Ex-Girardi Keese CFO Contemplating Guilty Plea in Chicago Case

The former chief financial officer for now defunct plaintiffs’ firm Girardi Keese is in plea negotiations to resolve criminal fraud and contempt charges pending in Chicago, prosecutors told a federal district court judge Wednesday.

Christopher Kamon—named in three separate indictments related to his conduct while at Girardi Keese—pleaded guilty in October to helping plaintiffs’ attorney-turned-felon Thomas Girardi embezzle tens millions of dollars from the firm’s injured clients. He also pleaded guilty to embezzling from the firm.

The government said it has entered into preliminary plea negotiations to resolve the charges still pending against him in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois but that Kamon said he would like to see the outcome of the Los Angeles sentencing before entering into a resolution in the Chicago case.

Either way, Judge Mary M. Rowland told the parties to get it sorted out by the end of May because she doesn’t intend to push the July trial date and wants to know who’s moving forward and who isn’t.

Kamon, who has been in federal custody since December 2022, is presently set to proceed to trial in Chicago with David Lira, Thomas Girardi’s son-in-law and former law partner.

Girardi’s trial—should there be any—has been severed, and there’s no date set.

All three face eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of criminal contempt related to the firm’s diversion of millions of dollars in settlement funds from its former Lion Air crash clients.

Prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois said they might dismiss the charges against Girardi following his convictions in Los Angeles but won’t make a final decision until after his sentencing.

Girardi, who is in federal custody at the Federal Medical Center, Butner, was supposed be sentenced on four counts of wire fraud in December, but those proceedings have been postponed so he can be evaluated by a specialist.

Lawyers for the 85-year-old, who has dementia, say he should be sentenced to spend the remainder of his life in a medical facility. Prosecutors are seeking a 14-year prison sentence.

Lira wasn’t charged in the California case and has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Chicago.

Kamon is represented by Michael V. Severo, Sr. Lira is represented by Cheronis & Parente LLC. Girardi is represented by federal public defenders in Los Angeles and Chicago.

The case is United States v. Girardi, N.D. Ill., No. 1:23-cr-00054, status conference held 1/22/25.