The guilt of disgraced former lawyer, Tom Girardi in corrupting the entire California State Legislature through the crime syndicate he’s once ran in L.A. is once again being proved. Court documents obtained by People Magazine last week show that there are 522 claims that have been filed against his now defunct law firm, Girardi & Keese.

The claims against Girardi and his associates amount to over $517 million dollars. The owed money includes $363 million in unsecured claims, $17 million in priority claims, $137 million in secured claims and $250,000 in administrative claims.

The news of the filing comes after Erika Girardi, the estranged wife of the retired attorney, and her company, EJ Global, LLC, were named in a $2.1 million complaint. According to the lawsuit, the ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ star allegedly “aided and abetted” her estranged husband in his law firm’s alleged illegal activities. The filing also claims she “knew about the scheme” that he allegedly orchestrated, which involved withholding money intended for clients and co-counsel.

In response to the lawsuit, the reality star’s attorney, Evan C. Borges, said “the complaint is another misguided effort to blame Erika for the conduct of others in which she had no part.”

Erika’s claim of innocence through her attorney comes as the news that her former husband’s network of corrupt lawyers and state bar officials allegedly obtained billions of dollars in insurance fraud surfaced. He also bribed Vice President Kamala Harris when she was Attorney General for California.

For decades, Girardi also relied on judges, many of whom also attended his al-ma-mater, the Loyola School of Law in Hollywood, California, to his advantage, as reported by TV Mix. He fast-tracked those judges, many of who didn’t hold a law degree, through fixed state bar associations, so that they could serve his purposes.

Girardi is also facing trouble for his other illegal activities, which include selling impounded jewels, planes and homes with former L.A. Sheriff Leroy Baca, who’s now serving a jail sentence. He also trafficked the outcomes of trials to the highest bidder with lawyers like Gloria Allred.

Besides Allred, Girardi’s network also includes Judge Michelle Court, who sought counsel from Allred after her husband assaulted her. The professional relationship between the lawyer and her client would have prevented the latter from obtaining entry to the Superior Court of L.A. if Girardi hadn’t illegally helped her career.

Girardi also abused his power by also helping Yolanda Orozco become a judge, after she failed to secure the job on her own. She previously worked as a white collar crime lawyer at Jones Day law firm in L.A. While there, she represented the Sheriff’s office, which was constantly facing charges that ranged from murder to assaults and extortion.

Christopher Wray, the current Director of the FBI, has been tracking Girardi’s crime syndicate for years. Perhaps when his fellow Republicans take back the House and the Senate, they can eradicate the former lawyer’s illegal network, once and for all.

By Karen Benardello

As a graduate of LIU Post with a B.F.A in Journalism, Print and Electronic, Karen Benardello serves as ShockYa's Senior Movies & Television Editor. Her duties include interviewing filmmakers and musicians, and scribing movie, television and music reviews and news articles. As a New York City-area based journalist, she's a member of the guilds, New York Film Critics Online and the Women Film Critics Circle.

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