⚖️ Tom Girardi convicted of wire fraud over his clients' millions

A federal jury convicted him on four counts in 2024. A 2022 civil ruling found no proof Erika Jayne knew about the scheme. 📌

By , reality tv desk · Desk editor Kristaps Siliņš · · 4 min read

Dark wooden gavel with a gold band on its sound block beside black binders (stock photo)CONVICTEDPhoto: Sora Shimazaki · Pexels License

Stock photo: Sora Shimazaki, Pexels License, via Pexels. Desaturated and cropped by MrScandal.

What we know

  • A federal jury in Los Angeles found Tom Girardi guilty of four counts of wire fraud in August 2024, over a scheme prosecutors said took tens of millions of dollars from his own clients.
  • The California Supreme Court disbarred Girardi on June 1, 2022 and ordered him to pay about $2.3 million in restitution.
  • A federal judge in Chicago froze Girardi's assets in December 2020, finding he had misappropriated at least $2 million owed to the families of those killed in the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash.
  • In a separate $5 million civil fraud lawsuit, a judge ruled in 2022 that the plaintiffs could not prove Erika Jayne had knowledge of or involvement in the alleged fraud.

Tom Girardi spent four decades building a reputation as the lawyer who beat Pacific Gas & Electric. A federal jury spent less than that figuring out he'd been stealing from the people he represented. Here's the record, in order.

the fortune

01

The $333 million settlement that made him famous

Girardi's firm, Girardi Keese, won a $333 million settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric on behalf of residents of Hinkley, California, who blamed contaminated water for cancer and other illnesses. The case inspired the 2000 film Erin Brockovich.

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02

2000 - he marries Erika Jayne

Girardi, then 60 and twice divorced, married 28-year-old singer and actress Erika Jayne. The two had met in the late 1990s, when she was waiting tables at a Beverly Hills restaurant he frequented. She later became a main cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, where he occasionally appeared alongside her.

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the unraveling

03

December 2020 - a federal judge freezes his assets

A federal judge in Chicago froze Girardi's assets, ruling that he had misappropriated at least $2 million in client funds owed to the families of those killed in the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash. A month earlier, Erika Jayne had announced the couple were separating and that she had filed for divorce.

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"misappropriated at least $2 million in client funds that were due to the families of those killed"

the federal judge's December 2020 ruling freezing Girardi's assets
04

December 17, 2020 - the Los Angeles Times reports the EJ Global money trail

The Los Angeles Times reported that a lender to Girardi Keese had alleged in court filings that Girardi improperly funneled more than $20 million to Jayne's entertainment company. A later fraud suit named that company as EJ Global LLC, described in court as solely owned by Jayne. That it carried her initials was apparently not treated as a red flag at the time. No court has found that Jayne knew of or took part in the underlying fraud.

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05

March 2021 - the Los Angeles Times counts more than 100 lawsuits

The Los Angeles Times reported that Girardi had been sued more than 100 times and that complaints had piled up against him at the State Bar of California over decades, while his law license stayed clean. A 2023 investigation later found State Bar employees had accepted gifts, travel and meals from Girardi Keese.

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06

June 1, 2022 - disbarred

A California Supreme Court order disbarred Girardi and required him to pay about $2.3 million in restitution; the State Bar now lists his status as disbarred. He had already been suspended from practice in California the year before.

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07

2022 - a judge clears Erika Jayne in a separate case

In a $5 million civil fraud lawsuit, a judge ruled that the plaintiffs could not prove Jayne had knowledge of or involvement in the alleged fraud. It is the clearest on-record answer so far to the question of what she knew.

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the verdict

08

August 2024 - convicted

A federal court jury in Los Angeles found Girardi guilty of four counts of wire fraud, in a case over tens of millions of dollars taken from his own clients. He faced a second trial set for 2025 in Chicago on similar fraud charges.

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what it meant for Erika Jayne

Two documentaries built the case into television. The Housewife and the Hustler reached Hulu in 2021, laying out the embezzlement accusations against Girardi; its 2024 sequel, The Housewife and the Hustler 2: The Reckoning, filmed Jayne meeting some of Girardi's victims. Jayne has not been charged with any crime, and the one judge to rule on what she knew found no evidence against her.

If you want the number that explains the marriage math, start with the $333 million PG&E win that built his name, and end with the $2.3 million he was ordered to pay back. Mr Scandal's count: zero villains in this story without a verdict attached to them.

Quick quiz · 3 questions

  1. On the record or still rumour?A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Tom Girardi of four counts of wire fraud in August 2024, in a scheme prosecutors said took tens of millions of dollars from his own clients.
  2. On the record or still rumour?The more-than-$20 million said to have reached Jayne's entertainment company is a 2020 court-filing allegation reported by the Los Angeles Times, not a court finding.
  3. Which year?Civil fraud lawsuit ruling finding no evidence Erika Jayne knew of the fraud (reported by the Los Angeles Times; the exact ruling date is not stated in the sour

More games on the record: Price Tag · Timeline

By the numbers

  • 2 mofrom first to latest entry on recordJun 2022 to Aug 2022, 2 dated entries in the file
  • 7receipts behind this story7 news reports, 2020 to 2024

Counted by MrScandal from the receipts, the Files and our rankings.

The Thomas Girardi file

Last entry Aug 31, 2022
  1. Ruled

    Civil fraud lawsuit ruling finding no evidence Erika Jayne knew of the fraud (reported by the Los Angeles Times; the exact ruling date is not stated in the sour This story

  2. Ruled

    California Supreme Court order disbarring Thomas Girardi, with about $2.3 million in restitution This story

On file: The Thomas Girardi file

The Ledger

On the record

  • A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Tom Girardi of four counts of wire fraud in August 2024, in a scheme prosecutors said took tens of millions of dollars from his own clients.
  • The California Supreme Court disbarred him on June 1, 2022 and ordered about $2.3 million in restitution.
  • A federal judge in Chicago froze his assets in December 2020, finding he had misappropriated at least $2 million owed to the families of the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash victims.
  • A judge ruled in a separate 2022 civil suit that the plaintiffs could not prove Erika Jayne had knowledge of or involvement in the fraud.

Still rumour

  • The more-than-$20 million said to have reached Jayne's entertainment company is a 2020 court-filing allegation reported by the Los Angeles Times, not a court finding.

That's the record. The rest is rumour. - MissDrama

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