MORE TIME: Girardi cohort gets extra prison time for part in fraud scheme

CHICAGO – A former corporate officer with ties to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Girardi received more time in prison Monday.

Christopher Kamon was the Chief Financial Officer for Erika’s estranged husband Tom Girardi’s law firm, Girardi Keese. A federal judge sentenced Kamon to 65 months in prison for his role in the misappropriation of millions of dollars in client funds, which were owed to families of the victims of a 2018 plane crash in Indonesia, prosecutors said.

The news of the new sentence was first reported by Reuters.

Kamon, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland. Kamon is already serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty in a California federal court to two counts of wire fraud on similar charges of bilking clients.

A spokesperson for the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s office said Kamon’s Illinois and California sentences will run concurrently. Kamon has been in federal prison since his arrest in November 2022.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago charged Girardi, Kamon and David Lira, Girardi’s son-in-law and a former lawyer at the firm, with misappropriating more than $3 million in client funds owed to families of the victims of the 2018 Boeing 737 MAX Lion Air Flight 610 crash in Indonesia. The crash killed all 189 onboard.

A federal judge last month sentenced Girardi to more than seven years in prison in the California case, closing the book the once-prominent lawyer’s rapid fall for enriching himself with settlement funds meant for his clients.

Kamon changed course and pleaded guilty last week to the charges in the Chicago case.

Lira pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal contempt last month. His sentencing is scheduled for October.

Rowland in May dismissed the Chicago charges against Girardi after prosecutors sought their dismissal in light of his California sentencing.

Tom and Erika Girardi and Lira are all defendants in a federal lawsuit filed in Chicago. As ExhibitAList.com reported in May, the $50 million lawsuit lays out a series of allegations that Erika knew well what her husband was doing with the law firm’s money. Quoting from the filing in the Federal District Court of Northern Illinois, “the firm was siphoning off millions to fund Tom’s and his wife Erika’s all-consuming need to spend—funding a lifestyle so lavish that Erika was a cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” It shines a harsh light on Erika herself, claiming, “EJ Global acted as a shell entity with no capital, corporate books, or indicia of corporate formality. EJ Global was created for the purpose of funneling money from Girardi Keese to benefit Erika.”

The lawsuit also alleges that financial records show that more than $25 million of Erika’s expenses were illegally paid by Girardi Keese. That includes, the suit charges, that more than $14 million in American Express charges were made by Erika on a Girardi Keese card issued to her by the Girardi Family Enterprise, as well as more than $11 million in vendor payments that the Girardi Family Enterprise made for her benefit through the law firm.

While named in the lawsuit, Erika Girardi has not been charged with any crime related to her husband’s schemes. The lawsuit is pending in federal court in Chicago.