UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. THOMAS V. GIRARDI, ET AL.

TAKE A PEEK AT THE LONG ANTICIPATED INDICTMENT HERE!

Here’s my little breakdown:

Tom Girardi, Christopher K. Kamon, and David R. Lira are charged with violations of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1343 and 2. AKA: WIRE FRAUD!! Such a Bravo-lebrity crime. There are 12 counts of wire fraud here. We will go through all 12 after we go through some basic legal jargon.

ILOTA Trust Account: This stands for Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts. Basically, all California (and most other states) lawyers or firms are required to keep these special types of trust accounts that build up interest. That interest benefits the client. So, if I’m your lawyer — which I’m not — and you’re getting divorced and you sell your home, we would put the money from the sale into an ILOTA account that builds interest. Then, once the Court gives its order regarding the funds, who they go to, and how much, the money and interest are disbursed to the parties.

Rules of Professional Conduct: Believe it or not, lawyers are required to follow a code of conduct. In California this subject is actually tested on the Bar exam. These rules tell you how to maintain your practice and interact with clients and the court. Attorneys have to pass what’s called the M.P.R.E., which is a test that tests your knowledge of these rules. If you don’t pass it, you can’t be an attorney.

Settlement Funds: Civil lawsuits generally end in someone paying money to another person(s). When you reach a settlement, it means that the parties agreed to a money amount to make the case go away. Then the court generally approves the settlement and dismisses the complaint.

Count One.

This is the longest section of the Indictment. Basically, when Tom repped the Lion Air victims, he took out a loan for $8 million to cover the expenses of the legal process until a settlement happened and attorney’s fees were paid. This is a normal way to operate when the cases are SO intensely huge. The USA alleges that when Girardi settled the Lion Air case with Boeing for $11-12 million total for Victims A, B, C, D, and E, he was ordered to disburse those funds to the clients, and then Boeing would wire a separate fee to the bank that loaned the $8 million, as and for attorney’s fees payment. Everyone would be paid, and everything would be done.

But what ended up happening is Girardi used that money to pay for Girardi Keese operating expenses, funding the payroll, paying Amex bills, funding OTHER clients settlements that were already stolen by GK, and then lying about all of it to cover his tracks. Kamon (the accountant) wrote checks to Girardi Keese from the ILOTA account with descriptions like, “miscellaneous case costs,” knowing full and well that this was unearned.

Since stealing from orphans wasn’t enough of a thrill, Girardi, Kamon, and Lira (Tom’s son in law) LIED about ever getting the funds from Boeing and never distributed them.

THEN, the government alleges that Tom, Kamon, and Lira were like, “ohhhh where’s the money? Yeah, we never got it because its COVID and things are delayed.”

When people were getting antsy and wanted their money, one of the Victims (Victim B), actually wrote to Girardi and asked for a LOAN of $40,000!!! Even though Boeing gave GK the whole $2 million!

To make it worse instead of better, Tom Girardi emailed Victim B a big fat lie and said, “We made an agreement with Boeing that all of the cases would be resolved. They gave us special authorization to distribute 50%.”

It went on like this for all of the victims. Ultimately, they all together lost over $3 million due to GK’s shenanigans.

Count one is specifically for emailing a settlement release signed by Victim B

Count 2.

Count two is specifically for “advancing” Victim B $40,000, to his bank account in Indonesia.

Count 3.

Count three is for lying about the delay of payments, blaming the delay on the Pandemic, and including that the government’s “Stay At Home” order was a factor in the delay as well.

Count 4.

Count 4 is for lying about receiving the settlement funds, GK’s failure to distribute the funds, and GK misappropriating the funds.

Count 5.

Count 5 is for emailing Client B stating, “We made an agreement with Boeing that all of the cases would be resolved. They gave us special authorization to distribute 50%”

Count 6.

Count 6 is for emailing Client C, “I got enough of the problem taken care of so we were able to release 50% of the settlement.”

Count 7.

Count 7 is for concealing and admitting facts including (1) that settlement funds were received, (2) GK failed to distribute the funds, (3) GK misappropriated funds, (4) the letters to the clients that lied about where the money was.

Count 8.

Count 8 is for sending communications about Victim E.

Count 9.

Count 9 is for failing to distribute settlement funds to Victim A.

Count 10.

Count 10 is for failing to distribute settlement funds to Victim B.

Count 11.

Count 11 is for failing to distribute settlement funds to Victim C.

Count 12.

Count 12 is for failing to distribute settlement funds to Victim D.

Forfeiture Allegation.

The US Gov believes they will get a judgment of $3,069,500.