Tom Girardi was accused of defrauding his legal clients by stealing their money in order to fund an extravagant lifestyle. And allegedly, some of that money was channeled into his estranged wife, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne’s pop star career. It is XXpensiv$ive to be her, I guess. Now the jury has handed down its verdict, and Tom is no longer an innocent man.
Tom Girardi found guilty of embezzlement
Prosecutors laid out their case, stating that, between 2010 and 2020, Tom stole $20 million dollars and lied to his clients. In their closing arguments, they said that the disgraced attorney ran a “massive Ponzi scheme.”
Vanity Fair reported that the jury came back after deliberating for less than a full day. Tom was declared guilty of embezzling from his legal clients, to the tune of more than $15 million. Tom tried his best to defend himself, even stating on the stand that his firm, Girardi & Keese, is still open and operating.
“I didn’t intentionally ever tell somebody the wrong thing,” he told the federal jury. In reality, the law firm filed for bankruptcy in 2020. The defense had previously claimed that Tom suffered from dementia, but he was found competent to stand trial.
Victims, who were usually those who suffered a terrible loss or were involved in a tragedy, made Tom’s actions even worse. “He would always butter me up. Call me ‘babe’ and stuff like that,” one victim said on the stand. “They were just reopening wounds that we were trying to close,” another victim stated.
Tom has faced a multitude of lawsuits during the past few years, relating to missing client settlement funds. Then he was indicted on federal fraud charges in Los Angeles and Chicago. He was also disbarred. Hopefully, all of Tom’s victims feel a measure of justice today.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is streaming on Peacock (without Tom Girardi.)
