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Law Firms

McElroy Deutsch settles suit claiming over $3M embezzlement by former executives

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 15, 2025, 9:32 am CDT

McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter has reached a settlement in a lawsuit accusing its former chief financial officer and his wife of stealing more than $3 million from the law firm.

McElroy Deutsch notified the court in Union County, New Jersey, that the case had settled in an April 11 letter, Law360 reports. A stipulation of dismissal said the suit and all counterclaims would be dismissed.

The settlement follows former CFO John Dunlea’s May 2024 guilty plea to embezzling more than $1.5 million from the firm over a six-year period and to failing to pay $22,000 in state income taxes. Dunlea was sentenced to five years in prison in July 2024 and ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution to McElroy Deutsch.

The firm’s suit had claimed that Dunlea paid himself unauthorized bonuses of at least $1.6 million, and that he and his wife, Nicole Alexander, treated themselves to lavish vacations in “business-card abuse” totaling more than $1.6 million.

Alexander was the firm’s former director of business and professional development. She had filed a countersuit alleging that McElroy Deutsch retaliated against her for her complaints about alleged legal violations and made unwarranted assumptions by wrongly accusing her of being aware of her husband’s alleged embezzlement.

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3. Former Girardi Keese CFO ordered to pay over…

Criminal Justice

Former Girardi Keese CFO ordered to pay over $8.9M in restitution, serve prison time for embezzlement

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 15, 2025, 11:32 am CDT

The former chief financial officer for the now-defunct law firm Girardi Keese was sentenced Friday to 121 months in federal prison for embezzling money from the firm and its clients.

Christopher Kazuo Kamon, 51, was also ordered to pay more than $8.9 million in restitution, according to a April 11 press release. He had pleaded guilty in October 2024 to two counts of wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton of the Central District of California said during the sentencing hearing that Kamon helped build a “web of deceit and manipulation.” Kamon had worked closely with former name partner Tom Girardi, who was convicted in August 2024 on four counts of wire fraud for or stealing $15 million from four clients over the course of a decade.

Girardi, who has been disbarred, was famous for his legal team’s portrayal in the film Erin Brockovich and for his marriage to Erika Girardi, who has appeared on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reality TV show.

Law360, Law.com and Reuters are among the publications with coverage of Kamon’s sentence.

During the hearing, Staton described the relationship between Kamon and Girardi as “symbiotic,” according to Law.com.

According to Law.com, “Staton’s voice shook slightly as she described, in detail, the disastrous financial situations of two of Girardi’s injured clients: a family who, as a result of Girardi’s main fraud scheme, was unable to purchase a house large enough to house the equipment necessary to care for their quadriplegic child and a widowed client who—after being assured by the firm that her embezzled settlement would pay off her house—was later forced to take out a home equity loan and sell it.”

Kamon is also facing federal charges in Illinois for allegedly stealing money from relatives of air crash victims. Kamon’s lawyer, Michael Severo, told Law360 that a nearly finalized plea deal would allow Kamon to serve his sentence in the Illinois case concurrently with the California sentence.

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Criminal Justice

Disbarred lawyer married to ‘Real Housewives’ star found competent to stand trial for alleged $15M embezzlement

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 4, 2024, 2:24 pm CST

Disbarred plaintiffs lawyer Tom Girardi has been found competent to stand trial in Los Angeles for allegedly stealing $15 million from clients.

U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton of the Central District of California noted the competency finding in a docket entry, report Law.com, Law360 and Reuters. His lawyers have said he suffers from dementia.

Girardi, 84, is the estranged husband of Erika Girardi, who appeared on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reality TV show. He was also an adviser to the movie Erin Brockovich and part of the successful legal team portrayed in the film that sued over contaminated groundwater. He currently lives in an assisted living facility.

Girardi is accused of stealing more than $15 million in Los Angeles. In Chicago, he is accused of misappropriating more than $3 million in settlement funds for five relatives of victims killed in the October 2018 crash of Indonesia’s Lion Air Flight 610.

Staton’s competency order is under seal. She has asked the parties to identify which parts of her order should remain sealed.

Girardi and his former law firm, Girardi Keese, have been forced into bankruptcy, according to Law360.

“Since Girardi Keese went bankrupt,” the article reports, “the trustee has filed over 100 complaints against casinos, former Girardi Keese employees and other law firms and companies, seeking a total of more than $140 million.”

See also:

“Ex-lawyer Tom Girardi lashes out at prosecutor in competency hearing; brain shrinkage reported”

“State bar finds ‘shocking past culture of unethical and unacceptable behavior’ in its handling of Girardi complaints”

“More than 1,700 California lawyers suspended for failure to comply with new trust account rules”