Narrator: In this episode of "American Greed"...
He's a powerhouse litigator who eats big corporations for lunch.
Super lawyer Tom Girardi is worth $100 million
but says he's a champion of the little guy.
Archie: Tom was one of the most respected trial lawyers
in U.S. legal history.
Narrator: He wins billions in settlements for clients around the globe.
Girardi: As a lawyer, sometimes you feel pretty good.
Narrator: Girardi makes his fortune in the courtroom,
but his reputation is all Hollywood.
Edelson: He said "I was in that!
I'm the 'Erin Brockovich' lawyer!"
And that stuck.
Narrator: And whether he's taking on Big Pharma or Major League Baseball,
he's a legal legend.
Girardi: They did the wrong thing. You gotta make it right.
Narrator: Girardi's got the mansion...
the cars...
the swagger...
and the glamorous "Real Housewife of Beverly Hills."
Forouzan: He said stuff like "Forget about it, baby."
That's showmanship.
Narrator: But clients claim that this showman
is really a swindler who allegedly siphons
tens of millions in settlements to fund a gilded lifestyle.
Lowrey: It's about a lot of people who have been victimized
once, twice, three times.
Narrator: And his victims trust "American Greed" to tell their stories.
Jones: They're ruining lives.
They're ruining thousands of lives.
Narrator: Until this accused con-man counselor's world
starts to crumble.
Edelson: That's what's been happening the whole time.
"The old man went through all the money."
Narrator: And Girardi's days of making headlines are far from over.
Sharp: Is it greed? Yes.
Is it pride? Absolutely.
Is it ego? Is it prestige?
It's all of the above.
But it's not a mistake.
**
Narrator: Tom Girardi's illustrious career as a personal injury attorney
has made him an all-American success story.
The flashy uber lawyer is a multi-millionaire,
with a lifestyle most can only dream of.
It's on display every week, along with his beautiful,
much younger, wife, Erika Jayne,
who shares the intimate details of their marriage
on the hit reality series
"The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."
But on November 3, 2020,
the press catches wind of a bombshell --
Erika's filing for divorce.
This is wife number three.
He'd already had an armload of mistresses.
You know, you keep watching to see what will happen.
Narrator: Her soon-to-be ex-husband isn't nearly as famous as Erika.
But Girardi is a flamboyant character in his own right --
at least in the courtroom.
Edelson: In the legal world, this is a case about Tom Girardi.
In the reality world, it's about Erika Jayne's husband.
Narrator: Erika says she wants a divorce because,
she contends, Tom cheats and treats her poorly.
But could there be another reason for the split?
Tom Girardi's financial life is crumbling to pieces,
as the public will soon find out.
17 counts of federal criminal indictments
and a torrent of civil lawsuits will later claim
Tom stole client funds, and Erika knew it.
Edelson: We sued under federal statute RICO,
which is the statute that you use to go after the mob.
Narrator: A collapsing marriage and avalanche of legal woes
are just the beginning of Tom's troubles.
Teetering on bankruptcy,
Girardi risks losing what, according to Erika,
might matter most to him --
his sole identity as a great lawyer.
In 1964, seven years before his third wife, Erika,
is even born,
Girardi graduates from Loyola Marymount Law School in L.A.
He establishes a personal-injury law practice,
and scores early victories, including a big claim.
Lowrey: Just a few years out of law school,
Tom made a name for himself by being the first lawyer
in California to win a medical malpractice judgment
of more than $1 million.
And he was always an expert at marketing himself,
so he would turn every single victory into three more.
Narrator: Including a victory that will make him famous --
the so-called Erin Brockovich case.
Lowrey: The Erin Brockovich case put him on the map nationally.
Narrator: Before the world knows her as a character
that wins Julia Roberts an Oscar for Best Actress,
Erin Brockovich is a real-world legal clerk.
She works with her boss, attorney Ed Masry,
to lead a class-action lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric
for releasing cancer-causing chemicals into groundwater.
It's called a "toxic mass tort case."
When Masry runs out of money,
he turns to Tom Girardi for help.
With Girardi on Masry's team, in 1996,
PG&E settles for $333 million.
The attorneys pocket $133 million
in contingency fees alone.
Edelson: Erin Brockovich was the defining case for a lot of us.
And the movie compelled a lot of us to go to law school,
and fight for the underdog.
Narrator: Girardi name-drops his A-list
connections to the movie for decades.
In promotional interviews,
he sounds like hehas a starring role.
Shooting that movie -- I was on the set every day --
I got to know Julia Roberts,
And to this day,
we still have the chance to say "hello" now and then.
Narrator: Except, in the film, Tom's not important enough
to score an on-screen nod.
Writers invent a composite they call "Kurt Potter."
Erin, I was just talking about you.
This is our new partner, Kurt Potter.
He'll be handling Hinkley now.
Oh. I see what you mean about a secret weapon.
Erin, it's great to meet you. You've done a fabulous job.
He immediately latched on to it, and said, "That's me!"
So, even though they never said "Tom Girardi,"
he said, "I was in that.
I'm the 'Erin Brockovich' lawyer."
And that stuck.
And he realized that that fame got him
an incredible amount of power.
Narrator: Powerful lawyer, even better businessman.
In glossy advertising, he's Girardi-Keese's best hype man,
and in P.R. interviews, seizes every opportunity
to pitch his firm's signature calling card.
And we're interested in doing one thing,
and that's helping the little guy,
giving the guy a voice, who's been harmed,
who otherwise wouldn't have a voice.
Narrator: Girardi thrives on high-profile cases
that earn him headlines.
He even takes on the L.A. Dodgers in 2014.
Police in Los Angeles arrested a suspect today
in the brutal beating of a San Francisco Giants fan
outside L.A.'s Dodger Stadium.
Lewis: Beaten so badly that he remains in a coma
in a San Francisco hospital.
Narrator: Girardi sues the victim's attackers
andthe Dodgers,
blaming negligent security for his client's trauma.
Investigative reporter Brandon Lowrey covers the trial,
and gets a front-row seat to the Girardi Show.
Lowrey: When I first met Tom,
he was in the middle of the Bryan Stow case.
He was representing the fan against the Dodgers.
Narrator: And he does it all with dramatic panache.
The Dodgers should be paying the medical expense
for this man and his family right now.
"Hey, man, we made a mistake. We're so sorry."
And instead, you come in here, and you deny what the law is.
You deny you have any ability to keep the place safe.
"People get hurt, too bad."
Narrator: In and outside the courtroom, Lowrey is impressed.
He remembered my name the first time I told it to him.
The next day, he came up to me, "Brandon, great story."
He was just a really nice guy.
Narrator: Girardi's closing argument
is a folksy master class in persuasion.
You know what?
You're gonna do the right thing.
I know you will.
Tom Girardi's clients needed a win.
He was the man who was gonna solve their problems.
He was their hero.
Narrator: The jury awards Girardi's client nearly $18 million.
I didn't know who he was.
I mentioned this to one of my colleagues,
and he was like, "Oh, yeah, he's kind of a big deal.
He was one of the Erin Brockovich lawyers,
and his wife's on 'Real Housewives.'"
And I was like, "Wow. This guy remembered me."
I can only imagine how clients would have felt,
being treated like they really mattered to him.
Narrator: Six years later,
and only days before Erika Jayne files for divorce,
Tom will give his last-known on-camera interview
to personal-injury attorney Daniel Forouzan,
who lands Girardi as a marquee guest
on his "Schmoozin' with Forouzan" podcast.
**
Hi.
My name is Daniel Forouzan, and welcome to the first episode
of the "Schmoozin' with Forouzan" podcast.
I went in there thinking to myself, "Oh, wonderful.
I got a big name for the first episode of my podcast."
That's all I knew.
And I was excited to listen to him, and learn.
Narrator: Sharing that interview exclusively
with "American Greed," Forouzan learns that
Girardi's happy to talk shop about his Dodgers win.
Not too long ago, sir,
I was listening live to your closing
in the Bryan Stow case,
and now here I am, sitting across from you,
getting to ask you all these questions.
I can't tell you how excited I am.
I got all the accolades -- "Girardi won."
Forget about it, baby."
It was that wonderful, sweet client
that those jurors really liked.
He says things like, "Forget about it, baby."
And I'm thinking to myself,
"Oh, my God. I'm in 'Dick Tracy.'
What's going on here?
Do we still speak like that?"
At the time, I found that charming,
because no one else has ever spoken to me like that.
Narrator: But clients say Girardi's charm never lasts for long.
Coming up, Tom Girardi plays Erika Jayne's Prince Charming.
He had so much power and influence and money
that he could take kind of a nobody
and make her into a star.
Narrator: But who's really funding their fairytale lifestyle?
**
Narrator: As a hot-shot L.A. lawyer, Tom Girardi cultivates
a big-spending, showy reputation.
Lowrey: Since the 1980s, he had a mansion in Pasadena.
And he would entertain politicians.
He'd entertain other lawyers.
And this goes back long before Erika.
Narrator: By the late '90's, when he meets 27-year-old
cocktail waitress Erika Chahoy,
they're a match made in Hollywood.
Sharp: Tom Girardi and Erika are two peas in a pod.
And when they met, it was like a stereotype ran into a cliché.
Narrator: They marry in 2000, and the one-time exotic dancer
begins her metamorphosis to Erika Jayne,
the aspiring singer and celebrity
bankrolled by her new husband 33 years her senior.
Author Kathleen Sharp will spend years
investigating Tom Girardi.
Sharp: They're very similar,
their ambitions and their public personas.
She was very clever to hitch her star to him.
Narrator: But at the same time Erika's star is rising,
Tom Girardi is about to take another big swing at Pacific Gas
and Electric -- the company that made him rich and famous.
They're behind another devastating disaster.
And for Girardi,
it's a new opportunity to cash in on tragedy.
On a warm September evening in 2010,
Joe Ruigomez is a teenager,
at home watching a football game with his girlfriend.
Suddenly, his entire neighborhood explodes.
Almaguer: This city's reeling from an explosion so powerful
it claimed lives and forever charred the landscape here.
The local gas company, Pacific Gas and Electric,
says a 30-inch gas line likely ruptured.
Narrator: With burns covering his body, Joe clings to life.
Amazingly, this is his second appearance
as a victim on "American Greed."
His first was in season 14, episode 11, "Burned by Greed,"
recounting how he survived the explosion
caused by PG&E's negligence.
Joe: Boom.
Fire comes filling up the whole house.
It's like a huge blowtorch, if you will.
I don't know what's going on, but all I know is this is it.
I'm, like, melting alive.
It's over.
Narrator: Joe's girlfriend, Jessica, perishes,
along with seven others in San Bruno.
Archie: Joe -- We don't know if he's gonna make it.
And he's hooked up to a million tubes,
and covered in bandages all over.
You can't recognize him.
Narrator: Kimberly Archie, a close friend of Joe's mother,
knows many lawyers in her work
as a youth sports safety advocate.
Some of them have high praise for Tom Girardi.
All they ever talked about was Tom Girardi.
Tom Girardi this.
"We'll take it to Tom."
Narrator: And when it comes to winning against PG&E,
no one has a better reputation.
I ran the meeting, initially, when they met Tom
because this was just a horrific nightmare for them.
Narrator: But with a home in ashes,
and facing a mountain of medical debt for Joe,
the Ruigomez family, like so many of Girardi's clients,
are vulnerable, as Joe's sister Jamie recalls.
We thought, "Wow, like, he's an amazing lawyer.
He's so well-known."
We had no experience in that world.
Like, we were a middle-class, blue-collar family.
Narrator: The Ruigomez family signs on with Girardi-Keese,
and their celebrity L.A. lawyer fights for them,
suing PG&E for negligent procedures.
Joe: I was in a coma for most of that.
And I woke up, and they said, "This is our lawyer."
Every time I talked to him,
he'd whisper me sweet nothings all the time,
you know, talk a good game.
It just seemed logical to trust him.
Narrator: As their case winds through the court,
Joe's family friend, Kimberly,
starts working closely with Tom as a litigation consultant,
giving her an up-close look
at Girardi's outrageous spending.
He leases not one, but two, private jets,
and drives a rotating fleet of luxury cars.
Tom showers Erika with jewels,
including the pièce de résistance --
$750,000 diamond earrings.
His estimated net worth peaks at $100 million.
Yet, for all his wealth,
Archie notices something doesn't quite add up.
Archie: I kept thinking, "How is he living like a billionaire
on millionaire money?"
I never thought he made that kind of money
just on settlements.
Narrator: She might be right.
She just doesn't know it yet.
**
Three years into their lawsuit against PG&E,
Tom Girardi has exciting news for the Ruigomez family --
he's won them a multimillion-dollar settlement.
Most is earmarked for Joe,
who's already endured dozens of surgeries,
and will require extensive medical care
for the rest of his life.
I didn't have any money at the time.
Everything that me and my family owned
was up in smoke -- literally.
Narrator: But Joe's sister, Jamie,
says Girardi isn't explaining the details
of their settlement.
We didn't see any paperwork.
And once my mom started pressing him,
he pretty much cut off communication with her.
We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
Narrator: And when Tom tells the family how much money they'll receive,
instead of comforted, Jamie recalls feeling judged.
He made me feel like I was being an ungrateful brat,
as if he was expecting me to jump for joy
that I got this money,
but I lost everything that was important to me.
Narrator: On top of that, Girardi's smarminess makes her suspicious.
He called everybody, like, "Oh, baby,"
and, like, stuff like that.
And he just tried too hard, and it was phony.
He even called my father "baby."
Like, what are you doing?
Narrator: Coming up, more families in dire straits
depend on Tom Girardi to be their champion
of the little guy.
We need this money for help.
We don't want this to go buy lavishly.
Narrator: But their lawyer does,
and it will lead to his downfall.
Edelson: This was not a small criminal operation.
It was large. It was unwieldy.
That is something out of a John Grisham novel.
**
Narrator: In California,
while the Ruigomez family trusts Tom Girardi
to deliver millions in settlement money
from the PG&E explosion lawsuit,
halfway across the country,
the Jones family is counting on him to answer their prayers.
**
In Lyndon, Kansas, they're represented by Tom's firm
as part of a 2012 lawsuit
against the Johnson & Johnson drug Risperdal.
After taking the drug as a child,
Holly and her husband, Michael's, son Matthew,
who is autistic, develops gynecomastia,
male swelling of breast tissue.
Insurance won't cover
the corrective operation that he needs.
Holly: It broke my heart to see him going through that,
and I couldn't make it better right away.
Narrator: When Michael dies from lung cancer in 2016,
Holly and her children are left reeling,
and financially strapped.
Holly suffers brain and physical injuries,
leaving her disabled.
They hope for a miracle settlement for Matt
and a little money to repair their home,
if there's anything left over.
Kellie: And it's not that we want this money.
It's that a lot of us can't afford this stuff.
We can't afford Matt's surgery.
Narrator: Though Girardi-Keese advertises
that "we treat our clients like family,"
the Joneses say they receive hardly a word of correspondence.
Kellie: We kept getting pushed off, and pushed off,
and pushed off, and pushed off, and we needed the help.
Something just wasn't right in the way they handled you,
the way they treated you.
Narrator: Finally, after seven years,
Girardi-Keese notifies Holly that they've negotiated
a settlement with Risperdal's manufacturer.
It will allow the Joneses to pay for Matt's surgery
and fix up their home.
The amount is modest -- just $12,000 --
but for the Jones family, it's life-changing.
For the Girardis, 12 grand is a night out.
* Cha-ching, it's expensive to be me *
Narrator: Erika's video "Xxpen$ive"
lays out her thoughts on money management.
Erika was the perfect mate, in that she loved to spend money
just as much as Tom did, if not more.
It was a trophy, to him, to say, like,
"I paid for her music video."
Narrator: As reality TV royalty,
Erika reportedly tallies more than $14 million
in American Express charges.
But her celebrity seems to pay off for Tom.
How has the reality television affected your career?
How has it affected the marketing for you office?
I would be in a hotel room in New Orleans,
20 people come running up --
"Are you Erika's husband?"
Narrator: Erika talks about enlisting a $40,000-a-month
"glam squad," and goes on eye-popping spending sprees.
Tom and Erika had money to buy whatever they wanted.
They didn't necessarily have the most taste.
And I think that's really where the spirit of greed
comes from -- people who just have an empty want.
Narrator: Yet, while Tom's living it up with Erika,
his clients are just trying to survive.
He was brilliant at getting the recovery,
getting a payment made by the defendants in these lawsuits.
He just wasn't very good at allocating those funds
where they should have been paid.
Narrator: The Ruigomez family discovers that firsthand.
They've asked "American Greed"
to keep the exact amount confidential,
but, by 2018, they allege that Girardi pays them
only a small fraction
of their multimillion-dollar settlement,
telling Joe he'll eventually get the rest.
At first, Girardi's rationale sounds plausible.
Joe: "You're gonna get payments every five years,
lump sums every five years,
and then, you're gonna get annuity every month."
And I'm like, "Oh, that makes sense.
I'm young, you know."
Narrator: Neil Wertlieb is a lawyer
and ethics expert in California.
The clients, they don't really have the access
to the information to figure out what they're entitled to
unless the lawyer does what they're supposed to do,
which is to tell them precisely what's been received,
account for it basically to the penny,
and whatever balance is remaining,
all of that is supposed to be allocated to the clients.
Narrator: Instead, his clients allege Girardi evades
their pleas to see the actual paperwork from their settlement.
They claim that he hedges on showing them
his itemized fees, and he's late with payments.
Joe: It's just another excuse, another excuse.
That's when some red flags started popping up.
Narrator: Red flags are just the beginning.
Joe: Time would go on, and then, finally,
if you press him enough, he'll finally pay you something.
And then, eventually, that just stopped.
Narrator: And back in Kansas,
the Jones family says that Girardi-Keese
plans to keep most of their tiny $12,500 settlement.
Holly: They were going to take 40%,
and they were also going to take $3,500 for postage,
and copies, and filing fees.
I know they did not spend that much.
Narrator: Holly claims she doesn't get an itemized bill,
and pushes back.
Eventually, they settled for $6,000.
Well, they said, "Okay, we'll pay you in a month."
Month goes by, nothing happens.
We kept calling them, and calling them,
and they would not respond to us.
Narrator: Up next, when an Indonesian air disaster
leaves widows and orphans in its wake,
Tom Girardi is on the scene.
Past clients warn, "Check your pockets."
If you're unlucky enough to have touched Tom Girardi,
he probably had your wallet.
**
By 2018, Chicago consumer law attorney Jay Edelson
has a chance to collaborate as a co-counsel
with the man who has helped inspire his career --
Tom Girardi.
But Edelson is about to find new truth in an old saying --
"Never meet your heroes. They'll only disappoint."
Edelson: He operated like a mob boss,
you know, what you see in "The Sopranos,"
where they're at the restaurant all day,
and if you want a meeting with them,
you've got to come to the restaurant.
It wasn't like any other attorney
I'd ever met in my life.
Narrator: And talking about the opioids case they might work on,
in Jay Edelson's opinion, Tom is shockingly charmless.
Edelson: Within 30 seconds, you realize he's a horrible person.
And it was clear he was full of [bleep].
It was just clear from the very beginning.
He didn't know anything about the case.
He had no strategy other than just to wield his influence.
It was not a good mix.
Narrator: But against his better judgment,
Edelson will give Girardi a second chance.
Now to that growing air-disaster mystery,
a Boeing passenger plane,
the company's most recent design,
suddenly plunging into the sea,
likely killing all 189 people on board.
And the question is,
what caused a brand-new plane to go down in clear skies?
Narrator: When a Boeing 737 MAX, owned by Lion Air,
crashes in Indonesia,
Girardi-Keese swoops in to represent
a dozen grieving family members,
most of them widows and orphans,
in a lawsuit against Chicago-based Boeing and others.
A few months later, we got a call from Tom Girardi's firm,
saying, "We're gonna file the case in Chicago,
and we'd like you to help out."
Narrator: When Edelson confirms that Girardi won't be
directly involved with the legwork, he signs on.
Both firms agree to a 50/50 fee split,
and, in February of 2020, Girardi and Edelson
celebrate a multimillion-dollar settlement for their clients.
Girardi-Keese is responsible for promptly paying the families
and cutting co-counsel their share.
But, as a federal judge will later find,
by that September, Edelson's firm hasn't seen a dime.
We were calling every week, trying to get more information,
and we kept getting stalled.
Narrator: The Ruigomez family knows the feeling.
After years of runaround,
they've started sleuthing into Girardi's past,
and discovered a laundry list of complaints against him
they find online.
They tell their friend, Kimberly Archie,
what they found.
As a host of civil lawsuits will later allege,
Tom Girardi seems to have been regularly
transferring client settlements into his own bank accounts
to sustain his obscene spending.
Edelson: When money comes in as client money,
you have to put it in a separate account.
It is sacrosanct.
Narrator: Client funds are supposed to be kept
in a trust account that's registered
and regulated by the California State Bar.
Lawyers are also bound to follow
specific payment procedures.
Let's say it's $100,000 in the trust account,
and I have a 40% contingency fee on that.
So, if I get my client $100,000, I will take the $40,000,
move it out of the trust account,
put it into my operating account
before I ever touch a penny or a nickel of that money.
Why?
While it's in your trust account, it's not your money.
That belongs to your clients.
Narrator: Bankruptcy trustees will later claim
not if you're Tom Girardi.
He took the funds for his own use,
his own personal expenses, for gifts to his wife,
whatever it might have been.
Narrator: It's called "commingling client funds."
Wertlieb: The amount of money that was involved here
became very attractive.
Perhaps he saw those funds, and thought "I've earned it.
I deserve it. I want it."
Commingling funds is the fast track to getting disbarred --
or it was supposed to be the fast track of getting disbarred.
Narrator: Instead, the California State Bar
inducts Girardi into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame.
Lowrey: On the surface, this is about a celebrity couple,
but what it's really about, it's about a lot of people
who have been victimized once, twice, three times.
Narrator: The Ruigomez family knows that feeling, as well.
Jamie: It really is a slap in the face
because we'll just sit there watching TV, and be like,
"Oh, that's what our money's being spent on.
Oh, that's what all the other victims' money
is being spent on.
Oh, that's what you're doing with it."
Narrator: Joe Ruigomez copes with constant, daily pain.
But Girardi seems untouchable.
Archie: Nobody is looking at any of this stuff.
How could he have done it? Nobody knew.
Narrator: Up next, Girardi has seemingly perfected hiding
dirty little secrets in plain sight.
Tom Girardi was not a work in progress.
He was already a made man in the most corrupt way.
**
Narrator: In 2019, Tom Girardi is regarded
as one of the most successful litigators in America.
Author Kathleen Sharp has known better since the 1990s.
Tom was an operator way back when.
Narrator: Way back in 2000,
she writes a searing exposé on the Erin Brockovich case.
Victims from that early PG&E case accuse Tom
of the same lying and embezzlement racket
that he's been accused of repeating with scores
of complaining clients after them.
Sharp: Here were these poor people
who had suffered for years and years,
and they trusted Girardi to make them, if not whole again,
then at least to get some money,
so they could take care of their medical problems.
And that never really happened.
Narrator: But there's more.
Sharp: What I found was sort of a gold mine,
which is the arbitration system.
Narrator: Voluntary arbitration allows Girardi
to steer some of his famous cases --
including the Erin Brockovich case -- into negotiation
instead of a full-blown trial before a jury.
Private, retired judges administer those cases.
Sharp: They were earning hundreds of millions of dollars,
paying judges two or three times
what they had earned in the public sector.
Narrator: Perhaps surprisingly, this is perfectly legal.
Sharp: It wasn't just arbitration.
It was him making friends with some of these private judges.
But Tom took it a little bit farther.
Narrator: Girardi wines and dines judges in L.A.
He flies them to baseball games on his Gulfstream jet,
and even charters Mediterranean cruises
that his judge pals later call "educational seminars."
There would be butlered waiters with silver trays
full of champagne, or bikini-clad ladies
frolicking on the sun-drenched decks.
It gave decadence a bad name.
Narrator: With arbitration, results are veiled in secrecy,
so Girardi's payouts escape scrutiny.
And in this good-old-boy culture,
Girardi's official record with the California Bar
remains spotless --
which is remarkable, because, zooming ahead to 2022,
the Bar will disclose a jaw-dropping number
of complaints and lawsuits --
more than 200,
dating all the way back to the early 1980s.
They taught me a thing or two about not only
how to fleece your clients, but how to get away with it.
Narrator: Girardi quietly settles some of the cases in a Ponzi-like way,
paying off old debts with new money.
Other times, court findings show
he simply runs out the statute of limitations.
And Girardi thumbs his nose
at a mandate from the California Bar.
There were 37 cases where he was required to report himself.
The Bar trusted him to report his own misconduct,
and he just didn't.
Basically, if you're unlucky enough
to have touched Tom Girardi, he probably had your wallet.
Narrator: But by 2019, the Ruigomez family has had enough of Tom Girardi.
They not only fire him, they sue him.
Archie: The day that Kathy's family sued Tom
was the beginning of the end.
That unraveled everything.
Narrator: The judge issues Erika Jayne-Girardi
two subpoenas, asking for shared financial records.
That's what led to Erika being served,
and finding out that, really, Tom has no money.
Narrator: Though Erika has publicly blamed
Tom's alleged cheating as her reason for divorcing him,
Jay Edelson doesn't buy it.
It didn't make sense until Erika filed for divorce.
Then, we said, "That's what's been happening the whole time.
The old man went through all the money."
Narrator: Up next...
Edelson: At that point, he was known to be a crook.
His whole reputation ended like that.
**
Narrator: A lawsuit against Tom Girardi, brought by his former clients,
the Ruigomez family, has ruptured his reputation.
And now, all hell is breaking loose.
Edelson: When they brought their suit, and started having success,
the lenders start cutting him off.
He was relying on a lot of outside money
to keep it going, and that stopped that.
Narrator: Girardi is dangerously deep in debt, baby,
as he reveals in a video deposition
for the Ruigomez case.
**
Narrator: In Chicago, Jay Edelson is deeply worried
about his clients, and is horrified to discover
that they've received barely half of their settlement money.
And we now know the clients were saying to them,
were screaming "Where's our money?"
Narrator: On December 2, 2020, Jay Edelson files a 30-page,
five-count civil complaint against Tom, Erika,
and other Girardi-Keese associates.
Edelson: In my view, it is a crime family.
That's what it is. That is how they operated.
Narrator: Just two weeks later, on December 14th,
Judge Thomas Durkin
calls Girardi's behavior "unconscionable,"
and demands $2 million to be paid to the Lion Air families.
But Tom Girardi is broke.
The court issued the judgment.
They froze his assets.
A criminal investigation started.
He then was forced into bankruptcy.
And at that point, he was known to be a crook.
His whole reputation ended like that, overnight.
Narrator: Over the next two years, new civil lawsuits
filed by Jay Edelson pour in, alleging Tom embezzled funds,
and Erika helped him hide more than $20 million in assets
through loans to her company, EJ Global.
Edelson: We sued under federal statute RICO,
which is the statute that you use to go after the mob.
We know that she knew that the money had run out
at a time when she was pretending otherwise.
That's why we've claimed she was
the front woman of the enterprise.
Narrator: And in a statement to "American Greed,"
Erika's attorney vocally denies
all the lawsuit's claims against her,
writing that they are "disappointed with the focus
on Erika, which has been used as a distraction tactic.
She had no knowledge of, and did not participate in,
any misconduct.
And she turned over her earnings
to her husband and his law firm."
But Erika doesn't turn over those infamous $750,000 earrings
from Tom until a court order demands
she submit them for auction.
I'm angry. I'm upset.
Here you are, flashing all this stuff off,
and that shouldn't be your stuff.
All of that should be gone.
All of that should be money towards the people who need it.
Auctioneers sell them for 312 grand.
After months in foreclosure,
Tom's opulent Pasadena mansion sells for $8 million.
The expensive treasures left inside
fetch less than a half a million.
While the Girardis' divorce languishes in limbo,
Tom lives in a memory-care facility,
reportedly due to advancing Alzheimer's disease.
18 months after suspending Girardi's law license
due to his suspected cognitive decline,
the California State Bar permanently disbars him,
later writing that
"Girardi caused irreparable harm to hundreds of his clients."
Tom does not represent all lawyers.
The vast majority of lawyers I know get up in the morning,
and do good work on behalf of their clients.
Narrator: Tom Girardi's attorney responded to "American Greed"
with "no comment."
And though at least one court has found no evidence
that Erika participated in any wrongdoing,
in a suit brought by Girardi's former colleagues,
she and Tom still face a slew of civil cases,
including Edelson's.
Whatever role she may have played in this
pales in comparison to the roles played by numerous people
whose names we don't know.
Tom would never have gotten as far as he did
without all of these other people and enablers --
the other attorneys, the partners.
Ever time you pull a thread,
it kind of goes in 15 different directions.
That's the difficulty in this case,
that it really was a sprawling criminal conspiracy for decades.
Narrator: Girardi's estimated debt is at least $100 million,
with another $700 million in lawsuit claims against him.
The Jones family has launched a GoFundMe campaign.
And Holly wonders what justice might look like
for the Girardis.
This may sound harsh,
but I want them to live like we have to live.
And I want justice for all the clients
who have been stolen from.
Narrator: Jamie Ruigomez, whose family is still fighting
to secure the rest of Joe's settlement, has another thought.
Jamie: I don't care how old he is.
No one should be above the law.
He should be in prison. That's where I want him.
Narrator: And that could be a possibility.
In November 2022, federal agents in Baltimore
arrest Tom Girardi's former C.F.O., Chris Kamon,
on criminal charges for wire fraud.
Though they declined to comment, FBI and IRS agents
are reportedly pursuing investigations
against Girardi and his associates.
Would it be a happy ending to see an octogenarian in prison
after he's already harmed everybody?
The happiest ending we could hope for
is that people start looking at the system,
and changing the system,
to prevent this from happening to other people.
There's gonna be another Tom Girardi,
and probably doing it right now.
**
-- Captions by VITAC --
**