Tom Girardi testifies in fraud trial despite dementia allegations and denies stealing millions

Tom Girardi took the stand to face cross-examination in his long-awaited criminal fraud trial on Thursday – despite being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and dementia three years ago.

The former head of the now-defunct law firm Girardi & Keese – who is facing charges for allegedly embezzling $15 million from his clients from 2010 to 2020 – strongly denied any wrongdoing.

“The last thing I would do is take money from someone,” Girardi said on the witness stand at a downtown Los Angeles courthouse, according to Courthouse News Service. “I wouldn't think of doing that.”

During his testimony, he allegedly repeated several times that he had never paid himself a salary.

When asked about the missing settlement payments in the case of Joe Ruigomez, a young man who suffered severe burns from a gas line, Girardi claimed he never lied about how much was owed to his former client.

“I wouldn't have said that,” the disqualified lawyer said when asked why he told Ruigomez his settlement would be $5 million instead of $53 million. “I never intentionally told anyone the wrong thing.”

Girardi then reportedly said he was told Ruigomez allegedly had a “really bad drug problem” and claimed that the judge in the young man's case “was very strict and said you had to stretch the money.”

According to the Courthouse News Service, evidence from the Internal Revenue Service showed that Ruigomez's money was spent “almost immediately” to repay Girardi's old clients.

However, the former lawyer denied the allegations and stated: “I had no intention of – quote – stealing money.”

Girardi also blamed his former client's former chief financial officer Chris Kamon for his former client's alleged mismanagement.

“He stole a lot of money,” the estranged husband of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne is said to have said. “Of course we didn't know anything about it.”

He later said in the hearing, according to the report: “I don't know much. But he was very adept at stealing millions of dollars.”

Although Girardi was declared competent to stand trial in January, he reportedly showed signs of memory loss on Thursday.

When asked if he remembered Ruigomez’s statement, which he attended, he said: “No.”

Girardi's attorney, Samuel Cross, then asked him about the testimony of his former longtime assistant, Shirleen Fujimoto, who testified earlier in the week, and he reportedly replied, “No, I didn't see that.”

When asked if his company was still open, Girardi reportedly answered “yes,” even though it closed in 2021.

And when Cross finally asked his client his name, he replied, “I don't know. Bad? Mean? Awful? Something like that.”

Prosecutors first took legal action against Girardi in December 2020, around the time he was hospitalized for a “serious illness.”

His brother, Robert Girardi, then claimed the following January that the disgraced lawyer was suffering from short-term memory loss.

Robert was then appointed as Tom's temporary guardian. Since autumn 2021, the former lawyer has been living in a senior citizens' facility because he claims he can no longer care for himself.

Jayne, who filed for divorce from Tom in November 2021, confirmed claims that her ex was suffering from mental decline.

The 53-year-old “RHOBH” star exclusively told Page Six in May 2022: “I answer his call and it never lasts more than 10 seconds… And sometimes he thinks I'm someone else… so there's a lot of that.”

Lawyers for both sides in the Tom fraud case will reportedly make closing arguments on Monday.

Tom is charged with four counts of fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.