Girardi Son-in-Law Sentenced to Four Months on Contempt Charge

David Lira, son-in-law of disgraced California plaintiffs’ attorney Tom Girardi, was sentenced to four months in custody on Monday for flouting a court order to pay victims of a catastrophic plane crash their settlement money.

Lira also must serve four months of home confinement and complete 200 hours of community service, according to a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Judge Mary Rowland of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois announced the sentence Monday.

Lira, who worked at Girardi’s now-defunct firm Girardi Keese, pleaded guilty in June to one count of contempt alleging he knew Girardi failed to pay clients despite a court order directing the firm to distribute the settlement funds.

Prosecutors asked for a sentence of three years, saying Lira “cared more about his own career than protecting the interests of his clients” and lied to the crash victims as well as the judge overseeing the lawsuit.

Lira’s attorney asked the judge to avoid prison time altogether, calling him “a good man who made a serious mistake” and noting he is significantly less culpable than other players in the scheme.

Lira, 65, was charged alongside Girardi and the firm’s head accountant Christopher Kamon in a case alleging they withheld millions of dollars in settlement money from their clients, victims of a 2018 plane crash in Indonesia.

The Chicago charges against Girardi were dropped earlier this year, with prosecutors citing his conviction in a separate fraud case out of California. He was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on that case.

Kamon was sentenced to 65 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud in the Chicago case. His sentence will run concurrent with his 10-year term in a separate California matter.

In August, Keith Griffin, another former Girardi Keese attorney, was indicted in Chicago federal court on counts relating to the firm’s handling of the Indonesia crash settlement funds. That matter is pending.

Lira is represented by Cheronis & Parente and Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan, & Aronoff.

The case is US v. Lira, N.D. Ill., No. 1:23-cr-00054-3, sentencing hearing 10/6/25.