Ex-Girardi Keese CFO used company dollars on home reworking, escort, affidavit claims

(Reuters) – The previous main money officer of defunct law company Girardi Keese bought a $2.4 million dwelling in The Bahamas in an endeavor to stay away from staying implicated in the customer fund embezzlement scandal that sunk plaintiffs lawyer Tom Girardi’s authorized vocation, in accordance to a recently unsealed affidavit.

Prosecutors this thirty day period charged Christopher Kamon, 49, with wire fraud. He faces a highest 20 decades in jail if convicted on allegations that he spent a lot more than $8 million of Girardi Keese’s cash on comprehensive dwelling remodeling, exotic sports automobiles and an escort.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Maddox in Baltimore ordered Kamon to be held without bail final week. Kamon has not nevertheless entered a plea. His law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom spouse Jessie Liu, did not reply to a request for comment.

FBI Particular Agent Elias Guerrero claimed in an affidavit disclosed Wednesday that Kamon would tell a Girardi Keese secretary that the firm’s working accounts were minimal. Girardi would then inform Kamon to use shopper resources in the firm’s accounts to replenish individuals other working accounts, according to Guerrero.

Kamon allegedly funneled more than $4 million of the law firm’s working accounts — which were being “just about solely funded with cash from GK’s shopper have faith in accounts” — to pay for substantial building on his properties, Guerrero mentioned.

Kamon also applied agency funds to established up a $20,000 a thirty day period allowance for Nicole Rokita, an escort he achieved on the internet, Guerrero stated. He acquired her a Tesla, utilized the firm’s American Categorical card to take her on lavish journeys about the planet, and arranged for her to get health and fitness insurance plan by way of Girardi Keese, Guerrero reported.

Rokita did not instantly reply to a ask for for remark. Kamon instructed Rokita that he was thinking about hiding out in the Bahamas just after Girardi Keese collapsed in December 2020, declaring he could get long lasting residency there if he bought an expensive home, Guerrero said. He bought a $2.4 million dwelling there very last thirty day period.

Guerrero stated Kamon’s alleged fraud transpired at the same time Girardi and his agency were being allegedly misappropriating customer believe in money. A person pending lawsuit in opposition to Kamon and other former Girardi Keese workforce alleges that the defunct law agency stole additional than $100 million from purchasers, co-counsel and suppliers.

A December 2020 lawsuit above lacking settlement cash induced Girardi’s fall. He and his organization were being pressured into individual bankruptcy proceedings in January 2021, and he was finally disbarred by the California Supreme Court docket before this year. He was positioned in a conservatorship in 2021, with his authorized and monetary affairs overseen by his brother Robert.

Girardi has not responded to the misconduct allegations. In Chicago federal court docket, he has admitted he did not pay out $2 million in settlement funds that have been owed to the families of victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash.

Guerrero claimed the demand against Kamon is limited to the “independent scheme to defraud GK by fraudulently getting dollars from GK’s working accounts.”

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