Girardi Was ‘Thief-in-Chief’ Prosecutors Say as Trial Closes

Prosecutors emphasized Thomas Girardi’s responsibility as the man with “the name on the door” of his firm who is accountable for massive theft, while his defense portrayed him as “asleep at the wheel,” asking jurors to consider elderly loved ones on the last day of Girardi’s criminal fraud trial.

Assistant US Attorney Ali Moghaddas framed the alleged theft of millions in client settlement funds from Girardi Keese as a Ponzi scheme for the first time during closing arguments Monday for Girardi’s twelve-day criminal trial. The prosecution team punched hard at the defenders’ arguments that ex-CFO Christopher Kamon was solely responsible for the theft and that Girardi’s cognitive decline prevented him from forming an intent to defraud clients.

Kamon’s theft doesn’t make Girardi innocent, Assistant US Attorney Scott Paetty said during his rebuttal argument, saying that $14 million was taken from client trust accounts before Kamon joined the firm. “It just makes Girardi Keese a den of thieves,” he said. “And it makes Girardi the thief-in-chief.”

There’s no question “something was happening” with Girardi’s mental ability in 2020, Moghaddas said earlier Monday. But even in those last years of the charged scheme, Girardi had the brainpower he needed to know right from wrong, Moghaddas said.

He played for jurors a clip of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills from 2019 which the now-disbarred Girardi charmed his estranged wife, Erika Jayne, and her reality TV star counterparts by explaining that they all were in the same “persuading business.”

Moghaddas pointed to Girardi’s refusal to turn over bank records to other lawyers as evidence that he was hiding a fraud. He also implored jurors to consider Girardi’s lies to the Ruigomez family in the early 2010s, when Moghaddas said Girardi told the family that their money was tied up in an interest-bearing savings account that didn’t really exist.

“As soon as that money went into the Girardi trust account,” Moghaddas said—pausing to snap his fingers—"it was spent.”

“It wasn’t that he was disorganized,” Moghaddas said later. “It wasn’t that he was asleep. It’s that the money was gone.”

Deputy Federal Public Defender Charles Snyder leaned into Girardi’s surprise Aug. 22 testimony to argue that for Girardi, “the lights were on but nobody was home.”

He pointed to Girardi pouring millions of his own personal dollars back into the firm to keep it afloat toward the end of the decade as evidence that Girardi was a victim of his ex-CFO Christopher Kamon’s “generational” fraud, saying in terms of “dollars and cents,” Girardi “lost more money than anyone.”

Snyder said the downfall of the Girardi Keese firm was like a “car crash"—hearkening to a client who testified that Girardi delayed paying her the million dollars she needed to buy an accessible home for her son after her family endured a severe accident.

He told the jury that members of his firm should have taken the metaphorical car keys away from him to prevent Girardi from running the firm while old and sick.

“This is ‘Weekend at Bernie’s,’” Snyder said. “They are propping him up to keep the party going.”

Girardi is charged with four counts of wire fraud for allegedly stealing $15 million in client settlement funds between 2010 and 2020. He pleaded not guilty.

When Girardi took the stand at his trial, he insisted that his clients received all they were due, and that any withholdings were for reasons such as medical expenses.

The core triumphs of Girardi’s life have frequently rested in the hands of jurors, but when he testified last week Girardi spoke and moved as like a shadow of that person. Girardi, whose neurologist says he has dementia, bore a slightly waxen smile as he testified inaccurately that his firm was still operational, and said he couldn’t remember his defender’s name.

“You’ve spent your whole career persuading people, right?” Assistant US Attorney Ali Moghaddas asked Girardi.

“I don’t know. We’ll find out,” he replied.

Girardi faces additional client fraud charges in Illinois federal court, as well as numerous civil lawsuits from former clients.

The case is USA v. Girardi, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cr-00047, 8/26/24.