Los Angeles attorney and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills husband Thomas Girardi was smacked with a 12-count indictment on Wednesday, accusing the showy lawyer of stealing settlement money from victims and clients.
He faces charges on eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of contempt of court. Girardi’s law partner of the now defunct firm Girardi-Keese, Christopher Kamon, and the head of their office’s accounting department, David Lira, face identical charges.
According to court documents, the trio perpetuated a scheme to defraud their clients, swindling more than $15 million from victims that included family members of the 189 people killed in the 2018 Boeing-Lion Air crash.
Weaponizing would-be temporary IOLTA accounts that only Girardi and Kamon carried the keys to, the trio held hostage multimillion-dollar settlement purses from clients who had long since been allocated the funds.
Together, Girardi, Kamon, and Lira lied about the status of settlement funds to victims, falsely blaming Boeing for delays and at other times pointing fingers at the COVID-19 pandemic for the frozen assets, prosecutors said.
Behind the scenes, the trio were parcelling the money out to other clients “whose own settlement funds had previously been misappropriated,” according to the indictment.
Elsewhere, Girardi used the money to cover payroll and operating expenses and to pay off mounting debt on American Express credit cards at two country clubs.
“The victims of this crime placed their faith in their attorneys during a time of great vulnerability,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Wheeler. “Taking advantage of victims of tragedy is a despicable act, and we will continue to seek justice for anyone who takes advantage of innocent Americans in their hour of need.”
