Tom Girardi after the scandal

Public memory around this case is split between legal scandal and reality-TV haze.

Girardi's downfall started as a swirl of allegations around his law firm and his celebrity-adjacent image. But the criminal case ended in a much more straightforward and devastating way. In August 2024, a federal jury convicted him on wire fraud counts tied to a scheme to embezzle settlement money from clients, including victims waiting for funds connected to severe injuries. Then, in June 2025, a judge sentenced him to 87 months in prison.

That sentencing phase is important because it turns a years-long scandal into a fixed legal result. DOJ said Girardi had stolen tens of millions of dollars from clients whose money should have been protected. The sentence also included restitution and a fine.

People lose track of the endpoint because the scandal sprawled across bankruptcy proceedings, disciplinary fallout, victim claims, and pop-culture coverage. The noise around the story was huge, but the final criminal outcome was starkly direct: conviction, prison, restitution.