A federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced Tom Girardi to 10 years in prison Friday for stealing millions of dollars in settlement funds from clients who stole disappointed lawyers.
U.S. District Court Judge Josephine Staton imposed the term after the hearing, which oversees the company's bankruptcy trustees accused Christopher Kamon of ongoing efforts to hide stolen funds, including her recently discovered bank accounts in Hungary and the Bahamas.
“Mr. Kamon joined Mr. Girardi’s actions,” said trustee Elissa Miller. She told the judge about the phone call that she had to tell former Girardi Keese clients that expect millions of legal settlements, and they would receive only $750, saying the conversation was “just a horror clip of the case.”
Kamon, a 51-year-old former Torrence senior math teacher, conducted a decade and a half to Girardi Keese’s bank account before the company went bankrupt in 2020. During that period, the practice of Wilhill Avenue was a program as a Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said, among other things, funded the luxury lifestyle and music career of his wife.
After Girardi was convicted last year, Kamon reached a deal with prosecutors who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted that he had frequently transferred money from client trust accounts from Girardi's direction. In one case of assistant citation. American attorney Scott Paetty, Kamon, removed $50,000 in settlement funds from a client, a widow whose husband died in a boating accident, allowing the attorney to pay bills at two country clubs. In another, he moved out $128,500 in settlement funds, which was attributed to a woman injured in medical equipment so that Girardi could cover the rental of two luxury cars.
Kamon also admitted that in 2013, it launched its own independent program – from the prosecutor's words, “theft case-theft case” – stolen from Girardi. He used fake suppliers and kickbacks to misappropriate the $6.5 million of remodeled properties he owned in Encino and Palos and Palos Verdes, as well as gifts and a monthly allowance of $20,000 per month for the women he met on the escort website.
How should Girardi and Kamon allocate responsibilities since the fall of Girardi four years ago. After the creditor bankrupted him in 2021, financial records emerged with solid money, including settlements of clients who owe catastrophic injuries, involving many personal purposes: breast implants, employee college tuition, apartments in Santa Monica, Girardi's mistress, gucci for a Gucci for a Grone Consecrant for a Grice Consult for Will Consegant and $75 billion in diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond diamond after creditor bankruptcy in 2021, financial records show that the creditor broke him bankrupted him in 2021. The financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor broke his financial records show that the creditor led him to
During Girardi's August trial, his lawyer argued that the 85-year-old lawyer made dementia debilitating, Kamon used his condition to steal from clients.
The jurors seem to have purchased the argument, but instead convicted four counts of wire fraud.
Kamon appeared as a participant in a minor who followed the instructions of a boss, a legend in the field of law and his personal hero. Kamon recalled in a letter to the court that he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer after working as a company accountant in 2000 for only three months. Despite his unemployment for a year, Girardi kept him full salary.
“I owe him life as far as I am concerned,” he wrote. Girardi promoted him to head of the accounting office in 2004, gave him a used Porsche and paid enough that he could support his financially bound parents, writing, “I believe Mr. Girardi and believe him, I don’t want to see or believe he is stealing from clients.”
During the sentencing hearing, Kumon apologized several times, wearing ankle ties and a white jumpsuit, told the judge that he wanted her to know “I'm not a terrible person. I'm trying to correct this as much as I can.”
Bankruptcy trustee Miller objected to his alleged cooperation. She said Camon refused to facilitate the sale of his $2.4 million seaside mansion in the Bahamas, but did not find more than $1 million in Hungary and the Bahamas Bank.
Judge Staton said she found his apology “ambiguity” and claimed that he was just following Girardi’s instructions “a bit hollow” because he was a mastermind who personally benefited from his separate plans. She said that given the length of Girardi Keese's plan, he had no previous criminal record and was not convincing.
“For many years, the defendant committed fraud almost every day,” she said, ordering him to pay $8.9 million in compensation.
Girardi and Kamon face additional federal charges in Chicago about the use of millions of dollars settlements in families of victims of plane crashes. His attorney Michael Severo said in court Friday that Camon was negotiating a plea agreement.
Girardi has not been sentenced in the Los Angeles case. Prosecutors are seeking a 14-year term. His attorney believes that due to his cognitive decline, he should stay in a nursing home in Orange County rather than being sent to jail. He conducted a medical assessment at the federal prison in Batner, North Carolina earlier this year and based on an application from an attorney this week, experts there concluded that he does not need special treatment.
A forensic psychologist and neuropsychologist evaluated him: “It is certain that Mr. Gillardi is not only safe but properly imprisoned [the federal prison system]…At present, he doesn't even have to put it in a specialized medical facility. “The lawyer wrote. He will return to court in May.
