Trial of disgraced Los Angeles lawyer Tom Girardi heads to deliberations

LOS ANGELES (CN) — The fate of disbarred attorney Tom Girardi, accused of stealing more than $15 million from his clients, is now in the hands of a federal jury.

Prosecutors and Girardi's lawyer gave their closing arguments on Monday following a 12-day trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ali Moghaddas said the once highly respected Girardi "was running a Ponzi scheme" using settlement money from new clients to pay off older ones — and putting off those newer clients with a string of lies, obfuscations and excuses.

"He's lying to them, because he doesn't want to give them the money, because it's gone. It's been spent," Moghaddas said.

According to prosecutors, the "pilfered" money went not just to Girardi's clients, but also to fund the attorney's increasingly lavish lifestyle. Between 2010 and 2020, prosecutors say he spent $12 million on private jets; $3.8 million on jewelry and country clubs; and $21 million to fund the entertainment career of his then-wife Erika Jayne, a cast member on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. He also transferred $26 million from his firm's coffers to his own — though more than $80 million would eventually go the other way when the firm, Girardi & Keese, was besieged by creditors.

Girardi faces four counts of wire fraud, each stemming from a different personal injury client for whom Girardi had secured cash settlements — money that was not forthcoming. Joe Ruigomez suffered burns on 80% of his body after a gas line exploded, killing his girlfriend. Judy Selberg's husband was killed in a boating accident. Josefina Hernandez was injured by a faulty medical device. Erika Saldana's one-year old baby was badly injured in a car crash with a drunk driver. She was owed $17.5 million. The baby later died.

"He picked these people in their darkest hour of their lives and told them what to believe," Moghaddas said. "He wasn't fighting for those clients. He was lying to them year after year after year."

In his own closing argument, federal public defender Charles Snyder sought to shift the blame for Girardi's clients' missing funds onto Chris Kamon, the head of the law firm's accounting department and a co-defendant in the case who is set to go on trial in 2025.

Snyder called Kamon the "Michael Jordan" of fraud, accusing him of stealing between $70 million and $80 million from the firm over 10 years.

"Mr. Kamon enjoyed unfettered access to the accounts of Girardi & Keese with virtually no oversight," Snyder said. As for Girardi, Snyder said he was "not paying close attention" to the checks he was signing. "Check after check was going from Girardi's pocket into Kamon's pocket."

During his rebuttal argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Petty pointed out that Girardi drained $14 million from the law firm's client trust account before Kamon was even hired to work for Girardi & Keese.

He also said Kamon's theft "does not make Tom Girardi innocent. It just makes Girardi & Keese a den of thieves."

To prove wire fraud, prosecutors must convince the jury that Girardi knowingly schemed to defraud his clients by lying to them or omitting facts in order to obtain money; that the lies or omissions were "material;" and that he was acting with "the intent to deceive and cheat" — that is, he was doing it on purpose.

Snyder argued that Girardi was unable to keep tabs on his firm's account because he was suffering from dementia, or cognitive decline.

"Mr. Girardi got old, he got sick and he lost his mind," Snyder said. "The lights were on, but nobody was home." He pointed out that people with that condition may "confabulate to fill gaps in memory."

Girardi took the stand on Thursday in an unusual and surprising turn of events. He seemed coherent, perhaps even charming in an avuncular sort of way, but appeared to have no memory of the trial, claimed to believe that his firm was still open for business — it shuttered in 2021 — and claimed not to know his own lawyer's name.

Snyder admitted his client hadn't always told the truth, but said he "had no intention of stealing his clients' money." For example, Girardi told Ruigomez that his settlement money was being held by the firm in an account earning 6.5% interest — more than likely a lie. But, Snyder said, "Tom Girardi thought it was true. That's what he was being told."

Prosecutors pushed back on this notion, pointing out that the evidence presented at trial showed Girardi's dementia began, at the very earliest, in late 2019 or 2020. Ruigomez's case, meanwhile, settled all the way back in 2013, and Girardi spent years keeping the settlement money away from his family.

The 11 members of the jury will not determine how the 85-year-old Girardi spends the rest of his life. Each of the four counts of fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

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