Tom Girardi, Husband of ‘Real Housewife’ Erika Jayne, Indicted for Wire Fraud & Contempt of Court
The embattled attorney faces 12 counts in Chicago and five in Los Angeles.
JusticePolitics
These days, it’s fairly common for Bravolebrities (or their bands of camera-ready family and “friends”) to be indicted in a court of law, but it’s pretty rare that these criminal charges bring as much satisfaction to audiences as Tom Girardi’s.
On Wednesday, the former high-powered attorney and husband of Real Housewife of Beverly Hills villain Erika Jayne, was indicted in Chicago on eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of criminal contempt of court and in Los Angeles on five counts of wire fraud. The Chicago charges stem from his alleged misappropriation of funds—more than $3 million—in settlements awarded to relatives of victims killed in the tragic crash of Lion Air Flight 610.
If that sounds confusing, allow me to clear it up for you: Through their law firm, Girardi Keese, Girardi and his colleague (and son-in-law) David Lira, represented five clients—all of whom were family members of passengers killed in the 2018 crash—and filed lawsuits in federal court in Chicago against the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing. The suits were settled in 2020, with a judge ruling that Boeing was to pay substantial sums of money to each relative. That money, intended for distribution, was sent via wire to their firm’s trust account, but Girardi and Lira didn’t distribute it. Instead, they put it toward improper purposes: maintaining the firm’s payroll and operating expenses and fulfilling settlements to their other clients, whose own settlement funds had been mishandled.