CommentsMY TURN--RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968) and was designed to stop the Mafia, La Costa Nostra, wise-guys, etc.
As RHOBH’s Erika Jayne saga unfolds, the extent to which Erika participated in corrupt activities is murky, except for her spending vast sums of money.
According to Los Angeles attorney, James Spertus, of Spertus, Landes & Umhofer, who is suing Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi, Girardi’s activities may be likened to a Ponzi Scheme. Substantial funds from lawsuit settlements seem to have been withheld from the victims but instead squandered in a lavish lifestyle of mansions, trips, expensive cars as if Girardi were a Televangelist. Like Bernie Madoff, Girardi thought he could pay earlier clients from later settlements, but Erika was an unsustainable drain on Tommy’s funds. Erika’s ability to spend was unlimited; Tom’s ability to earn was finite.
“For years he [Girardi] tells these attorneys, ‘I’ll pay you next week,’ and strings them along,” said James Spertus, of Los Angeles-based Spertus, Landes & Umhofer, who has represented several lawyers in suits against Girardi over unpaid fees. He said it “appears he’s running a Ponzi scheme” because he is not looking for funds to meet his obligations but seeking money from “other sources.” “He’s just not being honest with people,” he said. “This world is now catching up with him.” December 18, 2020, LAW.COM THE RECORDER
Enquiring minds want to know why a Chicago judge caught on to Girardi’s machinations and took action within days, but the Chief Justice and the State Bar have done nothing for years!
You Know What’s Great to Have When You’re Running a Criminal Enterprise? Judicial Protection!
Chief Justice Tani’s empire has three components: (1) the California courts where widows and orphans are regularly abused and minorities are often railroaded into prison, (2) the Commission of Judicial Performance to protect judges and (3) the State Bar to silence attorneys who complain about corruption. Attorneys who do nothing wrong except refuse to play the game of judicial corruption in Probate Court, for example, are disbarred, but the likes of Tommy Boy have free reign. Tommy got to dump $20 Million into EJ Global LLC – Erika's entertainment corporation per Law Finance Group. It’s not as if Chief Justice Tani did not know. How can a world infamous attorney have tons of lawsuits for malpractice and theft of clients’ funds for years, and yet Tani’s State Bar sees no evil?
The Extent of Judicial Immunity
Judicial immunity is not as extensive as judges may wish. It applies to actions taken from the bench, but does not extend to behavior off the bench. Perhaps the most illustrative case was Judge Alexander Williams III who behaved rudely to a client during settlement inside the court room and he followed her outside and down the hall continuing to berate her. The CJP found his behavior inside the court room as non-actionable, but when he stepped down from the bench, then he was outside the zone of immunity. Thus, the CJP slapped his wrists.
Here’s the Achilles Heel of the judicial immunity –much of RICO activities occur outside the courtroom. What about discussions and agreements at cocktail parties? If a judge stays at a fancy Western Ranch and has nice conversations with wealthy attorneys and then has his bill paid, will that fall outside judicial immunity?
Questions Which Judges Do Not Want Asked
Does a judge’s altering evidence fall under judicial immunity? Suppose a judge goes down to the criminal courts filing room and removes documents from the official file? Does that fall under judicial immunity? Suppose a judge writes a letter to intimidate a witness in her courtroom. Does that fall under judicial immunity? Suppose a judge calls up the senior partner at a law firm and they decide how to sabotage the Plaintiff’s case. Does that phone call fall under judicial immunity? Suppose a judge’s off shore bank account receives third party deposits. Do the deposits and the reason they are made all outside judicial immunity? Suppose some mysterious person pays the judge’s mortgage and she does not report those mystery payments as income on her income taxes. Does the non-reporting of income fall outside judicial immunity?
Suppose a Chief Justice knows that millions of dollars of clients’ funds are missing and her agencies play deaf dumb and blind. Does that fall under judicial immunity?
So Where’s All the Loot?
Fans can turn RHOBH into a real life crime drama. As is being alleged in various lawsuits, Erika was living on a mountain of stolen loot but a hundred lawsuits didn’t tip off Erika that something wasn’t right? OK, maybe Erika was too engrossed in her finger nail color to care about the widows and orphans, but the Chief Justice? What excuse does a Chief Justice have? Girardi was “sued more than a hundred times between the 1980s and last year, with at least half of those cases asserting misconduct in his law practice. Yet through it all, Girardi’s record with the State Bar of California remain pristine” March 6, 2021, Los Angeles Times, Vegas Parties, Celebrities and Boozy Lunches: How Legal Titan Tom Girardi Seduced the State Bar, By Harriet Ryan, Matt Hamilton How much ill gotten gain can be hidden in 10 or 20 years? Did they spend it all?
Where’s the Money? Will RHOBH Fans Embark on a Treasure Hunt?
“Off shore” colloquially includes any non US Bank account with the loot funneled through any number of countries like Luxembourg. Girardi’s personal injury cases reportedly brought in billions of dollars. Yet, the funds on which they want us to focus are chicken feed. Devotees of RHOBH should be great at calculating how much Erika squirreled away and where she and Tom put it. Doesn’t the IRS pay a finder’s fee between 5 % to 30% of the recouped taxes? No one hides their money off shore and pays income taxes on it.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams’ views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.)
-cw
