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Tom Girardi, the once-vaunted Los Angeles proceedings attorney, was indicted by national expansive juries successful 2 states connected fraud charges that allege helium swindled much than $18 cardinal from respective clients who had endured catastrophic injuries oregon tragic deaths of loved ones, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
In Chicago, Girardi and his son-in-law, lawyer David Lira, and the erstwhile main fiscal serviceman of Girardi’s instrumentality firm, Christopher Kamon, were charged with eight counts of ligament fraud and 4 counts of contempt of court. Prosecutors said the trio had misappropriated much than $3 cardinal successful colony funds meant for widows and orphans whose relatives had perished successful a Boeing level clang disconnected the seashore of Indonesia.
In Los Angeles, Girardi was charged with ligament fraud successful an indictment that accuses him of embezzling much than $15 cardinal from clients and utilizing the funds to screen his instrumentality firm’s payroll and wage his idiosyncratic expenses, including a hefty American Express measure and fees astatine 2 state clubs. The L.A. lawsuit besides includes charges against Kamon, the erstwhile CFO, and indicates that helium and his brag “devised, participated in, and executed a strategy to defraud unfortunate clients” from 2010 until the firm, Girardi Keese, collapsed successful precocious 2020.
The prosecution marks the latest section successful the stunning downfall of an lawyer who cultivated adjacent ties with mayors, governors, senators, judges and Supreme Court justices, and who was revered — and feared — by chap attorneys successful California and beyond for the landmark settlements helium brokered and the almighty officials helium called his friends.
The brace of indictments follows extended reporting by The Times connected however Girardi corrupted the ineligible strategy for fiscal summation and eluded subject by the State Bar of California — the entity that regulates attorneys — contempt decades of credible accusations of misappropriating his clients’ money.
“Mr. Girardi was wide celebrated for being a champion of those warring against corporations, but our probe has revealed that, successful fact, Mr. Girardi was robbing and stealing from those people,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. lawyer successful L.A., said astatine a quality league Wednesday. Estrada said the charges constituent to “corruption by 1 of the astir high-profile plaintiff’s lawyers successful the country.”
“He claimed to beryllium warring for those who are little fortunate,” Estrada added, “but our probe has revealed that down this nationalist persona, Mr. Girardi and Mr. Kamon were committing fraud connected a monolithic scale.”
In Chicago, U.S. Atty. John R. Lausch Jr. said of Lira and Girardi: “Attorneys who interruption the spot of their clients and breach a fiduciary work that is paramount to the signifier of instrumentality indispensable beryllium held accountable.”
Representatives for Girardi, Lira and Kamon did not instantly respond to requests for comment. Girardi was expected to look successful national tribunal successful downtown L.A. connected Monday.
Between the 2 cases, Girardi faces 13 counts of ligament fraud; each number carries a maximum punishment of 20 years successful prison.
The prosecution of the 83-year-old erstwhile attorney, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease by a doc successful March 2021, sets the signifier for a ineligible conflict implicit whether Girardi is acceptable to basal trial.
Now surviving successful a representation attraction installation successful Orange County, Girardi is taxable to a court-ordered conservatorship that gives his younger brother, Robert, a dentist successful Seal Beach, authorization to marque decisions for him astir healthcare and finances. Conservatorship records bespeak that Girardi has been prescribed medicine for dementia and is besides suffering from blindness successful 1 oculus and “hearing issues.”
In L.A. ineligible circles, galore person questioned whether the tribunal fable claimed dementia to debar the consequences of his misconduct. The archetypal assertion that helium has superior cognitive problems was done a transgression defence lawyer astatine a December 2020 hearing wherever a national tribunal justice was confronting him with grounds that helium had stolen millions from clients.
Officials from the State Bar of California adjacent went to tribunal to situation the conservatorship a fewer weeks aft the diagnosis, saying that the proceeding was occurring nether “highly antithetic circumstances” and that the grounds of impairment was “sparse.” In a filing, they noted that successful the period earlier the assertion of cognitive problems, Girardi had hosted a continuing acquisition people for lawyers connected analyzable litigation strategies. Agency officials asked for much extended neurological investigating for the lawyer, but the petition was denied.
Asked astir Girardi’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis connected Wednesday, Estrada said: “We permission it for the tribunal to find competency issues.”
He noted that the indictment charges behaviour from 2010 to 2020, erstwhile Girardi was a practicing attorney. “We judge the grounds shows his competency during that time,” Estrada said.
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