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Erin Brockovich Lawyer, 86, Starts Seven-Year Prison Sentence

Tom Girardi, who stole $15 million from the families of the Lion Air victims, will be in prison until he’s 93.

Tom Girardi, 86, has presented to prison to start his seven-year prison sentence for leading a years-long scheme in which he embezzled tens of millions of dollars of settlement money that belonged to his clients. The disbarred lawyer, known for winning a record settlement for the environmental activist Erin Brockovich in her case against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), turned himself in Thursday to start his lengthy prison sentence. Girardi, the former husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, was given seven years and three months for his fraud conviction on June 3—which happened to be his 86th birthday. Girardi was found guilty last September of embezzling millions of dollars from his clients at his now-defunct law firm, Girardi & Keese. He had been stealing settlement funds from the families of the victims of the deadly 2018 Lion Air flight, where 189 people died. In the aftermath, he was ordered to pay a $35,000 fine and $2.3 million in restitution to his victims. Despite a push from Girardi’s lawyers to land him in a long-term care facility due to his Alzheimer’s and dementia, a judge found the former attorney competent to stand trial and on Friday Page Six reported that he was the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. Other records show that he’s been registered as an inmate already.