Tom Girardi used his law firm to pay for private jets, luxury cars, jewelry and “the entertainment career of his former wife,” a federal prosecutor told jurors during opening statements Tuesday in a federal district court in downtown Los Angeles.
Girardi, 85, who is the estranged husband of Erika Jayne, star of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” faces criminal charges of stealing $15 million from four clients. Prosecutor Scott Peatty alleged that Girardi hid his fraud by lying to his clients, blaming an “assortment of reasons that weren’t true” on why they did not receive their settlement funds.