Girardi, His Ex-CFO Kamon to Have Separate California Trials

A California federal judge split disbarred plaintiffs’ lawyer Tom Girardi’s trial from that of his co-defendant, ex-Girardi Keese CFO Christopher Kamon, reasoning that the former’s expected defense strategy would likely bias the jury against his co-defendant.

Although the allegations that Girardi’s main fraud was aided and abetted by Kamon would normally merit a joint trial, their anticipated defenses would work “such that each will tend to act as a ‘second prosecutor’ of the other,” US District Judge Josephine L. Staton in the Central District of California wrote in her Wednesday ruling.

Each would need to defend against two different, competing theories. Girardi’s lawyers were expected to argue that Girardi’s alleged theft of millions of dollars in client funds was due to manipulation by Kamon, who took advantage of the LA legal behemoth’s cognitive decline. Kamon’s lawyers were expected to argue that he and others merely followed Girardi’s orders.

“Multiple narratives of guilt” and the theory that Kamon exploited Girardi’s mental state would likely bias the jury, so their cases must be split, Staton wrote.

Girardi also lost his bid to push his trial to October. It remains on the calendar for Aug. 6.

Staton ruled in June that Girardi’s trial can incorporate evidence about Kamon’s alleged “side scheme” of embezzlement from the firm’s operating accounts, because it is indistinguishable from the two defendants’ alleged theft of millions of dollars of client funds. The two schemes “allege widespread fraud and non-compliance with accounting principles on a fundamental level,” she said.

Girardi’s physician Dr. Helena Chui, of the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, is also expected to testify that Girardi could have concealed early stages of his cognitive decline to give the jury a view of his mental state at the time of the alleged fraud.

The case is USA v. Girardi, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cr-00047, 7/17/24.