LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Disbarred celebrity attorney Tom Girardi was convicted Tuesday of embezzling tens of millions of dollars from his clients, including some with serious bodily injuries and families of people killed in accidents.
After a 13-day trial and less than a full day of deliberations, a federal jury in Los Angeles found 85-year-old Girardi guilty of four counts of bank fraud.
Girardi is the estranged husband of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, and appeared on the show herself dozens of times between 2015 and 2020.
He was once one of the country’s most prominent lawyers, often representing victims of major disasters against powerful corporations. One lawsuit against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in California led to a $333 million settlement and was portrayed in the 2000 Julia Roberts film “Erin Brockovich.”
But his law empire collapsed and in 2022 he was disbarred in California for stealing from clients.
Former clients who have testified against Girardi include an Arizona woman whose husband died in a boating accident and victims who were burned in a 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, south of San Francisco.
“Tom Girardi built a celebrity status and lured victims by falsely portraying himself as a ‘Champion of Justice,’” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement after the verdict. “In reality, he was a Robin-Hood-in-reverse.”
An email to Girardi’s attorneys seeking comment on the sentencing was not immediately returned.
During the trial, defense attorneys tried to pin the blame for the thefts on his company’s chief financial officer, Chris Kamon, who is charged separately and has pleaded not guilty. In recent years, they have portrayed Girardi purely as a figurehead, with a valuable name.
Prosecutors played jurors’ voicemails in which Girardi gave a litany of false reasons why money a court awarded could not be paid, including tax and debt obligations and authorizations from judges. He often said to them, “Don’t be angry with me.”
Girardi’s attorneys had also argued that he was not competent to stand trial because he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Problems with his memory had led to another court placing him under guardianship under his brother.
But prosecutors believed Girardi exaggerated his symptoms, and a judge ruled he was competent to stand trial.
Girardi could face as many as 80 years in prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for December. A judge has released him until then.
Girardi also faces federal fraud charges in Chicago, where he is accused of stealing about $3 million from relatives of victims of a 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people.
