(Reuters) – Arrested over the weekend on a wire fraud charge, the former chief financial officer of defunct law firm Girardi Keese has turned to a prominent Washington, DC, defense lawyer who was the city’s top federal prosecutor.
Christopher Kamon, 49, was arrested in Maryland on Saturday in connection with conduct that occurred in September 2020, according to a criminal complaint filed in a Los Angeles federal court on Monday.
Details of the government’s allegations were still under seal on Wednesday.
Court records show Kamon is being represented by Jessie Liu, who left her post as US attorney in Washington in 2020 and is now a partner at law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom. Liu could not immediately be reached. A spokesman for the Los Angeles-based US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California declined to comment.
Kamon’s arrest is the latest development in the implosion of Girardi Keese — a law firm founded by prominent Los Angeles plaintiffs lawyer Tom Girardi, the now estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne Girardi.
In December 2020, Chicago plaintiffs’ firm Edelson accused Girardi of stealing more than $2 million in settlement funds that were meant for the firms’ clients in litigation over the 2018 Lion Air crash.
A federal judge sanctioned Girardi and his firm in connection with the Lion Air settlement funds and referred the matter to federal prosecutors, though no criminal charges have yet been filed against him.
He was disbarred in connection with the case in June. An investigation by the State Bar of California revealed earlier this month that Girardi was the subject of 205 attorney ethics complaints since 1982 — more than half of which accused him of misusing client funds.
Girardi, who has been diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and is under a conservatorship, has not responded directly to the Lion Air allegations.
Creditors forced Girardi and the firm into Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January in 2021, and Girardi Keese dissolved soon after.
Edelson in July sued Kamon, Erika Jayne Girardi and other former Girardi Keese members seeking damages after it agreed to cover settlement payments owed to Lion Air clients. That case is pending. Erika Jayne Girardi has denied any wrongdoing.
Kamon was hired by the Girardi firm in 2000 and worked his way to become its chief financial officer, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was working for the firm in September 2020, when the alleged wire fraud occurred.
A different set of attorneys from Skadden represented Kamon in his 2021 bid to avoid turning over his firm-issued laptop to the trustee handling the Girardi & Keese bankruptcy. Kamon argued at the time that he had stored personal information on the laptop.
The parties later agreed that the contents of the laptop would be electronically preserved but not reviewed by the trustee without a court order.
Kamon is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate in Baltimore on Thursday for a detention hearing.
Read more:
Lawyer Tom Girardi drew over 200 ethics complaints, California bar says
Judge won’t sanction ex-Girardi lawyers over missing $2 mln
Court backs law firm’s deal with Girardi plaintiffs, paving way for lawsuit
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.