6 months just before Tom Girardi’s prison demo in Los Angeles is scheduled to get started, federal prosecutors disclosed that they intend to introduce important proof: that the disgraced former lawyer allegedly put in additional than $25 million of shopper and law agency funds on the job of his actuality Tv set star spouse.
Until now, Erika Girardi — a mainstay of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” — has not often been described in her estranged husband’s federal prosecution. Tom Girardi — the moment a celebrity plantiffs lawyer and influential Democratic Occasion donor — and his legislation firm’s former chief economic officer are accused of thieving $15 million from various purchasers in a many years-extensive scheme.
In a courtroom filing Friday, prosecutors claimed they prepare to exhibit the jury evidence that Tom Girardi misappropriated far extra than that from his law firm, Girardi Keese, and his clientele, which includes the $25 million they allege he diverted to cover the “illegitimate expenses” of EJ World wide LLC, a company he fashioned for his wife’s entertainment occupation.
“By directing Girardi Keese accounting personnel to make these payments for the benefit of EJ Global, defendant [Tom] Girardi knowingly and intentionally funneled payments sourced from customer funds for the poor personalized enrichment of his household users,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.
No fundamental evidence was involved in the submitting, and it’s unclear how prosecutors program to confirm their assertion. They did not point out Erika Girardi by title, nor did they accuse her of wrongdoing or understanding of her husband’s economical tactics.
Rather, prosecutors want to rebut Tom Girardi’s defense method of blaming the CFO by demonstrating that Girardi was also misappropriating funds to spend on his spouse and her occupation.
Erika Girardi’s lawyer, Evan Borges, emphasised that prosecutors did not say the “Housewives” star did just about anything erroneous and that it was “undisputed” that Tom Girardi and his agency handled the funds and accounting of EJ World wide LLC.
“She experienced no expertise of the steps of Tom Girardi or Girardi Keese with regards to shopper matters or finances,” Borges said, noting that 1 judge presently dismissed a accommodate in opposition to her because of “ZERO evidence” of her involvement in shopper issues.
“Years ago, Erika submitted for divorce and separated from Tom Girardi, and life in a rental,” Borges claimed in a statement. “She is entitled to move on with her life.”
Late Friday, Tom Girardi’s authorized team from the federal public defender’s business office filed a motion to suppress proof delivered to prosecutors by the personal bankruptcy trustee overseeing Girardi’s regulation agency, declaring that a look for warrant was under no circumstances sought to obtain the firm’s inside data files and data.
At a hearing Thursday, a Girardi lawyer, Deputy General public Defender Charles Snyder, indicated that the protection will place a finger at the legislation firm’s CFO, Christopher Kamon.
Snyder claimed his client was not the one “running the machine” — it was Kamon, who oversaw the firm’s accounting department and 127 lender accounts.
In a independent federal prosecution, Kamon is billed with allegedly jogging a “side fraud” in which he embezzled thousands and thousands from the legislation organization using sham suppliers, then expended the resources on residence renovations, unique autos and “female escorts,” in accordance to court papers. Kamon, who has pleaded not responsible in both of those cases, faces a second trial in Oct for the so-called aspect fraud.
Girardi’s lawful workforce ideas to cite the alleged “side fraud” by the CFO as a lead to for huge deficits in Girardi Keese’s accounts.
Even more, they strategy to argue that Girardi was liquidating his personal property and putting those resources back into the firm for payroll and costs to offset cash depleted by Kamon’s alleged scheme.
In court docket Thursday, Snyder reported that Girardi’s lies to purchasers about the whereabouts of their settlement money — what prosecutors known as “lulling communications” meant to fend them off — have been not meant to swindle victims but to permit Girardi himself to get to the bottom of his firm’s finances.
Kamon’s legal professional, Michael Severo, poured chilly drinking water on the narrative: “It’s just fiction,” he said in court docket.
With Girardi’s legal professionals suggesting that they’ll change culpability onto Kamon, prosecutors wrote in their filing that evidence of cash misappropriated to pay back EJ Global’s costs is “essential” to telling “a coherent and comprehensive story of the billed plan.”
“Excluding these kinds of proof would only serve to distort the truth of the matter and depart the jury with the mistaken perception that only defendant Kamon is to blame for such misappropriation when, in fact, defendant Girardi in the same way misappropriated tens of tens of millions himself,” the prosecutors wrote.
Girardi and Kamon are scheduled to go on trial jointly on Aug. 6. But late Friday, Girardi’s attorneys moved to attempt them separately, in element mainly because their protection strategies are “mutually exclusive.”
That is, Girardi’s legal professionals feel that each person will blame the other. They strategy to argue that Kamon needed to cheat and deceive his manager and exploit an elderly male struggling with cognitive decline. They also forecast that Kamon will assert he was “pressured” into acting at Girardi’s command, according to court docket papers.
Whether to consider the two guys independently, or to permit evidence of improper payments to Erika Girardi’s minimal liability business, will be decided by U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton, who beforehand dominated Girardi skilled to stand demo.
Girardi’s lawyers have argued that the 85-yr-aged, who resides in the dementia ward of a nursing property, has no brief-time period memory and does not acknowledge them or remember the legal scenario from him.
But in her ruling before this calendar year, Staton explained Girardi “clearly understands the character of the expenses against him.”
Girardi was as soon as a titan of the American lawful neighborhood who gained billions of dollars in settlements for clients in a occupation that spanned five many years. A landmark payout to people of Hinkley, Calif., by Pacific Gas & Electrical and its subsequent portrayal in the film “Erin Brockovich” helped increase Girardi’s public stature. But he was long an insider in California politics, elevating sums for governors, senators and legions of local Democratic politicians.
His firm collapsed in late 2020 as evidence emerged that he experienced misappropriated thousands and thousands of pounds of settlements that Boeing experienced paid out to widows and orphans of an Indonesian airplane crash. The revenue under no circumstances arrived at the households, prompting a federal choose in Chicago to freeze Girardi’s assets and refer him for legal investigation.
Girardi and his business had been pressured into personal bankruptcy, and considering that then, scores of previous consumers have occur forward alleging they did not obtain all or component of their settlements.
Girardi and his son-in-legislation David Lira, together with Kamon, also experience federal prison prices in Chicago in link with the misappropriation of $3 million from the Indonesian aircraft crash victims.
A trial in Chicago is scheduled for 2025.
