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Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Annenberg Space for Photography
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills ex-lawyer Tom Girardi has been deemed competent enough to stand trial, according to Meghann Cuniff. Girardi, who was disbarred from practicing law in California in 2021, has been accused of embezzling $15 million from five clients between 2010-2020 and faces five counts of wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton’s order is currently unavailable as she has given attorneys five days to determine what parts they think should be sealed. Last September, Girardi allegedly swore at the prosecutor during the mental competency hearing for the trial. Chicago attorney Jay Edelson told Cuniff that the incompetency claims were a part of his “decades of defrauding clients” and called it a “desperate attempt to evade justice.”
Girardi, along with attorney David R. Lira and accountant Christopher K. Kamon, was also indicted on fraud in Chicago for allegedly stealing more than $3 million from the families of the victims of the Lion Air Flight JT 610 crash. However, Staton’s competency verdict does not extend to the Chicago case; U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland will give an update on January 18.
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