Ex-Girardi Keese chief financial officer Christopher Kamon will remain in custody in California after a federal magistrate judge kicked the issue of detention to a district court judge.
Kamon arrived in handcuffs to his second appearance in California federal court on Wednesday, where his lawyers had planned to argue that he deserves to be freed on a $1 million bond in a case alleging a $10 million scheme to steal from the now-defunct law firm.
During the scheduled detention hearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, Kamon planned to seek to review the order to have him held without bond in Maryland. Kamon has been held without bail on a warrant from the US District Court for the Central District of California since November when he was arrested at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Kamon had his initial appearance in California federal court Dec. 19.
Judge Karen L. Stevenson heard an argument from prosecutors that she didn’t have jurisdiction to review the detention order from Maryland, which was issued by another magistrate judge in that state. The judge said that given these particular circumstances involving ambiguous statutory language, it was best to refer the detention issue to a district judge.
The judge also noted that there is a stipulated date for indictment of Jan. 20 and a post-indictment hearing scheduled for Jan. 24.
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, prosecutors alleged.
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, 12/28/22.
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