Ex-Girardi Keese chief financial officer Christopher Kamon is expected to make his first appearance Monday in California on federal criminal wire fraud charges for what prosecutors said was a $10 million scheme to steal from the now-defunct law firm.
Kamon was held without bail in a Maryland jail on a warrant from the US District Court for the Central District of California that prosecutors say remains sealed. US Marshals on Nov. 7 arrested Kamon at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
The California bar and a Chicago federal judge said plaintiffs’ lawyer Thomas Girardi stole client funds owed to victims and co-counsel in order to feed a lavish lifestyle for himself and his celebrity wife, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne Girardi. Creditors, including former named partner Robert Keese, forced Girardi and the firm into involuntary bankruptcy. Girardi, who has since been deemed incompetent to manage his own affairs, was disbarred in June.
Kamon stole more than $10 million through a lucrative “side fraud” that funded numerous new cars, several swanky homes in California and the Bahamas, and an escort on his personal payroll whom he paid $20,000 per month, Assistant US Attorney Colleen McGuinn told Magistrate Judge Matthew Maddox at a Nov. 10 hearing at the US District Court for the District of Maryland.
Kamon has been expected to appear in California pending his cross-country transfer.
Thom Mrozek, Director of Media Relations for the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, confirmed to Bloomberg Law on Monday that Kamon is in the state and expected to appear in court on Monday.
Kamon separately is defending a racketeering lawsuit that Edelson PC filed against Girardi Keese and some of its former attorneys and officers. Edelson was local counsel working with Girardi Keese in litigation against Boeing Co. concerning the 2018 crash of Indonesia’s Lion Air flight 610.
More than $495 million in claims were filed in US Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California against Girardi Keese, and another $243 million in claims against Girardi himself.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP represents Kamon.
The case is United States v. Kamon, C.D. Cal., 12/19/22.
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