Ex-Girardi CFO Shouldn’t Get Bail, Federal Prosecutors Argue

Former Girardi Keese chief financial officer Christopher Kamon is a flight risk who should be denied bail in the criminal case charging him with a $10 million scheme to steal from the now-defunct law firm, prosecutors told a California federal judge.

Attorneys from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California argued in a Jan. 3 brief that Kamon’s bid to escape detention should be denied in part because he liquidated his assets and fled to the Bahamas after the firm collapsed. Kamon made his second appearance in California federal court a week ago.

In the government’s opposition to Kamon’s motion to lift a court-ordered detention, prosecutors argue that Kamon “presents a serious risk of flight that cannot be allayed by his proffered bond package.” The package includes a $2.4 million Bahamian property and a $250,000 unsecured appearance bond, according to court records.

The government also noted that millions of “illicit proceeds” remain unaccounted for.

“This money, traceable to defendant’s schemes, remains outstanding in whole part due to defendant’s continuous transfers of these funds, including up until the day before he was arrested,” the government wrote in its Tuesday filing.

Prior to his appearances in California court, Kamon was on a cross-country transfer. He had been held without bail on a warrant in Los Angeles since November when he was arrested at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Kamon is accused of stealing more than $10 million through a lucrative “side fraud” that funded numerous new cars, several high-end homes in California and the Bahamas, and an escort on his personal payroll whom he paid $20,000 per month.

Kamon is represented by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher and Flom LLP.

The case is USA v. Kamon, C.D. Cal., No. 2:22-mj-04385-DUTY, 1/3/23.