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Tom Girardi, the estranged husband of RHOBH star Erika Jayne, testified on Thursday in his long-awaited criminal fraud trial despite being diagnosed with dementia.
On Thursday, Tom Girardi took the stand to be cross-examined in his long-awaited criminal fraud trial. This move shocked many as the former RHOBH staple was diagnosed with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and dementia three years prior.
The former head of the dismantled Girardi & Keese law firm is being sued for allegedly embezzling $15 million from his clients from 2010 to 2020.
Tom Girardi has emphatically denied any wrongdoing and kept to that story on the stand, insisting that he would NEVER take money from anyone.
“The last thing I would do would be to take someone’s money,” Tom Girardi said while on the stand in a downtown Los Angeles courthouse. “I wouldn’t think of it.”
He also reportedly said numerous times during his testimonial that he never gave himself a salary.
When asked about the missing settlement funds, Tom claimed he never lied about how much his former clients were owed.
The disgraced attorney also denied telling one client, Joe Ruigomez, a young man who was severely burned due to a gas line explosion, that his settlement was for $5 million instead of $53 million.
“I wouldn’t have said that,” Tom said. “I didn’t intentionally ever tell anyone the wrong thing.”
According to Courthouse News Service, evidence from the Internal Revenue Service shows that money from Ruigmomez’s settlement was “almost immediately” spent on repaying Tom’s previous clients.
Lawyers from both sides are set to make their closing statement on Monday. Tom has been charged with four counts of fraud and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count.
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The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is expected to return for season 14 in late 2024 or early 2025.
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