Tom Girardi, a former high-profile trial lawyer known for winning a record settlement for the environmental activist Erin Brockovich, was sentenced on Tuesday to more than seven years in prison for embezzling tens of millions of dollars of his clients’ settlement money.
In addition to receiving an 87-month prison term, Mr. Girardi, 86, of Seal Beach, Calif., who was convicted in August of four counts of wire fraud, was ordered by Judge Josephine L. Staton of U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to pay more than $2.3 million in fines and restitution. He must surrender to federal authorities no later than July 17.
Mr. Girardi’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.
Mr. Girardi, who also appeared with his wife, Erika Jayne, on the reality television series “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” earned a reputation for being one of the country’s best “toxic tort” lawyers, taking on personal injury lawsuits against large corporations for damages arising from exposure to chemicals and pollutants. He was part of Ms. Brockovich’s legal team when she went after Pacific Gas and Electric in 1993, a case that later inspired the 2000 film that bears her name.
But in recent years, Mr. Girardi’s reputation fell into disrepute as he devised what prosecutors described as “a cunning fraud scheme against the injured clients he had a sworn duty to protect.”
Prosecutors said that from 2010 to 2020, Mr. Girardi operated his Los Angeles law firm, Girardi Keese, “like a Ponzi scheme” by stealing millions of dollars from settlement funds and failing to pay the firm’s clients, some of whom were owed money after suffering serious injuries.
He lied to clients as well as law firm employees, prosecutors said, claiming that settlements had not been paid, or telling clients that the firm could not pay out settlements until “bogus” requirements had been met. Mr. Girardi would tell clients they had to address tax obligations, settle bankruptcy claims, obtain authorizations from judges or satisfy other debts before the money could be paid, according to prosecutors.
At the same time, prosecutors said, Mr. Girardi was using his law firm’s accounts “like a personal piggy bank,” diverting millions of dollars to private jet travel, jewelry, luxury cars, exclusive golf and social clubs, as well as more than $25 million to pay the expenses of EJ Global, a company related to his wife’s entertainment career.
In one case, Mr. Girardi told a client who was seriously burned after a gas explosion that killed his girlfriend that he had reached a $7.25 million settlement, when the payout was actually $53 million, according to court documents. In another case, he misappropriated money meant for a client whose husband had died in a boating accident.
“This self-proclaimed ‘champion of justice’ was nothing more than a thief and a liar who conned his vulnerable clients out of the millions of dollars,” Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said.
As former clients filed lawsuits against Mr. Girardi for embezzlement, his firm was forced into bankruptcy and most of his assets were frozen. Ms. Jayne filed for divorce in 2020. Mr. Girardi was disbarred in California in 2022.
Christopher Kazuo Kamon, the former chief financial officer of the law firm, was sentenced earlier this year to more than 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in October to two counts of wire fraud after he aided and abetted Mr. Girardi’s fraud scheme, and embezzled millions of dollars from the law firm for his own benefit, the Justice Department said. Mr. Kazuo, 51, formerly of Encino and Palos Verdes, was also ordered to pay more than $8.9 million in restitution.
Mr. Kamon has been in federal custody since his arrest in the Bahamas in November 2022 and has agreed to plead guilty to separate federal fraud charges in Chicago. The trial for that case is scheduled to start on July 14.
The case against Mr. Girardi in Chicago was dismissed because of his conviction and sentencing in California, the Justice Department said.
Livia Albeck-Ripka is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering breaking news, California and other subjects.
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