It seems the net is widening in the Tom Girardi legal battles. One of the many questions we have had on this site is how could this go one for so long without anyone having a clue? It turns out that lots of people knew or at least began to suspect an issue especially regarding the Ryan Air crash victims. This week an Illinois Judge seemed to be ready to hold two Girardi Keese Partners and the Edelson law firm that also worked on the Lion Air case accountable for withholding concerns about Tom Girardi’s misappropriation of victims funds. Below are excerpts from an article from Law 360. I was sent this via DM and don’t have a subscription so unfortunately I cannot link. I’ll do a bit of purple penning to clarify a few things and give opinions.
Edelson Could Get Dinged For Sitting On Girardi Concerns By Lauraann Wood Law360
(December 9, 2021, 11:35 PM EST) — An Illinois federal judge signaled Thursday that Edelson PC could catch heat alongside former Girardi Keese attorneys Keith Griffin and David Lira for sitting on concerns that Thomas V. Girardi was misappropriating settlement funds meant for plane crash victims’ families.
During the second day of contempt proceedings over Griffin and Lira’s suspected role in helping Girardi embezzle millions in plane crash settlement funds, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin said the Edelson firm seems to have contributed to the issue by bringing its nonpayment concerns to the court in December 2020 instead of at least that September, when it seemed clear to the firm that several Indonesian families hadn’t received all the settlement money Boeing promised to pay them.
If the question at hand is whether people aided and abetted Girardi in violating an order to pay certain settlements within 30 days, then “you may be in the soup too over that — not quite as early, but at some point definitely, because this motion didn’t come to me in September,” Judge Durkin said. Perhaps Girardi received some deference because of his status as a titan of the plaintiff’s bar and because people questioned how he could ever lie or steal from clients, but “that’s really my call,” Judge Durkin said.
Basically, the judge’s stance is that Girardi Keese attorneys Keith Griffen and David Lira either knew or should have known that Tom Girardi was misappropriating client money.
Judge Durkin Is Not Here To Play
Whether Girardi’s nonpayment was excused by illness, mix-up or playing coy on fee payments, “these poor folks in Indonesia, they don’t care,” he said. “These poor folks expect integrity,” he said. “It’s an embarrassment to the whole legal community that people in Indonesia are being ripped off by someone who’s acting like a two-head crook.”
The hearing will help Judge Durkin probe Edelson’s request to hold Griffin and Lira in contempt for allegedly covering for Girardi, who has been accused of pocketing at least $2 million meant for families of Lion Air Flight JT 610 crash victims. Judge Durkin originally anticipated the hearing would last two days, but he said before adjourning Thursday that he’d like to continue the proceeding to hear from firm founder Jay Edelson and Ari Scharg, who also worked on the Lion Air Case.
The Edelson firm served as Girardi Keese’s local counsel for several plaintiffs who sued over the 2018 plane crash. Girardi is accused of stiffing several clients in the Lion Air case, but the contempt hearing has focused largely on four clients who’d initially received only half of the settlement amounts they were owed. He has asserted his constitutional right to remain silent in the contempt proceedings.
Tom Girardi is refusing to testify in any of these legal proceedings.
Rafey Balabanian, an Edelson attorney based in California, testified Thursday that he first spoke with Girardi last summer about the details of those clients’ payments and was told tax issues and trouble receiving release documents had caused the delay. Girardi also disclosed that he’d spent time in a hospital and been receiving treatment for cancer, he said.
In a later conversation, Girardi called the half-payments “a mistake” that had never happened before and that he would look into, Balabanian testified. He testified that while he “definitely had concerns” over how the settlement money was being handled, he’d only ever suspected that Girardi was trying to get out of paying the Edelson firm its cut of fees from the deals. “I didn’t imagine that what was taking place was theft of client money,” he testified.
Oh look, a new illness that has never been mentioned before. In Erika’s long list of dramatic illnesses (Fix the ankle, not the brain!, glaucoma, dementia, memory loss…) I don’t recall cancer being mentioned at all.
Edelson’s Excuse Is No One Suspected A Thing
Balabanian, who also serves as the Edelson firm’s general counsel, said that he’d discussed bringing the issue to the court’s attention several times with firm founder Jay Edelson and others. But they decided not to pull that trigger at the time “because we ultimately felt as though the explanations were reasonable,” he testified. Lira had also sent an email in early May 2020 that seemingly discouraged the Edelson firm from reaching out to ask Boeing about the settlement payments, Balabanian testified.
Girardi allegedly ran his law firm like a Ponzi scheme, using new money coming into the firm to pay off older clients and debts. He’s also accused of using clients’ money for his own personal benefit. Lira’s signature appears on several of the checks at issue, including a check for $11.8 million that was drawn from a client trust account with the memo “TVG loan proceeds” in 2019. But Lira testified Thursday that he’s learned his signature had been forged many times, and that he didn’t remember either that specific loan check or its amount. Asked whether he ever asked anyone why loan proceeds for Girardi would ever be drawn from a client trust account, Lira said he didn’t.
Lira claiming his signature was forged many times, is kind of weak. But it is possible. Often times in law offices secretaries actual sign for the attorney.
The Two Girardi Keese Attorneys Claim They Don’t Work There Anymore
Counsel for Girardi Keese admitted last year that at least $2 million was missing from the clients’ trust accounts. Judge Durkin promptly found Girardi and his firm in contempt, froze their assets and issued a $2 million judgment for the plaintiffs to protect their money as other creditors circled the firm. He also referred the case to federal prosecutors.
Lira and Griffin told the court in separate filings in April they shouldn’t be held in contempt for the firm’s failure to follow a court order and issue settlement payments in the plane crash litigation, arguing they can’t be held liable for their former employer’s actions. They’ve also argued that Edelson should be faulted because the firm knew about the settlement payment issues for months before bringing it to Judge Durkin’s attention. Additional reporting by Brandon Lowrey and Celeste Bott. Editing by Emily Kokoll.
Lots of finger pointing between the two Girardi partners and Edelson PC. In my opinion is Tom Girardi won’t serve a day of time because of “dementia.” But a few people probably will have to take the fall. Will one be Erika? What do you think?
David Lira is Tom’s son-in-law.
Tom G will die before all this gets hashed out. It will be years i courts. His business partners and Erika will be held accountable. Hopefully, the victims families will be able to recover monies.
One can only hope it’s Erika! Ffs!
I hope one is Erika. I just don’t believe that for years she went was on his arm, at the table, listening to important conversations with important people as she herself was so proud of until the shit hit the fan. Now, we are supposed to believe she knew nothing about anything regarding Tom’s dealings. I’m just not buying it.
If, for example, my husband robbed a bank or embezzled, there is no way in hell I would be allowed to cry and say “look at my fucking life” and keep stolen money, or things purchased with stolen money. I can’t believe the gall she’s got to play victim. She has lived high and grossly flaunted it.
So far Erika
1. Has not paid $1 to the victims
2. is walking around freely to this day
she and she alone spent $25million on her shopping addiction during their 12 year theft together, which is crazy, $144,000 a month credit cards.
and then they transferred $25million to her EJ Global.
So shes stolen $50million to date as far as Im concerned from clients.
Moore From Bloomberg:
The firm received the money from Boeing in March 2020, and was required to wire the money within 30 days. Instead it made partial payments, and they were late.
Griffin, who was on the stand for most of the day Wednesday, said he urged Girardi to comply with the court’s orders and pay the clients their full settlements immediately, but was relying on Lira to intervene. Griffin said he believed that Lira, who was more senior, was in a better position to influence Girardi.
Lira said he tried.
“I told him he was risking 50 years of legal work, that this was wrong, it wasn’t his money, and it had to be paid,” Lira testified Thursday.
Wow. This is crazy. Lawyers knew.
She was knowingly stealing money and went on a reality show? That doesn’t make sense. If it doesn’t make sense, it’s not true. I really believe it’s possible she didn’t know until she leftp I know it’s an unpopular opinion.
Nancy, look at all the other housewives that stole money on reality shows.
It’s a fact that it regularly happens.
The problem is Erika thinks she’s smarter than everyone else in the room.
That’s when they fall the hardest.
True dat! If she knew and still went on a reality show its because she thought she and her grifter teammate were, as we say in Montana, smarter than the average bear.
When you have grifted people for decades, you get complacent in your assumption that you are so damn clever, you can manage the lies.
You live in Montana? I love you even more! LOL. I’ve never been. I have nothing to base my opinion of Montana on except that, it’s the setting for lots of Hallmark Christmas movies full of horses and mountains and white Christmases. LOL. Don’t try and sway my delusions. : )
LOL! Total mountains, free roaming horses, buffalo, white Christmases and some of the most corrupt stupid republican crooks ever to be born currently running this beautiful State into the ground.
Wait until we turn blue again (as we are the definition of purple) before visiting. Please ignore the current administration and remember this about my State: We elected the first congresswoman in history, Jeanette Rankin, in 1916 before women could even vote! She cast the only vote against World I. She was re-elected in 1940 and and voted against World II! The men hated her. She didn’t give a shit.
I love this story! Do you have a guest house that allows smoking and excessive drinking? I am asking for a friend. 🙂 Said friend wants to come and ride a cowboy….errrr I mean meet a cowboy.
I recently learned about Jeanette Rankin through an article for a history lesson I was teaching as a sub. She was pretty awesome by all accounts and the men hated her for sure but she stood up for her convictions regardless.
AND MORE: Apparently, Tom Girardi did not have a good relationship with his children:
Lira is also Girardi’s son-in-law, but they weren’t close, Lira said. Girardi had “zero” relationship with Lira’s children and had only visited his home a handful of times in the last few years, he said.
When he resigned in June 2020, Lira said he called Girardi a “thief.” Girardi begged Lira to stay, saying that he would resolve everything soon after, Lira said. He said he learned a few weeks later that Girardi hadn’t followed through.
Lira admitted, when pressed by Durkin, that there were other things he could have done when he learned that only half of the money had been paid to the Lion Air clients.
He was a signatory on the trust account and acknowledged that he could have gone directly to the bank to demand the trust records that he said Kamon refused to give him. He had authorization to sign checks without a second signature, but he said he didn’t realize it at the time.
I’m just going to drop this Jen Shah update here because it is not earthshattering news. Jen’s ridiculous request to have her charges dropped because of the Hulu documentary were obviously denied by the courts. Also, yet another coconspirator has changed their plea to guilty, apparently agreeing to join Stu Chains and others in testifying against her to get a lessor sentence.
Jen Shah is throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks but she is going to prison and I would say for a significant time too.
I doubt she’ll ever go to jail. This story will drag on and on, with no real resolution. Tom will die, Erika will get remarried and all the selfish things they did will be unpunished.
Perhaps one of the most heinous punishments for the Girardis is their fall in the eyes of the elite attorney/politician/judge/celebrity group they so coveted & bragged about over the years. They are now looked upon as pariahs in the circle of people they rubbed elbows with, took photos with, and bragged about knowing. Those people are now shunning them. The frosting on the cake will be seeing one or both of the Giraridis in orange jumpsuits with unflattering mugshots that will be peppered across social media.
Oh and I forgot about the divorce update…
Tom filed a substitution of attorney on Tuesday, December 7, indicating that his previous representative, Michael L. Abrams, is no longer attached to the case. Tom will instead represent himself in the divorce proceedings, but because he is currently under a conservatorship, his brother Robert will be acting on his behalf. According to the Los Angeles Times, Robert is a dentist. WTF?
Um, what? This fool actually thinks he can claim dementia then want to defend himself in the divorce. I have to be reading this wrong. In what universe does this work? Now I can’t tell if it really is dementia or if this joker has balls the size of coconuts.
You can’t make this shit up. Every day it gets weirder.
Okay, since I obviously can’t let this and keep thinking about it I have to ask is this part of his defense in proving he has dementia? I’m at the point where While I don’t believe Erika completely knew what was happening at with the books at the law firm I do think she is helping cover things up and move forward the dementia story. And if this is what she is doing the. It would be a safe place for Tom to go to court and act like he was incompetent without fear that Erika would do anything in retaliation because it was all planned out.
Honestly I truly think Tom is just useing Erika to push his agenda then leave her holding the bag. Not that I think Erika doesn’t need to take responsibility for her part I just see this as Tom will walk away from this while Erika will be left to clean up his shit show.
I mean at this point who knows.
I think its the “balls the size of coconuts”. When you have spent decades being stroked by adoring fans for being the GOAT of all litigators, your ego over it gets set in stone. I think he really believes he can represent himself in court and still claim dementia.
A firm of that size has other lawyers and also some kind of money person or something. There’s no way other people didn’t know. Someone is going to prison for this and it won’t be Tom. Sounds like maybe one of them?
This story actually makes me sympathetic to Erika. Even the lawyers at the other firm believed his mess when they knew people weren’t getting paid.
I still maintain Erika won’t go to prison. To date, she has not been charged with anything. Paying restitution to the victims since she received misappropriated money is likely, however.
I agree, but part of me hopes she will. Is that so wrong?