Thomas Girardi was seen leaving court on Thursday after taking the stand in his fraud trial.
After being called by his attorney as the last witness in the case, the 85-year-old now-disbarred attorney and estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, 53, was said to have made a “confused-looking” appearance outside of the courthouse.
According to an August 22 report from Daily Mail, Thomas testified in his own defense during the hearing, which saw him denying any wrongdoing as he faced four counts of wire fraud.
As RHOBH fans well know, Thomas has been accused of stealing a whopping $15 million in settlement funds from former clients of his now-defunct law firm, Girardi Keese, between 2010 and 2020. And while his team insisted he was unfit to stand trial, citing cognitive decline, a judge ruled that he was competent earlier this year.
During his court appearance on Thursday, Thomas pleaded not guilty to all charges, claiming “every client got every penny that every client was supposed to get.”
After his former clients gave testimonies over the past two weeks about how they trusted him before losing millions of dollars, Thomas took the stand and answered a series of questions, first from his own attorney, Samuel Cross.
After painting Girardi Keese in a positive light, saying that the former business, which was in operation for decades, was both successful and well-respected, and that he was a generous employer to his staff, Thomas suggested the firm was still open.
“The firm was doing so well because of the wonderful people who worked there and still work there,” Thomas said.
“Is your law firm still open, Tom?” his attorney asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
Then, when the attorney asked him what his name was, Thomas said, “I don’t know. Bad, mean, terrible, it’s one of those.”
Kiki Monique of Instagram‘s The Talk of Shame was in attendance, and she recalled Thomas stating repeatedly that he was not paid by the firm because he had chosen to put his clients’ needs ahead of his own. She also revealed he said he worked more than 50 hours each week, and he had mentioned his lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric, which the film Erin Brockovich was based on, and acknowledged Julia Roberts‘ role in the movie.
When his lawyer mentioned cases in which he had allegedly misappropriated client funds, including his case for burn victim Joseph Ruigomez, he suggested he’d done no wrong.
Judy Selberg, whose husband was the victim of a boat accident, told the court that Thomas didn’t respond when she was stiffed settlement funds. Meanwhile, Thomas said he didn’t know who was in charge of her case.
When accusations of embezzlement were mentioned, Thomas signaled Chris Kamon, his ex-chief financial officer, saying he was good at stealing large amounts of money. He even said that if he had known about his former CFO’s alleged theft, he would’ve taken action against him.
During a cross-examination from Assistant U.S. Attorney Ali Moghaddas, Thomas was asked about his health.
“I don’t know. We’ll find out,” Thomas replied.
Thomas then denied lying to the Ruigomez family about the $53 million settlement he secured on their behalf, which he was accused of suggesting was just $5 million.
He then accused Joseph and another client of having drug problems and said he never used client funds to purchase Erika’s jewelry.
Closing arguments will be made in the days ahead.
