Ex-CFO Christopher Kamon ‘Tom Girardi’s Law Firm’ to plead guilty to wire fraud.
The former chief financial officer of Tom Girardi’s law firm has agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud charges, admitting that he and Girardi collaborated to defraud clients of millions in settlement funds. In a plea agreement submitted on Tuesday afternoon, Christopher Kamon, the former CFO, consented to forfeit $3.1 million and plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud, in return for the dismissal of all other charges against him in Los Angeles.
He is also facing a separate indictment in Chicago. Kamon, aged 51, is set to enter his guilty plea on Friday in downtown Los Angeles. He has been in federal custody since his arrest in December 2022. His attorney, Michael Severo, declined to comment when reached late Tuesday. This agreement follows a jury’s recent verdict that found the 85-year-old Girardi, a once-prominent plaintiffs’ attorney, guilty of four counts of wire fraud.
Both individuals were scheduled to stand trial together this summer; however, a judge decided to separate their cases after defense attorneys argued that their strategies were fundamentally opposed, with each intending to blame the other. During Girardi’s trial, his legal team consistently attempted to shift responsibility onto Kamon, asserting that the individual managing the firm’s numerous bank accounts was the architect of the extensive fraud.
As part of the plea agreement, Kamon affirmed the truthfulness of a seven-page statement in which he confessed that he and Girardi conspired to execute a prolonged scheme to deceive and mislead clients. Kamon, who led the firm’s accounting department from 2004 onwards, indicated that Girardi would call him each morning to inquire about the law firm’s bank account balances. “When the Girardi Keese operating accounts were low, defendant Kamon would relay this information to defendant Girardi,
” the plea agreement specifies. Girardi would then direct Kamon to transfer funds from client trust accounts and record the transfer as “attorney fees,” according to the agreement.
Even if attorney fees had already been withdrawn, Kamon stated in the plea agreement that “Girardi would instruct him to ‘do it anyways.'” This practice was reportedly common at Girardi Keese, and other senior attorneys in the firm were aware of it. Kamon further admitted that between 2013 and 2020, he and others orchestrated a scheme referred to as a “side fraud,” during which he embezzled funds from Girardi Keese by creating fictitious vendors to produce fraudulent invoices billed to the law firm.
The funds misappropriated from the firm were used by Kamon to finance construction projects at his residences in Palos Verdes and Encino, as detailed in the plea agreement.
The charges to which Kamon has pleaded guilty carry a potential maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, in addition to fines and three years of supervised release.
As part of the agreement, federal prosecutors will pursue a two-level reduction in his sentence and will also recommend “the low end” of the prison term outlined by federal sentencing guidelines. The plea agreement does not seem to affect another ongoing criminal case against Kamon.
He and Girardi are facing charges in federal court in Chicago, where prosecutors allege that they misappropriated $3 million from settlements intended for the widows and orphans of a Boeing 737-Max crash in Indonesia.
About: Thomas Girardi
Thomas Vincent Girardi, born on June 3, 1939, is a former lawyer and co-founder of the now-defunct law firm Girardi & Keese, located in downtown Los Angeles.
In 2022, he was disbarred following allegations of client fraud. He is currently separated from his third wife, Erika Jayne, a performer with whom he made occasional appearances on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills at their residence in Pasadena.
In August 2024, he was convicted of embezzling tens of millions of dollars from his clients and is scheduled for sentencing in December 2024. Additionally, he is set to face another trial in 2025 in Chicago concerning similar fraud allegations.
Tom Girardi completed his secondary education at Loyola High School in Los Angeles, graduating in 1957. He earned his undergraduate degree from Loyola Marymount University in 1961, followed by a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School in 1964, and a Master of Laws from New York University in 1965.
Girardi was honored with the “Distinguished Alumnus Award” and the “Champion of Justice” accolade, and he also held a position on the faculty at Loyola Law School. Furthermore, in 2012, he established the Thomas V. Girardi Chair in Consumer Protection Law and contributed to the development of the Albert H. Girardi Advocacy Center, which was named in tribute to his father. However, following Girardi’s legal issues, the institution decided to remove his father’s name from the Advocacy Center and ceased funding for the Girardi Chair.
Divorce
In August 1964, Girardi entered into matrimony with his first spouse, Karen Weitzul, who subsequently initiated divorce proceedings in October 1983. He then wed Kathy Risner in September 1993, but she filed for divorce in January 1998. Kathy passed away in May 2018. In January 2000, at the age of 60, Girardi married his third wife, Erika Jayne, a 28-year-old singer and actress who gained fame as a cast member of the reality television series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Erika Jayne
He made appearances in several episodes of the show alongside her. In November 2020, Erika Girardi publicly declared their separation and revealed that she had filed for divorce. In February 2021, Girardi was placed under a temporary conservatorship due to experiencing short-term memory loss, and in March 2021, he received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. His brother, Robert, a dentist, was appointed as the permanent conservator in July 2021.
What is Tom Girardi’s net worth?
In 2022, Tom faced disbarment due to allegations of client theft, which revealed that he had been embezzling funds from those he represented. This incident marked a significant fall from grace following a lengthy and successful career in law, during which he notably participated in a high-profile lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric that culminated in a $333 million settlement, a case that was later portrayed in the film Erin Brockovich. While estimates of Tom’s net worth have reached as high as $264 million, it is likely that his actual wealth is nearer to $100 million.