Tom Girardi Found Competent to Stand Trial for Embezzlement Charges

The former celebrity lawyer, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, faces potential decades in prison if convicted.

Disgraced Los Angeles celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi has been found competent to stand trial on charges that he stole more than $15 million from his clients.
Girardi, 84, pleaded not guilty last year to wire fraud on charges that he embezzled from clients, including an Arizona widow whose husband was killed in a boat accident; a Los Angeles couple injured in a car wreck that paralyzed their son; and a man who was severely burned in the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to decades in federal prison.
His lawyers argued that he was unable to take part in the trial because he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which they said has left him confused and with memory problems.
Girardi also faces federal wire fraud charges in Chicago, where he is accused of stealing about $3 million from family members of victims of a 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people.