Tom Girardi on the witness stand: ‘I wasn’t going to “go steal money’’’

In a stunning move, the once-influential, now-disgraced former attorney Tom Girardi took the witness stand Thursday to testify in his own defense, flatly asserting that he never intentionally misled clients and that “every client got every penny that every client was supposed to get.”

It marked the first time Girardi, 85, has spoken publicly about the allegations of large-scale fraud at his now-closed law firm, Girardi Keese, and about charges that he misappropriated millions of dollars in settlement funds that belonged to his clients.

The law firm imploded in late 2020 amid evidence that he stole settlements from widows and orphans in an Indonesian plane crash, and hundreds of former clients and vendors came forward saying they were collectively cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The scandal rocked the Los Angeles legal community, led to reforms in how lawyers are disciplined by the State Bar of California and triggered a corruption investigation inside that agency, exposing how Girardi sought to exert improper influence on regulators. It also became endless fodder on the reality TV show “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” where Girardi’s estranged wife, Erika Girardi, absorbed her husband’s downfall with cameras rolling.

Through it all, Girardi had remained silent, with his defense lawyers contending he was mentally incompetent, unable to assist his own attorneys — let alone retain any short-term memory — and in the throes of progressive cognitive decline.

But a federal judge last year ruled Girardi fit to stand trial on four counts of wire fraud, with prosecutors accusing him of stealing more than $15 million from four clients between 2010 and 2020.

Inside the downtown L.A. courtroom, reporters and observers gasped when Girardi’s federal public defender Samuel Cross summoned him to the witness stand.

Wearing a gray blazer, Girardi smiled as he shuffled from his seat, hands trembling, and answered questions over the next 45 minutes.

Girardi began by painting a rosy picture of the firm he owned and ran for more than 40 years.

“The firm was doing so well because of the wonderful people who worked there and still work there,” he said. Later, Cross seemed to test Girardi’s mental acuity for jurors.

“Is your law firm still open, Tom?” Cross asked.

“Yes,” Girardi said.

“Tom, what’s my name,” the lawyer asked.

“I don’t know,” Girardi replied. “Bad, mean, terrible, it’s one of those.”

Girardi said he worked more than 50 hours a week and took on big cases such as the suit against Pacific Gas & Electric featured in “Erin Brockovich.” He pointed out that Julia Roberts starred in the award-winning film.

But when Cross asked about specific cases in which he is accused of stealing clients’ settlement funds, Girardi minimized his role and denied misconduct.

Asked about Joseph Ruigomez, who won a settlement of more than $50 million for burns he suffered in the San Bruno, Calif., gas explosion, Girardi acknowledged working on the case but denied misappropriating funds.

For other victims who have testified during the trial — such as Judy Selberg, who never received the full settlement in connection with her husband’s death in a boating accident — Girardi said he had no idea which lawyers at his firm handled each case.

Girardi said he got into the legal profession with a goal of “helping people who have been harmed.”

And he painted himself as a selfless boss who put his staff first, repeatedly telling the jury that he never took a salary.

“I wanted more and more [of] the money to go to the wonderful people who worked there,” he said.

As to accusations that Girardi stole from clients, he shifted blame to his longtime chief financial officer, Chris Kamon. (Kamon is also charged with wire fraud in connection with the theft of client money, along with a separate case in which he is accused of embezzling funds from the firm to finance the purchase of homes and a $20,000-per-month payment to his girlfriend.)

Girardi said Kamon “was pretty clever in stealing millions of dollars.”

Cross asked what Girardi would have done if he had known earlier about the alleged embezzlement. “I’d go crazy. I’d get him indicted. I had no idea,” Girardi said.

But the tone turned testy once Assistant U.S. Atty. Ali Moghaddas began his cross-examination.

Moghaddas asked Girardi how he was feeling.

“That’s up to you,” Girardi replied. “You’ve got to be nice.”

The prosecutor asked Girardi why he told the Ruigomez family their settlement was $5 million when it was 10 times as large, $53 million.

“I wouldn’t have said that,” Girardi insisted, adding that “there’s no way in the world” he would have lied about that.

“I didn’t intentionally ever tell somebody the wrong thing,” he said.

Pressed by the prosecutor, Girardi claimed that Ruigomez and another client had drug problems and suggested he was acting in their best interests by withholding settlement funds from them.

Girardi said Ruigomez’s mother told him, “You can’t give him a bunch of money. He will kill himself.”

“I remember that, and I declare under penalty of perjury,” Girardi said.

Ruigomez testified during the first week of trial. He acknowledged that, after the explosion, he’d received a lot of pain medication and had developed a drug dependency for a year.

But, he said, he never authorized Girardi to withhold the settlement funds because of that dependency. Ruigomez’s mother, Kathleen, also testified that she never told Girardi to withhold funds for that reason.

When the prosecutor dismissed Girardi’s testimony as a “story” that Girardi told, he was defiant: “It’s not a story, it’s the truth.”

Girardi was resolute that his firm often got money out to families the day the settlement funds arrived “because that money is important.”

“I’ve never taken a salary as a lawyer. I wasn’t going to quote ‘go steal money.’ I wouldn’t think of it,” he said.

At times, Girardi testified, funds were withheld from clients because of medical liens, clients going through divorce, or drug issues. Girardi said the holdbacks were “not for me to take the money.”

When Moghaddas asked about Girardi’s purchasing of jewelry for his now-estranged wife, he insisted that was not derived from clients’ funds.

“Every client got every penny that every client was supposed to get,” he testified. “Every single client — and I swear to you — got every single penny that they were supposed to get.”

Girardi said he was entitled to “take money that the firm owed me.”

Soon after, Girardi told Moghaddas, “Be nice to me,” something he’d repeatedly told clients who were trying to get their money from him, according to witness testimony and voicemail played for the jury.

Moghaddas pressed Girardi about a client who he said “didn’t get a nickel” owed to her.

“I don’t know about that,” Girardi said.

He added: “The last thing I was going to do was take somebody’s money for my own benefit.”

Legal experts said that having a defendant like Girardi on the witness stand is fraught with risk and is often a last-ditch effort to humanize their client or gain sympathy from jurors. Michael Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor and now a chair of white-collar defense at the law firm Cole Schotz, said Girardi’s testimony could undercut the defense lawyers’ argument that their client has long suffered from dementia.

“If he mumbles, and forgets and acts as though he’s living in some parallel universe, the defense benefits,” Weinstein said. “Conversely, if the government is able to draw out that he is aware, in whole or part of his actions, and made coherent decisions and is aware of his surroundings, his testimony will support government efforts to hold him accountable.”

Near the end of his cross-examination, Moghaddas referenced how Girardi made a career — and a fortune — out of persuading people to see his, or his clients’, point of view.

“I don’t know, we’ll find out,” Girardi said as he looked at the jury. Moghaddas asked what he meant by that.

“I was looking to the jury,” Girardi replied, before adding, “I don’t want to persuade them to believe me, I want them to believe me.”