lawyer and Girardi's son-in-law, David R. Lira, is expected to stand trial next month.
Jayne filed for divorce from Girardi in 2020 and the couple remain legally separated, though their divorce has not been finalized. Jayne was not implicated in last year's verdict against her ex, but federal prosecutors said during Girardi's trial that among the misappropriated funds, $25 million went to EJ Global, a company founded by Jayne to finance her entertainment career.
Girardi and Jayne were jointly hit by a lawsuit alleging embezzlement in 2020, but she was dismissed from the case in 2022. Though the law firm which brought the suit, Edelson PC, claimed at the time of Jayne's dismissal that it planned to refile, a new suit has yet to materialize.
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