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Lion Air Flight 610 is the first Boeing that crashed in Jakarta killing 189 in 2018. The 2nd one was the Ethiopian airlines.
-American Lawyer Tom Girardi represented 4 families of widows and children of the victims.
-After settlement was reached, he has not paid them. A US court has held him in contempt.
Erika Jayne’s husband Tom Girardi was held in civil contempt on Monday after a lawsuit accused the personal injury attorney of embezzling settlement money owed to the “widows and orphans” of a 2018 plane crash, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Jon Seidel reports.
“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star and Girardi made headlines in early December when class-action law firm Edelson PC alleged that the couple was using their divorce to hide money — used to fund their “lavish lifestyle” — that was meant for families of the victims of the Lion Air Flight 610 accident.
The new Boeing 737 MAX plane crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after taking off from the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers and crew onboard. Girardi’s law firm Girardi Keese represented the families of multiple victims.
On Monday, US District Judge Thomas Durkin held Girardi in contempt after Girardi declined to explain why he couldn’t pay the $US2 million owed to four of his clients, according to the Sun-Times.
“These are widows and orphans,” Durkin said, according to the Sun-Times. “Half a million dollars for any one of these families is a significant amount of money. Life changing, given the tragedy they went through.”
Durkin asked Girardi to explain what happened to the money, the Sun-Times reports. His lawyer told the judge she had “advised him to decline that,” according to the Sun-Times, and said Girardi would not be able to pay the $US2 million figure.
The judge has also frozen Girardi and his firm’s assets, per the Sun-Times. According to the same report, Girardi only spoke once during the Chicago hearing which he attended via telephone so that Durkin could hear his voice.
Durkin is now planning to refer Girardi’s case to the US attorney’s office, according to the Sun-Times.
Girardi’s law-firm partner Robert Keese, in addition to business partners Robert Finnerty and Jill O’Callahan, allege that Girardi never paid them the $US315,000 in income they were each owed from their joint venture, known as the 1126 Wilshire Partnership, and that they each lost $US442,500 in equity, according to court documents viewed by Insider. Keese and his partners said they also each lost $US442,500 in equity.
Representatives for Girardi, Keese, Finnerty, and O’Callahan did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests when contacted through the Girardi Keese firm for comment.