Estranged husband of Erika Jane, Tom Girardi found guilty of wire fraud

Mr gerardi what is your reaction to the verdict after years of waiting the verdict is finally here in The Saga of Tom gerardi the estranged husband of Real Housewife star Erica Jane well I cried when I heard the verdict it was a guilty verdict on all four counts I'm elated uh I'm I'm joyful for that I expected no other verdict but I still got chills when it happened this case is really the most staggering legal Scandal I think we've ever seen and we're not done the one-time legal Titan now convicted felon not saying much as he left the courtroom there any comment on the verdict sir any comment at all he was a perpetrator of Injustice victimizing his own clients when they were most vulnerable and most in need the jury convicted gerardi on all four counts of wire fraud agreeing that he stole millions of dollars from his own clients now facing decades Behind Bars sh on you there's a special place in hell for Tom gerardi I kept my eyes on Tom the whole time just to see how he would react he looked at the judge he looked down he kind of slumped back into his chair as she was reading the guilty verdicts with four counts of federal wire fraud because they are all separate victims they can be stacked together so 20 years for each count is over 80 years in fraud cases people go to prison Sam Bank freed went to prison Jen Shaw went to prison Elizabeth Holmes and many others the feds aren't going to shy away from sending him to prison because he's old Gerard's Fall From Grace captured the attention of the country in part thanks to his wife Jane is a longtime star of the Bravo franchise Real Housewives of Beverly Hills gerardi himself often appearing alongside her I love you thank you for meeting me instead of having lunch with a bunch of gnarly insurance people I got you the reality TV star has not been charged with a crime related to her husband's scheme and she is not a part of the federal case at trial but she is facing a number of civil cases she has denied all wrongdoing something she addressed in a sitdown with Gerard's victims in the Hulu documentary the housewife and the Hustler too the Reckoning thanks for coming did you ever hear about him taking money or anything before this whole thing blew up no like the lawsuits that were against them I found out when I was sued in Arizona from a lending company when I was named and that was the first time and I said why am I in this lawsuit and the three answers I kept getting where it's don't worry about it I I've got it handled but why is my name in here like I'm not part of the business so that's when I started noticing saying something's wrong Erica did not make an appearance for Gerard's trial while Tom was in court she was filming for the upcoming season of her reality show at the time the trial started she was in St Lucia with her castmates however her name was mentioned by prosecutors the government laying out how gerardi used $20 million to help fund her career including elaborate music videos [Music] we heard prosecutors talk about the money that Tom Gerard was spending to support her career through her company EJ Global so though she wasn't a witness and though she is not charged she was still very much mentioned in this case because the spouse is one of the people benefiting from all of this theft and Jers want to know where the money went and a lot of it went to Erica look I think a lot of people want to know know what's going to happen to Erica she still is facing civil lawsuits so she still has a lot of like mud she has to trudge through so she's not totally in the clear gerardi had pleaded not guilty but the US attorney successfully argued to a jury of seven men and five women that gerardi deliberately stole client money and lied to cover it up I feel sorry for the victims the victims were in pain who was thinking a the defense maintained gerardi depended on the wrong people and blamed his Chief Financial Officer who they say stole all the money the CFO has pleaded not guilty Gerard's attorneys say the 85-year-old was in mental Decline and had no idea what was going on at the firm something they tried to demonstrate when gerardi testified in his own defense you know I think that most people would say it's never a good idea for a defendant to get on the stand I will say it was the first time I found some empathy towards him listening to him it didn't change my mind about how I felt about the evidence and I fed the jury would feel the same way when I heard Tom gerardi was taking the stand I was absolutely stunned this is always a terrible idea especially for someone who thinks they are going to outsmart the attorneys and sweet talk the jury that's not someone who's missing a step that's somebody who's trying to pull one over on the jury and I'm glad he wasn't able to the current charges against gerardi came from four specific former clients including Kathy and Joe Gomez he is not going to do this to anybody else and he should have never have done it to me shouldn't have underestimated me their story was shown in the Hulu documentaries the housewife and the Hustler and its sequel the Reckoning I'm fighting for money that I'm owed I'm fighting for money that's uh going to take care of me with all the surgeries I have to do Joe was burned over 90% of his body and won a settlement worth tens of millions of dollars the prosecutors say gerardi leveraged his Fame as the lawyer who won won the Aaron Brockovich case to assure clients like Rue Gomez that he was on their side at the end of the day all of these clients had never been through anything like this they're trusting the guy the Aaron Brockovich lawyer to help them and he didn't it's been a Solid 5 years 247 thinking about how to get to this day and not knowing if it would ever happen until the moment I heard the verdict Kimberly Archie is a close family friend to the Rue Gomez's she also worked with gerardi over the years as an expert in sports injuries it's not really a happy moment how could it be happy to know that for 40 years this man walked on people in their worst day in their worst moment when their children died when their parents died when they were dying with cancer when they were losing their homes and they're homeless and he's flying on a jet and going from Country Club to Country Club with people's money it's not a happy day but it's the first step in making it right many of Gerard's former clients and people who feel wronged by the attorney were there for the verdict even though their allegations weren't directly on trial for them this feels like the only opportunity to hold gerardi accountable he was stilling all the way back from the '90s uh but we're here today and I thank God that the jury got it right Danny Barnes says he filed complaints against gerardi with the California State Bar Association back in the 9s he detailed his story in the housewife and the Hustler too had I not been cheated out of my money from these attorneys Tom gerardi I would not be here in this neighborhood and in this area Danny believes the disgraced attorney still owes him millions of dollars the door is possibly open for was to try and recoup uh some of the monies that he stolen many people was pushed into prty as a result of of the scam that Tom gerardy was running I hope that he goes to prison for the full extent of the law the ripple effect of Tom Gerard's Fall From Grace is going to be much broader than just this federal trial and just these convictions we learned that other lawyers in The Firm are targets of Investigation his CFOs going to be prosecuted there have been massive looks into the California State Bar and how this was allowed to happen we're just relieved for it to finally happen and to be behind us so that we can focus not on Erica not on the celebrity status of Tom and Erica but on the system that allowed him to do this he didn't do this alone and this is not really Justice it's the first step anything to say Sir now everyone will have to wait a bit longer to find out Gerard's punishment sentencing is set for December