Former high-profile Southern California attorney Tom Girardi found guilty – NBC Los Angeles

Guilty verdicts were announced Tuesday morning in the criminal trial of former Southern California attorney Tom Girardi in federal court in Los Angeles. He is accused of running a Ponzi scheme for ten years and embezzling tens of millions of dollars in settlement payments from his clients.

Girardi, who has represented plaintiffs in a number of high-profile cases, is alleged to have accepted at least $15 million in settlements from four of his clients. The Seal Beach resident was found guilty on four counts of wire fraud.

The jury began deliberations on Monday before leaving the session on the 12th day of the trial.

Girardi reportedly spent the settlement money on private jets, golf club memberships, jewelry and the career of his now estranged wife, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne.

“Tom Girardi built a celebrity status and lured victims by falsely portraying himself as a 'champion of justice,'” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. “In reality, he was a reverse Robin Hood, stealing from the needy to fund a lavish Hollywood lifestyle. Today's verdict shows that the game is over – we can all now see this defendant for what he was and the victims he callously betrayed.”

Girardi, 85, suffers from dementia but was found capable of defending himself.

Prosecutors believe the fraud scheme lasted from 2010 to 2020 and that far more former clients were involved than the four in the current case.

“He wanted the outside world to believe he was fighting for people who could not help themselves,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ali Moghaddas said in his closing argument to the jury on Monday.

Moghadds said clients waiting for settlement payments had to wait “days to months and months to years.”

Charles Snyder, an assistant public defender representing the defendant, told the jury that his client's cognitive impairments had worsened over the years. Employees of the defendant's now-closed law firm, Girardi Keese, had stolen money “en masse,” he said.

“Girardi wasn’t paying close attention,” Snyder said.

On Thursday, Girardi was the last witness called to testify by his lawyers.

“Every customer got every cent they were supposed to get,” he claimed.

The defendant blamed his firm's former chief accountant, Chris Kamon, for the missing money. Kamon, 50, is scheduled to stand trial separately in January on wire fraud charges. He is accused of embezzling around $50 million from Girardi Keese accounts.

Girardi was once known as a defender of the powerless in class action lawsuits against corporations. His high-profile cases include Bryan Stow's civil suit against Major League Baseball. Stow was the San Francisco Giants fan who suffered serious injuries in an attack in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

Girardi also represented plaintiffs in the toxic groundwater case against Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which was dramatized in the 2000 Oscar-winning Julia Roberts film “Erin Brockovich.”

Jayne filed for divorce from Girardi in 2020 after 21 years of marriage. After the separation, the couple put their Pasadena home up for sale for $13 million. Jayne was not charged in the case against her husband.