Former law heavyweight Tom Girardi was sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison on Tuesday, and was sentenced to torn $15 million from a client injured in a long-term Ponzi scheme.
Girardi, who turned 86 on Tuesday, was ordered to surrender to begin his prison sentence on July 17th.
He was also instructed to pay more than $2.3 million in compensation and fines.
The sentence came the day after US District Judge Josephine Staton said that despite Girardi’s age-related dementia, she would sentence him to prison instead of being placed in a long-term care facility.
During a nearly three-hour hearing on Monday, Staton heard testimony from two government health professionals and two defense witnesses, and ultimately determined that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons could properly house and care for Girardi despite his cognitive impairment.
Girardi rose to his feet and showed confusion about his past and perception of his current environment in downtown Los Angeles.
When he traveled recently, Girardi confidently replied to one of his lawyers, Sam Cross, that he had “crossed the country” and attended a “National Academy” meeting in Oklahoma, saying there was a “case” and a Buffalo, New York.
In fact, Girardi has been housed in the safe memory care section of an Orange County support facility for more than two years. Except for the six weeks he spent at the beginning of the year when he was psychologically evaluated at a federal facility in North Carolina.
Asked where he lives now, the embarrassing ex-head said “Pasadena,” and told his lawyer he would go to Girardi Keith, a law firm that closed at least five years ago and is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings after the hearing ended.
However, when he asked about the current issue, he replied, “severe amnesia.” The judge later seized the statement as evidence that Girardi had retained his self-awareness and had not lost all contact with reality.
In his argument, Cross said, according to his lawyers, the judge asked him not to send him to federal prison, but to leave at the aid facility where he lives, rather than to the aid facility where he lives.
“We believe he needs specialized care,” Cross told the judge, adding that the defendant is “frail, elderly” and is at risk of being “exploited or exploited” behind the bar.
However, Staton, from both BOP neuropsychologists and BOP forensic psychologists, Monday’s video testimony, along with Girardi’s own obvious self-awareness, helped convince her that Girardi could safely declare Girardi in a BOP facility.
“He will be designated as a suitable facility,” the judge concluded.
Prosecutors hope that Girardi served a 14-year sentence for his August 2024 conviction.
Once ranked among the nation’s most successful and well-known lawyers, Girardi stole millions from his clients and spent money on private jets, golf club memberships, jewelry and the career of his now-appearing wife.
In the forfeiture decision, Staton ordered Girardi to be liable for almost $3.8 million in reparations for committing what the prosecutor calls “an unning fraud scheme against injured clients who are sworn in to protect.”
Girardi’s “long-standing theft of client funds from his law firm trust account and countless lies he was told to cover up his theft represents the calculated and devastating betrayal of the very people who sought help in their darkest times,” the prosecutor wrote.
Previously known as a powerless advocate for class action litigation against businesses, Girardi represented the plaintiffs in many well-known cases, including Brian Stowe’s civil lawsuit against Major League Baseball.
Stowe was a San Francisco Giants fan who was seriously injured during a brutal attack in a parking lot at Dodger Stadium in 2011.
Girardi also represented the plaintiff in the toxic groundwater incident against Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which was dramatized in the Oscar-winning 2000 Julia Roberts film “Erin Broccovich.”
Girardi was convicted last summer of a massive 10-year scheme in which prosecutors said they siphoned at least $15 million in settlement funds from four clients. Girardi showed no visible response when the verdict was read. He suffers from some degree of dementia by all accounts, but was deemed capable of assisting in his own defense during trial, and even testified.
Chris Camon, 51, is a former accountant head of Girardi Keith, a now-abolized law firm in Girardi, and has been declared at the bar for more than a decade for allowing millions of dollars to embezzle from company clients and embezzle money from downtown Los Angeles companies.
Staton pleaded guilty to two wire fraud counts in October 2024, and ordered Camon to confiscate $3.1 million in the United States as part of his plea bargain.
Girardi’s estranged actress wife filed for divorce in November 2020 after 21 years of marriage. Following the split, the couple were selling their Pasadena home for a price of $13 million. Jane, 51, has not been charged in the lawsuit against her husband.
After Girardi was rejected in 2022, California Barr reported that he received more than 200 complaints against him, claiming that he misused the settlement money, abandoned his clients, and committed other serious ethical violations in his career four years later.
Girardi Keys collapsed in late 2020 after Girardi was accused of a lawsuit intended to be a client who represented the lawsuit in a plane crash in Indonesia.
So is the now embarrassing Wilshire Boulevard law firm, who is in bankruptcy proceedings and faces more than $500 million in his name.
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