REVEALED: Huge Wad Of Cash Disgraced Tom Girardi STILL owes Client
Disgraced attorney Tom Girardi still owes $11 million to a client - 11 years after a legal settlement for the terrible injuries he suffered in a gas explosion that also took the life of his girlfriend, a federal court in Los Angeles heard Wednesday. Joe Ruigomez, 33, and his family hired the once top attorney to sue California utility giant PG&E after the fiery 2010 pipeline explosion destroyed his San Bruno, CA home, putting him in a coma for two months, he told the jury of seven men and five women on the second day of Girardi's trial.
Girardi and his family reached a settlement with PG&E three years later in which Ruigomez was to receive $5 million plus an annuity, he said. And when Ruigomez asked to see the full settlement agreement, Girardi promised to send it to him. ‘But he never did.' Tom Girardi arrives at the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse on August 7, 2024. A former client of Girardi's, Joe Ruigomez, said the disgraced lawyer still owes him $11 million from a 2010 settlement The sham attorney, who co-founded the now-bankrupt Girardi & Keese, was featured on the Bravo reality show, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, baejewels.com alongside Erika Jayne, his third wife Read More Tom Girardi used clients' money 'like a personal piggy bank' - court Girardi, 85 - estranged husband satgasjitu of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne - is charged with four counts of wire fraud in which he allegedly cheated clients out of $15 million in settlement funds they were owed for injuries they suffered.
He's pleaded not guilty to all the charges. The former super lawyer - who showed up at court Wednesday in a gray jacket, open-neck blue check shirt, slot gacor black pants and white sneakers built a powerful legal firm after his fight against a utility company inspired the Oscar-winning movie Erin Brockovich. But Girardi's high-flying career collapsed in 2020 when he was accused of stealing millions in settlements he'd won for the victims of the 2018 Lion Air plane crash in Indonesia.
Claims from that crash - in which 189 people died - are the basis of separate criminal charges against Girardi that are still pending in Chicago. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges as well. Federal prosecutors in LA on day one of the trial Tuesday maintain that between 2010 and 2020 the shamed attorney - who is facing 20 years in prison if convicted - lied to clients and used their misappropriated millions to pay for his own lavish lifestyle of ‘private jets, luxury cars, expensive jewelry' with his third wife, ex-go-go dancer Jayne, 52, including $20 million to fund her acting career.
Jayne previously said she no longer talks to her estranged husband. They're seen in 2016 above Girardi faces 20 years in prison if convicted of embezzling millions from his clients Meanwhile Girardi's defense attorneys claim that it was not their client but his law firm's chief executive, Christopher Kamon, 49, who plundered the victims' settlement funds, slot gacor embezzling some $50 million. And they claim that Kamon took advantage of Girardi's dementia which prevented him from keeping track of his company's business affairs.
Kamon has been charged with wire fraud charges similar to Girardi's, but is being tried separately.
