Disbarred attorney accused of stealing $3 million in settlement money from families of Lion Air crash victims
CHICAGO (CBS) -- California attorney Thomas Girardi and two colleagues from his law firm are facing federal charges accusing them of stealing more than $3 million in settlement money from the families of victims of the 2018 crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia.
Girardi, the estranged husband of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Erika Jayne, has been indicted on eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of criminal contempt of court. David Lira, an attorney at Girardi's law firm, Girardi Keese; and Christopher Kamon, the former head of accounting at Girardi Keese, both also are charged with eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of criminal contempt of court. The law firm is now defunct, and Girardi has been disbarred in California.
Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea near Jakarta in October 2018 moments after takeoff. All 189 people on board were killed. It was the first of two deadly crashes of Boeing 737 Max 8 jets in a span of five months in 2018 and 2019.
According to the charges against Girardi and his co-defendants, Girardi Keese and another unnamed attorney represented five relatives of Lion Air crash victims in lawsuits against Chicago-based Boeing, ultimately winning them a combined $12.55 million in settlements.
But rather than sending their clients their full shares of the settlement money, federal prosecutors say Girardi and his co-defendants of embezzling more than $3 million.
"The substantial misappropriation alleged in this indictment compounded the grief and anguish of the clients who lost loved ones in the Lion Air crash," U.S. Attorney John Lausch said of the indictment. "Attorneys who violate the trust of their clients and breach a fiduciary duty that is paramount to the practice of law must be held accountable."
Girardi and his co-defendants are accused of using the money to pay for the law firm's operating expenses and payroll, to pay off credit card bills, and to fund settlements to other clints "whose own settlement funds previously had been misappropriated" by Girardi's law firm.
According to the charges, Girardi and his co-defendants concealed their scheme by lying to clients and claiming the COVID-19 pandemic was delaying the law firm from distributing the settlement money, and telling them they only had authorization to distribute about half of what their clients were owed.
The law firm also tried to stall anxious clients in May 2020, by claiming that they would distribute the rest of the money within a month, with Girardi sending one client a letter saying, "I think you are going to love me in 30 days."
One month later, Giradi also sent four of the clients a letter falsely claiming:
"There are some serious issues. I have been back east four times to get everything resolved. I think I need two more weeks. I will insist that, at least, we get the interest in two weeks, if I cannot resolve it."
Arraignment for Girardi and his co-defendants has not yet been set.
While the other attorney who represented the Lion Air crash victims' families in these cases is not identified in the charges against Girardi and his co-defendants, Chicago attorney Jay Edelson, who teamed up with Girardi to represent victims of the 2018 crash, first sued Girardi and Jayne in December 2020, accusing of embezzling the money and re-victimizing those who suffered in that tragedy. Jayne has since been dropped as a defendant in that lawsuit and is not facing any criminal charges in the case against Girardi.
