By Steve Neavling
As the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office investigates disgraced legal legend Tom Girardi, questions are being raised about his connections to one of the office’s leaders.
Donald Alway, the assistant director in charge of the field office, has family ties to Girardi, who is accused of misappropriating his clients’ settlement money to enrich himself, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Alway’s mother, Michelle Alway, was Girardi’s former girlfriend and secretary. During the 1990s, she received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Girardi and his law firm, court records states.
Girardi also contributed more than $131,000 towards the mortgage of her home in Carmel-by-the-Sea, which Donald Alway co-owns, records show. The property is now worth more than $1.2 million.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a statement that Alway “has not been involved in this investigation, which largely predates his time in the Los Angeles Division.”
The bureau, however, declined to say whether Alway has recused himself.
Alway became assistant director in charge of the field office in July.
