A California attorney pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal contempt for failing to ensure the distribution of $7.5 million in settlement funds to relatives of victims of the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash, the Justice Department announced. Keith Griffin, 54, of Temple City, admitted in federal court in Illinois to disobeying a court order intended to compensate the families who lost loved ones in the disaster.
Griffin, a former lawyer at the now-defunct firm Girardi Keese, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt. Sentencing is scheduled for August 6, according to the Justice Department. The case marks another chapter in the legal fallout stemming from the alleged financial mismanagement at Girardi Keese, led by Tom Girardi, who was once a prominent trial attorney.
The $7.5 million in question came from a settlement reached in 2020 with Boeing, following civil lawsuits filed in Chicago on behalf of the victims’ families. U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin had ordered the funds to be distributed “as soon as possible” to the clients, but Griffin acknowledged in his plea agreement that the firm failed to do so for eight months. During that period, despite repeated requests from the families, the money remained undistributed.
According to court documents, Griffin confronted Girardi about the delayed payments, but Girardi did not distribute the funds as required. The Lion Air crash, which occurred in the Java Sea, killed all 189 people on board. The settlement was intended to provide financial relief to the victims’ families, many of whom were from Indonesia.
The eventual distribution of the funds was secured when another law firm’s insurer stepped in to cover the outstanding amount. The case against Griffin is part of a broader investigation into the financial dealings of Girardi Keese, which imploded amid allegations of misappropriated client funds.
Tom Girardi, 86, was convicted in 2024 of embezzling millions of dollars from clients and is currently serving a seven-year federal prison sentence. Prosecutors revealed during his trial that the misappropriation of the Lion Air funds was among the instances of alleged wrongdoing. A federal judge previously described Girardi’s lifestyle as one of “private jets and country clubs,” alongside his then-wife, Erika Jayne, a television personality.
Two other former Girardi Keese employees have also been convicted in connection with the firm’s financial misconduct. David Lira, Girardi’s son-in-law, pleaded guilty to criminal contempt last year and received a sentence of four months in prison and four months of home confinement. Christopher Kamon, the firm’s former chief financial officer, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison, concurrent with a ten-year sentence for a related embezzlement scheme.
