and it is 5 o'clock so we're going to go live and amazingly the sun is coming out behind me I apparently live in an mcer painting so we're going to talk about this it happened recently I didn't have a chance to do a full video on it but I thought hey I got nothing better to do right now let's do a live stream disbarred celebrity lawyer Tom gerardi found guilty of stealing Millions from his clients the stor is the Associated Press but it's all over the place out there and uh it it's you know it's one of those things I'm a lawyer in practicing law for 33 years every now and then you see a lawyer go down in flames you're like oo that that that smarts but uh this one's not good he of course is a celebrity lawyer uh his wife was on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills despite the fact that they lived in Pasadena um he was convicted of embezzling tens of millions of dollars from his clients including several with severe physical injuries and families of people killed in accidents and this is not all the legal problems he's facing he's facing other legal problems also including other criminal claims so the trial lasted 13 days it took the jury less than a day to deliberate the jury returned a verdict guilty on all four counts of wire fraud now toal asked about that and said hey wire fraud I mean seriously this is serious isn't I mean like shouldn't they have gone for more well based on how much money he's accused of defrauding people of using the wires which is different than the wires in the internet um he's facing some some real time there but he's 85 years old 85 years old he is the estranged husband of Erica Jane and appeared on the show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills uh himself dozens of times between 2015 and 2020 and uh you know Erica Jane if you see him and her you realize what's going on there it's a business transaction at least it was before they got divorced he was once among the most prominent lawyers in the nation often representing victims of major disasters uh one that made him famous of course was the California Pacific Gas and Electric utility lawsuit that he helped get a $333 million settlement with and was portrayed in the movie eron Brockovich with Julia Roberts and um apparently he would tell people that he and Julia were like this oh yeah yeah Julie and I see we we sit around and we and we talk shop you know because she's in hwood and I'm sort of in Hollywood too you know and um I wonder how she feels about that I love the show American Greed and they' done at least one video about Tom gerardi and his problems and they were showing all kinds of promo clips that he had shot talking about himself and his practice and uh in there of course he's talking about him and Julia yeah yeah yeah yeah she's on the set right now but uh we talk so his law Empire collapsed and he was disbarred in California in 202 too because of stealing from clients client theft uh and that's not a good thing it's not a good thing so uh California the state disbarred him in 2022 uh former clients testified against gerardi uh including a woman from Arizona whose husband was killed in a boat accident and victims who were burned in that 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno and if you've seen footage of that it's one of the most horrific things that's ever been caught on film his gas pipeline uh the gas pipeline is going underneath and through the city of San Bruno and something failed and it caused a spontaneous explosion that was just burning out of control and it just incinerated a bunch of homes it severely injured a bunch of people it killed a bunch of people and he got involved in that and and sadly uh got some money in uh for his clients but didn't distribute the money the way he should have and it's a crying shame because they interview this guy who survived that and thought well I'm gonna go with Tom gerardi he's a guy who gets big you know big settlements and Tom gerardi got a big settlement and then just skidaddled with the money it's it's insane Tom gerardi built celebrity status and uh lured in victims by falsely portraying himself as a champion of Justice said a US attorney in a statement after the verdict in reality he was a Robin Hood in reverse [Laughter] he stole from the poor and kept it to himself I'm guessing an email to his own attorneys that is Gerard's attorneys seeking comment on the conviction was not immediately answered uh during trial defense lawyers tried to shift the blame to the firm's Chief Financial Officer who is charged separately and has pleaded not guilty they portrayed gerardi as a mere figurehead in recent years with a valuable name and that's true he probably did have a valuable name but you can't say that you know when he's telling people hey I I I can't give you your money yet or we haven't got your money yet when they have gotten it um you can't say oh that's this other guy's fault so here's the thing I've settled a lot of cases and and the one thing I'm intimately aware of is when the money comes in and when I can pay my client because I can't pay myself until I pay my client and my clients are often waiting for the money to come in so they can do something with it like if you get a car bought back by manufacturer and you get that money back you might want to go buy another car so I've had clients tell me go Steve the second that money comes in I need to know and so I'll walk him through the process say okay the money comes in I got to put it in this account here and here's how we dispersed the funds blah blah blah and we go through all that but but this notion that like oh the the the check's not in yet or he did tell some people that um the money came in but for your own good I'm going to hang on to it for a little while and and then I'm going to disperse small amounts to keep you from misusing it meanwhile he's misusing it prosecutors played juror voicemails which gerardi gave a Litany of false reasons why money that a court awarded could not be paid including tax and debt obligations and judge authorizations I I'd give you the money if I could but the judge won't let me he frequently told him don't be mad at me and that is such a childish thing to do if you are an attorney or a professional and you're speaking to a client and your client is upset you don't go don't get mad at me the only time I'd ever even considered doing that is if my client was in court and saw a judge say something and then the judge the client starts yelling at me out in the hallway I'd say you understand the judge did that not me right but I still wouldn't say don't get mad at me but uh he apparently said don't be mad at me to a bunch of clients when they're asking hey where is all my money where is all my money his attorneys also argued he wasn't competent to stand trial because he'd been diagnosed with Alzheimer's which was um one of those things now just because things happen in order does me they cause each other that's one that's one thing and just because something happens and it looks like it could be faked or not the idea that someone just happened to get this disease and have it kick in at that level just when they're charged with a crime that doesn't prove it's fake that it very well could have just happened that way right but um issues with his memory had led another Court to put him in a conservatorship under his brother but keep in mind the standard for being able to participate in a trial where you are on trial the standard's not that high I'm glad they did this prosecutors contended that he was exaggerating his symptoms and a judge ruled that he was competent for trial now he could get as much as 80 years in prison 80 years in prison so here's the cool thing he's 85 years old so he can think back when he's 5 years old and go okay that length of time I got that I got that ahead of me in prison this is this is sad and I'm not laughing because of what's happened here I I it's it's very very sad what happened to these people but but this guy's defense and the fact that he did this is so crazy and it's so obvious what was happening and I've talked before about different Industries where sometimes people don't set out to start a Ponzi scheme but some becomes one the best example I can give you is I've encountered stories before regarding like contractors right you want to hire a contractor to work on your house he says to get started I need some money takes that money and uses it to finish his last job and as he goes down the row pretty soon he's getting money to finish a job three jobs back then four jobs back and before you know it the guy skids and grinds into a halt like an attractor pull because he's got to the point where he can't get any more money from people because he's got all these bad jobs stacked up so what was happening with gerardi is for some odd reason he needed a lot of money uh to uh impress his young wife I mean I mean he needed a lot of money to maintain his lifestyle and uh apparently you know $40,000 earrings don't pay for themselves okay um and so you need that money to maintain that lifestyle and so he's he's siphoning off money and don't get me wrong when the guy settles a case for 33 $3 million he made a couple bucks on that I I I could be I I could do the math but I'm a busy man but let's assume is there anybody in the audience is there anybody in the audience who can do the math for me on what onethird of 333 million is that's such a big number I can't do it in my head but he settles a case for $333 million now I understand there's other attorneys on that case and by the way he took a lot more credit for than he should have most likely however he got a chunk of that and and and the fact is that he got these other cases that he settled and just and and the money goes through his hands and disappears well he's spending it how much money do you need so he could get as much as 80 years in prison he scheduled be sentenced in December and here's the sad part a judge has allowed him to remain free until then now biob bullet says uh 332 million would be 111 million but uh trinton says ballpark of 100 million see you guys are Plus $1 million positronic what happened to Aon um I don't think Aon Brockovich actually worked for Gerard's Law Firm I think that she was involved with the other attorney there's several attorneys involved uh for the movie I think they combined a couple of the characters together um but I don't know I don't know what she's up to these days so uh georgean thoron says caught you from San Antonio great live uh Paul Young says Google can do the math for you well maybe Chad GPT could also although does it do math or does it does it a judge has allowed him to remain free until then why why this guy's going to jail for 80 years potentially has millions of dollars socked away he's already claim that he's mentally incompetent why would you let him roam free lock him up right now seriously lock him up right now so he also faces Federal wire fraud charges in Chicago where he's accused of stealing about $3 million from family members of victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people and I believe and again I believe that the way this whole story started unraveling is that he was living high on the hog he married this woman who was like I don't know 84 years younger than he was and um I'm joking there that's it's a math joke um he married this woman uh for her mind by the way he married this woman who had very very expensive tastes and he got on the TV by by by blowing money that's what you do when you're rich right and so so he gets himself on TV he's impressing his his young lady uh wife young lady friend and then wife and um somewhere along the line somebody who was a plaintiff in that 2018 Lion Air crash uh contacted some attorneys and said he that case settled but we can't get our money we we cannot get our money what's what's up with that and so some attorneys started poking around and going wait a second dude where's the money and and I I I I don't know for sure but I suspect he may have tried to pull the old oh the judge won't authorize it don't get mad at me you don't do that to attorneys attorneys can see right through that like it's x-ray vision okay so the attorneys in Chicago immediately went to the author and so he's facing charges there it's unclear what will happen but he's also now facing sentencing facing sentencing in uh in California in federal court by the way in federal court they don't they don't mess around so again it's only four wire fraud charges but because the amount of money involved it becomes quite serious and I think they wanted to go with the most obvious slam dunk uh carved in stone claims they could so there's no way he could weasel out of them and all I can ask you is who in their right mind would defend this guy because how's he going to pay you I believe his law firm and he I'm not sure about both of them but I I believe they're both involved in a receivership meaning that that everything they did is being overseen by somebody else to make sure there's no money coming off there um Diego risueno says the guy has those funds in the Cayman Islands or elsewhere there's a lot of places you can park money it's very very hard to get your hands on if you're the authorities uh Switzerland is always a popular choice a lot of a lot of islands are are popular as well Cayman Islands are are quite popular quite popular so that very well could be but um like I said um it's a sad sad thing because he was so well-respected years ago and it all started to fall apart and I I don't know exactly how old he would have been um let's see 2015 was when he first got himself onto the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills like I said while living in Pasadena uh see 2015 is about nine years ago so let's say that he was I don't know 76 years [Laughter] old but again but again that that that that young lady he met who who who is a kindred spirit right she's she's an old soul just trapped in a body of of a of a pole dancer so I know people who watch these shows and I have a hard time time have a hard time having any sympathy for her there's no allegation that she broke any laws okay but but there's how is it possible that she's married to the guy and has no idea that his entire professional life is caving in how could how could she not know that and and so you know because remember they do have these uh you [Laughter] know remember it's a real it's a real marriage right they they they they confide in each other he completes her she completes him okay she knows everything going on his life he knows everything going in her life but she's got no idea that he's stealing money from all these clients and I do wonder about other people in The Firm but like they pointed out there is a Chief Financial Officer of the firm and I wouldn't want to be that guy again I don't know what he did if anything but keep in mind the basic transaction okay the basic transaction is I settle a lawsuit where I negotiate with a defense Council and I say how much you willing to pay and they they throw a number at us I call my client go hey they're willing to pay this are are you know are you willing to accept that to settle the case if so yes we have a settlement documents get exchanged back and forth we agree to dismiss the case blah blah blah blah blah we submit things to the court saying it's been dismissed and the other side cuts a check and mails the the check and the check is usually at least in Michigan made up to me and my client and then traditionally I would call it my client say the check is income on into my office you signed the check I signed the check we put the check into a trust account from where I cut two checks one to you one to me and that's all how we do this and and and so I've never had a Chief Financial Officer I I I am I am my own Chief Financial Officer and I'm one of these guys don't get me wrong i' I've only had at most in my life uh two or three employees okay I've never had more than two or three employees at one time and so I'm not the kind of guy who who's going to hire someone to do my books for me I'm I'm I'm doing my own books that's one of the things I will do myself and so when it comes to you know uh Banking and so on I do that also I because that's this is this is the kind of thing you don't want anybody ever possibly messing with that and that's that's the problem and so I've heard of a few sit situations before attorneys got in trouble because the money came in and they're looking at it going you know I really need some money right now if I if I were to borrow that money uh I can pay it back with my next settlement and boom you got the old Ponzi scheme going and um I'm not sure if I've mentioned this I'm sure I have but not sure how many times I've mentioned it but I actually did grieve an attorney once because a guy came to my office said Steve I I I have a question for you he goes I've got an attorney who owes me money and he won't pay me and I said what do you mean he won't pay you how does he owe you the money the guy goes a lawsuit settled the check came in and the guy won't give me my money and I'm thinking to myself there's no way there's no way that an attorney would do this because that is absolutely something for which you will lose your law license and so I I go show the guy gives me the file and I'm reading everything in the file and it looks like there should be a check there so I call the guy's office and he gets on the phone I go hi my name is Steve Le to I'm an attorney and sitting across from me as a client of yours friend of mine and he says that you uh you ow some money and the guy's like oh yeah yeah um I just need his address and I hadit him on speaker and I by the way you're on speaker he can hear you too and my client leans over my friend leans over and he goes uh it's the same address I've been at the entire time that I've retained you uh so you can mail a check there and turn he goes okay well okay guys it's all taken care of I don't know why I didn't think I had your address I thought I thought you told me you moved or something but the check will go out today I said okay thank you and I hung the phone up and I turned to my friend I said you're getting your money he goes no I'm not and I go what do you mean you're not getting it and he goes I've heard so many excuses from this guy he's dodging my phone calls only reason he took your phone call is you're an attorney because I said so he goes there are no way no way that he goes there's no way I'm getting I'm getting that money and a couple weeks goes bnie calls me goes haven't got the money yet I go no seriously he goes no hang on a second I call the attorney back and I go hey I talked to you on the phone a couple weeks ago you told me the client would be you know checking the mail the next day and he goes oh my secretary typed up the cover letter and I signed it and I put it back in the file and I put it on her desk to mail and she accidentally filed it I go so you're telling me there's a check dated two weeks ago and a cover letter dated two weeks ago sitting in the file and it'll be in my client's mailbox tomorrow or the next day and he goes [Laughter] absolutely my client comes into my office again now he's beside himself and he goes Steve what do we do and I said you know what you should do I go you need to grieve this guy file a grievance so he filed a a request for investigation with the State Bar attorney grievance commission and um the second he filed that the check suddenly appeared and the guy called my client and then he called me and he goes hey can you withdraw that request for investigation and I said number one no I can't because I didn't file it my client did I go number two I'm going to recommend that he not file or you know withdraw it he what do you mean I paid him I go dude you lied Dem in you know it and he goes you can't prove that and I said okay fine but let's see what the attorney grievance commission thinks of this when it gets in front of them and I had to testify they actually subpoena me made me made me come into an arbor and sit across this guy and get cross-examined by his Fancy Pants attorney who actually tried to say so you don't know what my client looks like for all you know somebody else on the phone I'm like I don't know I called the guy's phone number off his letterhead right here and uh asked for him and his secretary put a man on the phone that sounds like him because I've heard him speaking now I'm pretty sure it was him but you don't know that for sure do you I said well if you want to check phone records maybe I can show you that I called and spoke to him for five or 10 minutes several different occasions and then uh stupidly when he did cough at the check the check was dated the day of the request for investigation being filed I go so you know anyway long story short he got suspended for three years and he returned to the practice of law he actually realized that he should be done never even attempted to do it and he's out so Sunshine production says comingling of funds is what other Real Housewives husband got disbarred by yeah that's another problem you have to have a separate account that the client funds go into it's a trust account in Michigan it's called an Iola an interest only lawyers trust account and you can't put your own money in with the client money now if if a check goes in that belongs to both of you you can do that split it on the way out out but you can't go and just put your own money in there uh you you wouldn't want to but uh some people do that and they do get in trouble so uh Tava says [Laughter] hilarious Gina Maria Italiano hello go Bucks strata good day Steve hopeall as well here for a little bit than heading out Johnny Knoxville Johnny Knoxville in the house Ohio State hasn't beaten Michigan 1,750 days I'm I'm on Facebook with a couple people I follow who who post the memes about you know how many days it's been since Ohio State beat Michigan you know like I said at this point they got three in a row I I can Coast St that for a while I've still got him on my DVR occasionally if I'm bored I Bard on the Ohio State game or the Washington game or or of course the Alabama game uh those those three I could watch all day long the Iowa game it's in there but I keep forgetting about it so Benny goat says I'm so glad you're talking about this because this case is insane um smart towel rg400 Tom paid for the wife's earrings directly out of the trust account if so that is really bad um but one of the things we're joking about is she had a pair of earrings I for was like $40,000 or $80,000 for a pair of earrings any woman who wants a pair of earrings that cost that much is mentally ill okay it's it's a mental illness to go oh that makes sense I'm going to I'm going to spend that much money in a pair of earrings of course she didn't spend the money he did but it wasn't his Brian Woodbridge hey Steve glad to catch you live I'm glad you caught me live too um Team manat says it is never good to be responsible for holding other people's money but some jobs require it and you just got to make sure that somebody's in charge who is honest and competent because heaven forbid you even make a mistake a slight mistake uh you know bad things can happen so you got to be careful about that um Dennis DOD says by the way did you hear about rabbit passing away Monday or so yeah very sad story rabbit of course and this is off topic but rabbit was one of the frequent guests on Ed bolan's Vin Wiki Channel great Storyteller uh interestingly came up through radio too uh and told a lot of car stories and and it's a great great guy and apparently uh he had some form of stomach cancer and uh he you know he saw it coming it wasn't one of these things like where he you know one day is here next day is gone and nobody knew it was coming he knew it was coming and so like you know Ed Bolan got a chance to spend some time with him Ed Bolan did a very very heartfelt tribute to him on Vin Wiki if you haven't seen it please check it out on Vin Wiki on YouTube V wi I Vin Wiki Ed Bolan uh he talks about how important rabbit was to the early growth of that channel uh I was on the channel 11 times but that's nothing compared to what this guy did on that channel so be sure to check that out so Daniel be checking in or Danielle be sorry checking from Brisbane Australia uh and forde elf is popping in from Alabama Alabama um T manette says 40,000 car would be too big for her ears but at least she could drive it right although I suspect that her car was more than 40,000 now deul says what about a $40,000 Rolex um you know I used to think that I would never imagine such a thing but then some people go Steve you're wearing a brightling and the brightling is not a $40,000 watch but but it is a watch that costs more than a Timex so I think it is all a matter of of of perspective Zafar Sayad said rabbit was a great story teller and he was he absolutely was Larry goodnight with a K Aloha from Maui always enjoy the stories um Keith Hopper thanks to you we settled the Ford Focus transmission issue good win for us good I'm glad you did that Wild Bill 57 lost a friend of the family to stomach cancer yeah and and you know what's weird I've also known people lately uh with Strokes strokes and i' i' I've known a few people who've had them recently and it's kind of surprised because um you know my my my grandmother for instance passed away years ago from a stroke and I didn't hear about Strokes for the longest time and all of a sudden I heard about a bunch of different people unrelated to each other who had them and I thought wow I just I don't know if maybe maybe I'm hitting the AG or start paying more attention to other people's health problems Susan laugh I love it when I find a Steve lato live when I open up my phone hey don't get used to it kidding oh boy uh Butch SLC you talk a lot about concerts you go to you need to check out bandmaid it's an all girl rock band out of Japan domination live from their YouTube channel is a great start I'll check them out I'm always looking for new music and music I didn't uh hear about before Mark Miller what I miss good afternoon Steve Lea sup you're talking about disbar attorney uh Tom gerardi found guilty the other day of stealing millions of dollars from his clients four counts of wire fraud in uh federal court for which he could get up to 80 years in prison strangely he's not in jail yet though because they decided to let wander around among us while his trial is going on but I wasn't really I wasn't really uh happy to hear that he's not being locked up and he should be so G keyman 565 local michiganian as I like to say says lives are always good Mary Kay says he's a major donor for Democratic party ostentatious parties I believe he was a major donor for a lot of people and you'll discover that a lot of people who are stealing money in an attempt to Shield themselves will start paying off important people because they'll hope that that'll keep people from looking at them and I know that he used used to for instance take judges on extremely expensive trips and that's the kind of thing that is so frowned upon but but you know something if a judge will take the trip you got a lot of money why not uh and next thing you know he's on a on a on a yacht with a bunch of Judges who are looking at him going hey how do you land that uh she's a foot taller than you and 40 years younger how'd you do that 50 years younger what's the math I'm a busy [Laughter] man Romeo boa says Steve you know someone who has all 50 state licenses as a lawyer I don't know anybody no not unless somebody did it and didn't tell me I I know a few people who've been licensed in more than one state but I've never heard of more than three or four at one time I'm sure that some people out there are capable of it I wouldn't be surprised if somebody's done it but um I don't know anybody as far as I know so um smart towel rg400 now I'm curious about the name smart towel rg400 he was a major donor for both parties and I suspect that's the case like I said I've seen a few of them uh the American Greed episodes they talk about him and there's a bunch of other things but it's an extremely extremely common play that if you are ripping off people stealing thousands and thousands of millions of dollars what you do is you start getting friendly with with all these all these political people and you start paying them off by donating their campaigns or having big parties or taking them on junkets on your yacht whatever it might be and and so that that happens on on a lot of different levels Bryce P Washington says a little off topic what are your thoughts on the almost epidemic of seemingly simple issues with town councils and Free Speech retaliation uh I've I've heard murmurs of it but I have not been following it that closely so I'll have to take a look at that um I do know that that up until a few years ago most people didn't pay any attention to Town Council meetings um but I I suspect that's changing a little bit now uh neurop pilot says the FTX guy Sam bankman freed donated to prominent politicians and he says you're usually Democrats but but I assure you he was an equal opportunity briber I I mean I mean donator donor Sam bankman freed was because he had so much money could could could tell people he was smart people like oh he's smart look at all the money he's got I mean look at the money he's stolen so oh smart tow rg400 said it's the model number for tow from South Park okay that's I I apologize um I was I was uh I I'm not a big South Park Fan I apologize so Road Glide 911 what's your favorite lawyer joke um you know I did a whole video on lawyer jokes a while back I'm not sure it's up anymore but I did um H Daniel Crenshaw says donator you know it's funny because you can take a word and start adding suffixes and prefixes to make it longer and longer and uh for many years my father was an administrator he's an administrator and and he goes but if you look at the root it's Minister and somebody who is a minister what they do is the verb they Minister but of course that doesn't sound quite right so you got to say they administer something and so well if they're administering something are they administrating something sure why not next thing you know you're an administrator it's like oh administrator um sure why not so paulus says Cranbrook class of 79 Michigan Ander uh I had friends at Cranbrook uh class of 80 uh and a couple years back and forth up and down very very good friend of mine named Joe dorsy uh his older brother went to Cranbrook uh so he would have been probably class of 75 or four um and I know other people went there as well but um uh that's that's a a blast from the past good to see that uh drove by that drove by there uh within the last week or so gota like that that so anyway I'm going to end it now I appreciate everybody else checking in Gina Maria Taliano's class 76 um Bart Sanders Administration [Laughter] Jer that's about as much as you can uh as much as you can convolute that word so uh that's the story though discar attorney Tom gerardi found guilty of stealing millions of dollars from his clients four counts of wire fraud he could get up to 80 years in jail but he's already 85 years old and he's still facing counts for wire fraud in Chicago that involving the money from the Lion Air crash killed 189 people $3 million of that supposedly passed through his hands and didn't make it to the victim's families so I'll talk to you guys next time until him behave yourself byebye