The husband used clients’ money to finance his career as a “real housewife.”

LOS ANGELES – Six weeks before Tom Girardi’s criminal trial is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors revealed they intend to introduce key evidence: that the disgraced former lawyer allegedly spent more than $25 million of client and law firm money on the career of his reality star wife.

Until now, Erika Girardi – the main character of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” – has rarely been mentioned in the federal investigation conducted by her estranged husband. Tom Girardi – a one-time superstar plaintiffs lawyer and influential Democratic Party donor – and his law firm’s former CFO are accused of stealing $15 million from several clients in a multi-year scheme.

In a court filing Friday, prosecutors said they plan to present to a jury evidence that Tom Girardi misappropriated significantly more funds from his law firm Girardi Keese and his clients, including $25 million they say he donated to cover ” unjustified expenses.” EJ Global LLC, a company he founded for his wife’s entertainment career.

“By instructing Girardi Keese’s accounting staff to make these payments to EJ Global, defendant (Tom) Girardi knowingly and intentionally made payments from client funds in order to improperly enrich his family members,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.

The motion did not include any source evidence and it is unclear how prosecutors plan to prove their claims. They did not mention Erika Girardi by name or accuse her of misconduct or knowledge of her husband’s financial practices.

Instead, prosecutors want to counter Tom Girardi’s defense strategy of blaming the CFO by showing that Girardi also misappropriated money he was supposed to have spent on his wife and her career.

Erika Girardi’s lawyer, Evan Borges, emphasized that prosecutors did not find that the “Housewives” star did anything wrong and that there is no doubt that Tom Girardi and his company handled the finances and accounting of EJ Global LLC.

“She had no knowledge of Tom Girardi or Girardi Keese’s client or financial activities,” Borges said, noting that one judge had already dismissed a lawsuit against her due to “ZERO evidence” of her involvement with clients.

“Years ago, Erika filed for divorce, separated from Tom Girardi, and lives in a rented apartment,” Borges said in a statement. “He has the right to continue with his life.”

Prosecutors want to use evidence about Erika Girardi’s company, EJ Global, following what Tom Girardi’s lawyers revealed at Thursday’s hearing. Assistant Public Defender Charles Snyder indicated at the hearing that the defense would point the finger at the firm’s chief financial officer, Christopher Kamon.

Snyder said his client wasn’t “running the machine” – it was Kamon who oversaw the company’s accounting department and 127 bank accounts.

In a separate federal case, Kamon is accused of allegedly running a “side fraud” in which he embezzled millions from a law firm using fake salespeople and then spent the funds on home renovations, exotic cars and a “female escort,” according to court documents. . . Kamon, who pleaded not guilty in both cases, will face a second trial in October for the so-called side fraud.

Girardi’s legal team plans to cite alleged “side fraud” committed by the chief financial officer as the reason for the large deficits in Girardi’s Keese accounts.

Moreover, they plan to argue that Girardi was liquidating his personal assets and giving those funds to the company to cover salaries and expenses to make up for money depleted by Kamon’s alleged scheme.

In court Thursday, Snyder said Girardi’s lies to clients about where the settlement money was kept – what prosecutors called “sleeping communications” intended to scare them away – were not intended to defraud victims but to allow Girardi to get to the bottom of his finances himself. companies.

Kamon’s attorney, Michael Severo, poured cold water on the narrative: “It’s just fiction,” he said in court.

As Girardi’s lawyers suggested they would shift the blame to Kamon, prosecutors wrote in their filing that evidence of misappropriation of money to pay EJ Global’s bills was “essential” to present a “coherent and complete prosecution story.”

“To exclude such evidence would only distort the truth and leave the jury with the false impression that only defendant Kamon was guilty of such embezzlement, when in fact defendant Girardi himself similarly embezzled tens of millions,” prosecutors wrote.

Girardi and Kamon are scheduled to appear in court together on August 6. But late Friday, Girardi’s lawyers moved to have them heard separately, in part because their defense strategies are “mutually exclusive.”

This means that Girardi’s lawyers believe that each will blame the other. They plan to argue that Kamon wanted to deceive his boss and take advantage of an elderly man struggling with cognitive impairment. They also anticipate that Kamon will claim in court documents that he was “coerced” to act on Girardi’s orders.

Whether the two men will be tried separately or whether we will admit evidence of improper payments to Erika Girardi’s limited liability company will be decided by U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton, who previously ruled that Girardi was competent to stand trial.

Staton will also rule on a motion filed late Friday by Tom Girardi’s legal team, which asks a judge to suppress evidence provided to prosecutors by the trustee overseeing Girardi’s law firm, arguing that a search warrant was never issued to obtain internal company records and documentation.

Girardi’s lawyers argue that the 85-year-old, who is in the dementia unit of a nursing home, has no short-term memory, recognition or memory of the criminal case against him.

However, in her ruling earlier this year, Staton said Girardi “clearly understands the nature of the charges against him.”

Girardi was once a titan of the American legal community, winning billions of dollars in settlements for clients over a career spanning five decades. Pacific Gas & Electric’s landmark payout to the residents of Hinkley, California, and her subsequent role in the film “Erin Brockovich” helped raise Girardi’s public profile. But he has long been an insider in California politics, raising money for governors, senators and legions of local Democratic politicians.

His company collapsed in late 2020 after evidence emerged that he had misappropriated millions of dollars in compensation paid by Boeing to widows and orphans after a plane crash in Indonesia. The money never reached the families, prompting a federal judge in Chicago to freeze Girardi’s assets and place him under investigation.

Girardi and his company were forced into bankruptcy, and since then dozens of former clients have come forward alleging they did not receive all or part of the settlements.

Girardi and his son-in-law David Lira, as well as Kamon, also face federal criminal charges in Chicago in connection with embezzling $3 million from victims of a plane crash in Indonesia.

The trial in Chicago is scheduled for 2025.

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