The ex-chief financial officer at convicted former attorney Tom Girardi’s law firm pleaded guilty Friday to helping the once-prominent litigator embezzle millions in settlement funds from clients.
Christopher Kamon, 51, entered his plea to two counts of wire fraud in Los Angeles federal court.
Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 31, at which time Kamon faces up to 40 years behind bars.
Kamon, the former head accountant at the now-defunct Girardi Keese firm, admitted his role in the scheme and acknowledged embezzling millions of dollars from the firm’s accounts for his own use. He agreed to forfeit $3.1 million as part of the deal.
The defendant was expected to stand trial in January. A former resident of Encino and Palos Verdes, who was living in the Bahamas at the time of his arrest two years ago, was charged with multiple criminal counts for aiding Girardi’s scheme to defraud clients and in a separate case, to siphoning money from the firm.
He has been in federal custody since his arrest in December 2022.
Kamon admitted that he used funds stolen from the firm to finance construction projects at his homes.
Girardi was found guilty in August of running the massive 10-year Ponzi scheme in which he stole at least $15 million in settlement funds from clients.
Jurors convicted the 85-year-old Girardi of four counts of wire fraud for stealing from injured 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.
Girardi’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 6, at which time he will face up to 20 years in federal prison for each count.
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Both defendants were originally set to stand trial together this summer, but a judge decided to separate their cases after defense attorneys argued that each intended to blame the other. During Girardi’s trial, his lawyers attempted to blame Kamon, suggesting the accountant orchestrated the fraud.
Girardi’s attorney told jurors that Kamon was operating as a “virtuoso” of fraud at the firm. Girardi himself testified that Kamon “was pretty clever in stealing millions of dollars.”
Girardi, of Seal Beach, has dementia but was deemed able to assist in his own defense.
The defendants also face federal fraud charges in Chicago in a separate case involving $3 million misappropriated from settlements intended for the widows and orphans of victims of a Boeing 737-Max crash in Indonesia.
