Part 108: The Tom Girardi Wire Fraud Conviction – Justice Served Cold in Los Angeles
Published August 30, 2024
Photo of government buildings in downtown Los Angeles and the US 101 freeway in the evening from the Hill Street bridge by the author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).
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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
The verdict came in timely fashion as usual for federal prosecutors. United States Assistant Attorney’s Ali Moghaddas and Scott Paetty had done their job, and their bosses, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, E. Martin Estrada, and Mack Jenkins, Criminal Division Chief in Los Angeles, were in the courtroom. Moghaddas passed whistleblower Kimberly Archie in the hallway atrium outside. “I’m proud of you,” he told her in typical style for what corrupt attorney Tom Girardi’s victims had taken to calling “The Boy Scouts.” The phrasing elicited a certain hope that the criminality they had fallen victim to, Archie included, would finally meet its end in the First Street Courthouse. “The Cube” opened in 2016, totaling 10 stories and 633,000 square feet. “That’s all I wanted,” said Archie, who, following the guilty verdict on four counts of wire fraud, would give a tearful interview on the courthouse steps.
The balding, silver-haired Girardi sat in court, his assigned public defenders having failed to compel Archie’s testimony in his defense. A desperate last ditch attempt to target the person who had finally succeeded in turning him into the authorities. Girardi who had made more than $2.5 million in political donations right up until the point where his vaunted law firm, the stuff of Julia Roberts in “Erin Brockovich,” had gone bankrupt. Girardi now faces sentencing barring a legal miracle on December 6, 2024, at 1:30 pm before Judge Josephine L. Staton, the jury of common people having done its duty after little more than several hours of deliberation. The Los Angeles Times headline said it all: “‘It wasn’t a hard decision,’ juror says.” All speculation that Girardi, who had so successfully escaped accountability despite something approaching 200 complaints made against him going back decades with the State Bar of California ended.
The now frumpy old man whisked out daily to his caregiver’s car nominally to return a senior citizen center in Orange County had famously been found competent after alleging that his diagnosed dementia was so severe that he was incompetent. Against the advice of his own attorney’s, the now infamous attorney had taken the stand in his own defense, denying all culpability. It was an unsurprising move for Girardi, who could be seen periodically consulting with his federal public defenders, including prior to closings like the coach he wanted to be, a master persuader. A clip played from “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” where he cameoed alongside wife Erika Girardi had said it all, Girardi viewed himself as a master in the art of persuasion contrasting kinder and harsher approaches to what was ultimately, dishonesty.
Girardi faces more time in prison than he will assuredly live! An elite attorney, Elissa Sulmeyer of the Los Angeles based law firm Sulmeyer Kupetz was assigned as part of Chapter 7 bankruptcy to oversee the distribution and collection of assets. The firm’s webpage announcing the appointment quotes Law360, “to immediately enter onto the premises of the debtor and take possession of the books and records, accounts, and all aspects of the debtor.” A different lawyer, Jason Rund, of “Sheridan & Rund PC was appointed as the Trustee of Tom Girardi’s individual bankruptcy.” Neither immediately returned a request for comment on how much money has been recovered and returned to victims. Their impact statements will be read at sentencing, no doubt, Girardi’s theft was more than mere inconvenience as prosecutors charged and victims recounted in the courtroom. Girardi had preyed upon them in the worst moments of their lives.
Before the trial in three parts and throughout the case and afterwards in five updates, Archie along with other victims, charged and uncharged such as Nancy Marston, Josie Hernandez, and Danny Barnes had worked with TruBlu journalist Chris Hansen worked to produce a podcast. “Predator In Plain Sight: Exposing Tom Girardi,” a production of Hurrdat Entertainment, features the unvarnished aspirations of the victims for their day of deliverance, of justice long deferred. In the final episode, Archie says emphatically: “the rest of the country is learning who Tom Girardi is,” and Barnes simply concludes, “look at the system that’s broke, that’s used to stand-up” the now proven corruption. Hernandez says about Erika Jayne’s still planned unapologetic appearance on Bravo, “I’m not surprised at all, Erika is out for Erika, Erika only cares about Erika.” Archie who had taken on the role of victims advocate says that what they want is, “To know that their pain wasn’t for nothing, that them coming forward…that it won’t be for nothing.”
Josie Hernandez, a charged victim, defrauded by Girardi after a botched surgery says simply, “I hope that he rots in jail.” Archie doesn’t believe that Girardi will ever admit his crime, stating unequivocally, “If for some reason, he doesn’t die by natural causes prior to being remanded to custody, I think he would take his own life before he would ever spend one day behind bars.” To which Chris Hansen, famous for catching sexual predators showing up for non-existent sexual dates with minors states in almost disbelief, “the celebrity horror spectacle” like something out of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness reiterating that he’s “never seen a case like this…for the integrity of the legal system in California.” Barnes, who contracted cancer at age 27 while working for Lockheed Martin says, “I have seen in the past, where you have criminals on this level…where the prosecutor upon sentencing gives them the time, but a deal, if you go find some of this money, we can knock down a few years.” Barnes had told the Los Angeles Times, “the dude is the devil,” an unsparing description that was soon removed with an update.
Perhaps though, it’s Marston who will stick with me, a drug and alcohol abuse counselor, and the author of her own book, The Serpent's Tooth: A Memoir which promises to tell “of a courageous mother who fights tirelessly for the life of her daughter—a successful young film actress led criminally astray by a controlling older man—and her husband—a highly-decorated fire captain who falls prey to drugs.” Often I would sit with Marston in court, who didn’t miss a day, her long ago case having been handled by Girardi and son-in-law David Lira. Lira, along with CFO Chris Kamon will face a jury next year in Chicago for having defrauded the victims of the Lion Air jet crash in Indonesia in 2018. Standing in front of the courthouse after the verdict waiting for Girardi to exit, Marston and I looked down to find a red tail hawk feather, a sign.
Before sentencing, there will be additional filings from both the government and public defenders as Girardi’s motion to dismiss had been “reserved” by Judge Staton, a normal procedure in such cases. Throughout the trial, the veteran jurist, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010 to the bench, and before that by Governor Gray Davis to the Orange County Superior Court had been largely congenial even to Girardi’s public defenders, tasked with the thankless job of defending someone everyone just about assumed was guilty on the basis of his lavish lifestyle. Even as prosecutors produced no smoking gun piece of evidence connecting Girardi and the rest of the firm, including Kamon, the final bookkeeper and four other attorney’s whom the testimony of IRS agent Ryan Roberson disclosed had received target letters, indicating that the government has enough evidence to charge with a crime, the judge had keep the court room in good order. The Los Angeles Times had headlined these individuals as “underlings,” when in fact, Christopher Aumais, Robert Finnerty, Keith Griffin and David Lira were all grown adults, attorneys who should have known better and never gone along with anything less than the full adherence to the law.
Staton had wisely banned electronics from the court room to the annoyance of reporters. This forced laptops to be left outside and cell phones turned off and placed by court staff into fabric bags designed to suppress all possible sound. If the trial proved anything, it’s that the steely reverence of St. Louis, Missouri born Honorable Judge Staton was more than just prudent. Ironically, the one journalist who had most bemoaned the order, even writing that it was prohibitive was the one whose cell phone went off at verdict, before the rest ran out to hurriedly tweet out the conclusion, guilty, guilty, guilty, and guilty again. Girardi had previously apologized to the judge for the same infraction. One day, Marston and I along with another journalist had skipped out to attend a status hearing for the upcoming tax evasion trial of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, which plans to allow laptops for note taking purposes. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Meghann Cuniff, even though I might not be social media famous, but there’s something to be said for being old-fashioned, taking notes by hand, even as Girardi famously eschewed email even as he loved television sets and having a Times square billboard.
The weirdness of Tom Girardi and Erika Jayne, the lack of finality in seeing them both brought before a judge with the integrity of Staton will persist. There’s actually something quite refreshing about rising to the call of the clerk for the judge, even as we fight over the very act of voting by mail, the resoluteness of jurisprudence still answers. Attorney Mark Geragos who might rival only Girardi in the celebrity factor arena for litigators will represent the younger Biden, and in briefly addressing the media following status conference, he had raised one question, whether Hunter could get a fair trial. Let there be no question, Girardi was treated fairly under the law, even with respect to a fault, as Paetty who might have made a great baseball umpire fairly called the balls and the strikes. Girardi knew what he was doing better than anyone from 2010-2020 even as he indulged in outlandish conspiracy theories in the vain hope that his political connections would save him. Referenced only occasionally, it’s unclear just how much money politicians can much less should return to the trustees or to charity.
I’ll hope that Archie, Hernandez, Barnes and Marston, as well as the others see their due payment, and if needed that a jurist takes up the task again sooner rather than later. It’s one thing to see punishment meted out, but another to experience true justice, and perhaps nowhere is that more possible in Los Angeles than in the federal courthouse. Even as we waited for Girardi to do the proverbial so-called perp walk, yet another young man, clearly convicted of serious crimes walked to the entrance to surrender to U.S. Marshals, blue-coated, firm as ever. The family cried, all of which makes you wonder if Erika Jayne had shed a single tear for the victims. The paparazzi stalked her after the verdict, widely broadcasting that she was a trashy mess, but did that really make anyone feel any better? Found guilty of stealing a headlined $15 million dollars through deception, the Girardi’s beyond any tabloid represent the ugliness of Los Angeles. LA is a place where luxury and class are no longer the same, if they ever were comparable!
The downfall of the rich in powerful of Los Angeles, in fact, the exposure to the light of justice, of sunlight, the best disinfectant as they say isn’t always felt equally. Girardi faces up to 20 years for each count of wire fraud, but undoubtedly his sentence will be less than 80 years. Notorious former Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar who shares a public defender with Girardi and has been given 13 and a half years has one yet another delay to report to prison until October 7, and he’s clearly in better health than the old man without even having to publicly disclose his medical condition. Girardi definitely seems to have some aging related dementia, but he wasn’t too far gone to stand trial and prosecutors shouldn’t allow any delay. U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada was beyond clear, “The mere fact that he is older does not mean he will not see prison time.” Continuing according to the Daily Journal report by journalist Devon Belcher, “It’s important in a case like this, not only to punish the wrongdoer, but to send a message to others out there who would think about doing the same thing.” Unequivocally, Estrada stated: “There will be serious consequences for this type of misconduct.
In a rare interview earlier this year with Los Angeles Times journalist Gustavo Arellano, the Guatemalan born Estrada, raised in the Costa Mesa area said the following about the Huizar conviction: “Too often, we saw this conduct in our home countries. We fled that corruption, and to see someone conduct themselves in that manner feels like a betrayal.” After delivering remarks in English on Girardi, he had returned to give Telemundo an exclusive in Spanish, a subtle act of media calculus, and of respect and decency for the people. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles doesn’t play around! After the press conference featuring representatives from both the IRS and the FBI, we were left to stand there following the uncommon resolute display of law enforcement in the troubled city. The notorious Christopher Kazuo Kamon, who featured prominently in the defense of Girardi, had his photograph only shown a time or two, the alleged perpetrator of comparably great theft, he was arrested in Baltimore after fleeing to the Bahamas in November 2022.
About the conclusion of the trial, new FBI Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis said the following the U.S. Attorney’s office press statement on the verdict: ““Mr. Girardi was retained to advocate for clients who put their trust in him, but instead, lied to them and stole their money to fund his lavish lifestyle.” Assuredly Kimberly Archie, who endured verbal abuse from the Girardi clan for turning him in finally will be living no such “lavish lifestyle.” So as we turn another page in the corruption history of Los Angeles it’s a simple ethical reminder that whistleblowers do matter even if there’s no monetary reward in it for the attorneys. In the land of “palm trees, models and gangbangers” as one of rapper YG’s T-shirts once said, the simple fact is that in the end it can all come crashing down. Girardi was now the proverbial emperor with no clothes, no sharp suits, trophy wife, no Pasadena mansion, and no more law firm!
Link: Tom Girardi found guilty of wire fraud: ‘It wasn’t a hard decision,’ juror says
Link: Girardi denies all charges on last day of federal wire fraud trial
Link: Tom Girardi gave millions to Democratic politicians. Was the money stolen from clients?
Link: Elissa Miller Named Interim Trustee in Girardi Keese Bankruptcy
Link: Predator In Plain Sight: Exposing Tom Girardi
Link: The Serpent’s Tooth: A Memoir
Link: Girardi firm lawyers get 2025 trial date in Chicago fraud case
Link: Tom Girardi’s underlings warned of likely criminal charges, federal agent testifies
Link: Girardi's expert says she doesn't know if he could have committed fraud before 2020
Link: Tom Girardi apologizes to Judge Staton after ringing phone interrupts hearing
Link: Old age, poor health won't exempt Girardi from prison, US attorney says
Link: Column: Corruption ‘feels like a betrayal.’ What motivates U.S. Atty. E. Martin Estrada
Please support my work with your subscription, or for direct support, use Venmo, CashApp, PayPal, or Zelle using zachary.b.ellison@gmail.com
Zachary Ellison is an Independent Journalist and Whistleblower in the Los Angeles area. Zach was most recently employed by the University of Southern California, Office of the Provost, from October 2015 to August 2022 as an Executive Secretary and Administrative Assistant, supporting the Vice Provost for Academic Operations and the Vice Provost and Senior Advisor to the Provost, among others. Zach holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Policy and Planning from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. While a student at USC, he worked for the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, including in their newsletter distributed university-wide. Zach completed his B.A. in History at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, and was a writer, editor, and photographer for the Pasadena High School Chronicle. He was Barack Obama’s one-millionth online campaign contributor in 2008. Zach is a former AmeriCorps intern for Hawaii State Parks and worked for the City of Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation. He is a trained civil process server, and enjoys weekends in the great outdoors.
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