Prosecutors Want 14 Years for Convicted Ex-Legal Heavyweight Tom Girardi
Prosecutors are asking that convicted former legal titan Tom Girardi be sentenced to 14 years behind bars for ripping off his injured clients, while defense attorneys argue that the disbarred lawyer is a “broke, half-blind, incontinent, 85-year-old man with dementia” who should be placed in a medical facility for the rest of his life, according to court papers obtained Sunday. Girardi, once ranked among the most successful and prominent lawyers in the country, is scheduled to be sentenced in downtown Los Angeles on Friday following convictions on four counts of wire fraud for stealing millions of dollars from clients and spending the money on private jets, golf club memberships, jewelry and the career of his now-estranged wife, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne. In sentencing papers, federal prosecutors write that Girardi should be ordered to pay almost $3.8 million in restitution along with the prison sentence for perpetrating “a cunning fraud scheme against the injured clients he had a sworn duty to protect.” Girardi’s “yearslong theft of client funds from his law firm’s trust accounts and the myriad lies he told to cover