LOS ANGELES — Disgraced ex-lawyer Tom Girardi, as soon as celebrated for successful large settlements, has been indicted by federal grand juries in Los Angeles and Chicago on costs he stole greater than $18 million from shoppers, prosecutors introduced Wednesday.
The fees are the most recent authorized blow to a once-powerful participant who rubbed elbows with politicians and celebrities. As one of many nation’s most outstanding plaintiff’s attorneys, Girardi was recognized for high-profile litigation such because the case that led to a $333 million settlement portrayed in the movie “Erin Brockovich.”
With a weekly radio present referred to as “Champions of Justice,” Girardi stood as much as massive companies on behalf of individuals harmed by air pollution, medical merchandise and cars. On the similar time, nonetheless, he was robbing a few of these shoppers, Los Angeles U.S. Lawyer Martin Estrada mentioned at a information convention.
“He claimed to be combating for these much less lucky,” Estrada mentioned. “However our investigation has revealed that behind this public persona, (he was) committing fraud on an enormous of scale.”
The schemes included swindling a Los Angeles couple whose son was paralyzed in a automobile wreck, an Arizona widow whose husband died when a ship unexpectedly sped as much as 120 miles per hour (193 kilometers per hour) and flipped, and members of the family of victims in a 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 folks, in accordance with the indictments.
Girardi, 83, who as soon as performed a supporting function on “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” which starred his now-estranged spouse Erika Jayne, was disbarred final summer season for siphoning consumer funds. His Los Angeles agency Girardi Keese is bankrupt and he’s mentioned to be affected by dementia and is beneath a courtroom conservatorship.
U.S. prosecutors in Chicago mentioned Girardi, his legal professional son-in-law and their agency’s chief monetary officer took funds for 5 shoppers who reached settlements with Boeing, the makers of the 737 Max operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air that crashed into the Java Sea on Oct. 29, 2018 and killed 189 folks.
“The substantial misappropriation alleged on this indictment compounded the grief and anguish of the shoppers who misplaced family members within the Lion Air crash,” mentioned John Lausch, the U.S. legal professional for the northern district of Illinois.
A Chicago regulation agency concerned within the Lion Air case filed a racketeering lawsuit final yr alleging that Girardi and his associates primarily ran a Ponzi scheme, siphoning off $100 million from their shoppers, attorneys they labored with and others.
“The actual story is one which looks like a story out of a John Grisham novel: Girardi Keese was little greater than a felony enterprise, disguised as a regulation agency,” in accordance with the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by the Edelson regulation agency. “Certainly, the Girardi Keese agency operated what we now know was the biggest felony racketeering enterprise within the historical past of plaintiffs’ regulation.”
Girardi made his title, and his cash, taking over {powerful} companies and public establishments, together with Hollywood’s main film studios, Lockheed, The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Pacific Fuel and Electrical in a case that impressed “Erin Brockovich,” the 2000 Julia Roberts movie a couple of California desert neighborhood whose water has been poisoned. Girardi served as an adviser on the Oscar-winning flick.
“That specific case revolutionized folks’s fascinated by all of the poisonous issues they’re uncovered to,” he instructed Lawyer at Regulation journal in 2015.
Girardi married Jayne in 2000. She grew to become a member of the forged of “Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills,” on which he made a number of appearances. He spent appreciable cash funding her unsuccessful musical profession.
Jayne filed for divorce in 2020.
Whereas Girardi’s authorized and monetary woes solely surfaced publicly prior to now few years, shoppers filed greater than 200 complaints towards him over 4 many years, The State Bar of California revealed in November. Almost 60% of complaints had been about accounts set as much as safeguard consumer funds.
Till he was disbarred in June, he had by no means been publicly disciplined.
Ruben Duran, the chair of the bar’s board of trustees, issued a mea culpa over “critical failures” in its self-discipline system.
“There is no such thing as a excuse being supplied right here,” Duran wrote. “Girardi precipitated irreparable hurt to tons of of his shoppers, and the State Bar may have carried out extra to guard the general public. We will by no means permit one thing like this to occur once more.”
An ongoing investigation by an out of doors regulation agency is analyzing whether or not Girardi’s affect or connections on the bar helped him evade self-discipline for the bizarre quantity of complaints.
Girardi and legal professional David Lira, 62, his son-in-law, and agency CFO Christopher Kamon face eight costs of wire fraud and 4 counts of felony contempt of courtroom in Chicago.
Girardi and Kamon, 49, are charged in Los Angeles with wire fraud for embezzling greater than $15 million from shoppers, prosecutors mentioned.
In a single case, described within the LA indictment, Girardi settled a case for $53 million involving a person severely burned in a PG&E fuel line explosion in San Bruno, California, in 2010. However he instructed the consumer the settlement was for $7.25 million.
Greater than half the settlement was then embezzled and a few was used to pay bills, agency liabilities and different shoppers whose funds had additionally been misappropriated. Funds to the burn sufferer, in the meantime, had been delayed by means of a sequence of stall techniques.
When requested about how an Alzheimer’s prognosis that Girardi was given in his conservatorship matter would have an effect on the felony case, Estrada mentioned it will be as much as the courtroom to guage his psychological competency.
“The indictment costs misconduct throughout a 10-year timeframe,” he mentioned. “When Mr. Girardi was a training lawyer, we consider the proof exhibits he was competent throughout that point.”
Girardi is predicted to look Monday in U.S. District Courtroom in Los Angeles. Arraignments had been set for Feb. 7 in Chicago.
Kamon, who’s custody, has pleaded not responsible to a different wire fraud case through which he’s accused of embezzling regulation agency funds to renovate two LA-area houses, pay for procuring sprees and rent an escort.
Attorneys for Girardi and Kamon didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Lira’s legal professional mentioned his consumer is harmless, will plead not responsible and can combat the fees.
“David Lira was not concerned in a scheme to defraud,” legal professional Damon Cheronis mentioned in an electronic mail. “Mr. Lira is a well-respected lawyer and has been for over three many years.”
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