Prominent Egyptian businesswoman ignored risk to employees

SANTA ANA, CALIF. – Boucher LLP, a Los Angeles-based boutique law firm, today announced that it has filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of Wendy Cuomo against Pence Wealth Management Incorporated, Laila Pence, Dryden Pence, and the owners and operators of the Stadium House Apartment Complex, for the death of her son, Griffin Cuomo.

On April 19, 2022, Griffin and his roommate, Jonathan Bahm, were allegedly murdered by Griffin’s co-worker Ramy Fahim, a man with a long history of mental health issues and a documented propensity for violence. Griffin’s employer, Pence Wealth Management, had been repeatedly warned that Fahim had a tendency toward violence, but they overlooked it, allegedly due to Laila Pence’s relationship with Fahim’s mother, Nabila Makram, the former Egyptian Minister of Immigration and Expatriate Affairs.

The lawsuit also names Advanced Group, the owner of Stadium House Apartments in Anaheim where Griffin lived. Fahim, a non-resident, was allowed into the building and loitered in the complex’s common areas for more than six hours. He was even confronted by a security guard who did not ask him to leave or contact the police.

“This predictable, yet completely unchecked, act of violence is the product of Pence Wealth and Stadium House prioritizing their financial interests while discounting the value of human life,” said Raymond P. Boucher, the founder of Boucher LLP and attorney for Wendy Cuomo. “But, when the safety and life of others is at stake, business should not go on as usual. Pence Wealth and Stadium House had duties to protect Griffin and Jonathan from Fahim. Their conscious failure to do so in order to improve their bottom lines has robbed both young men of their futures and their families of their support.”

Griffin Cuomo was a 23-year-old recent graduate of the Chapman University School of Communication. The morning of his murder, he woke up around 6 a.m. to get ready to go to work at Pence Wealth. As he did every morning, Griffin texted his mother, Wendy, a photograph of his outfit for work that day. Wendy told Griffin he looked handsome. Neither expected this would be their final conversation.

Just moments later, Griffin left the apartment he rented at the Stadium House Apartment Complex in Anaheim and was murdered in the hallway by Fahim. Fahim then murdered Jonathan.

The suit alleges Laila and her husband, Dryden, the co-founders of Pence Wealth, hired Fahim because of Laila’s longstanding relationship with Fahim’s mother. The hiring process for Ramy was carried out with minimum effort and short-circuited anything resembling due diligence.

During his time at Pence, Fahim harassed, intimated, and threatened his coworkers. Fahim was also given unfettered access to his co-workers’ personal information through the Pence Wealth’s computer system – itself a violation of California law. With that access, he discovered Griffin’s home address at the Stadium House Apartment Complex.

On the night of April 18, 2022, Fahim went to the Stadium House Apartment Complex, intending to kill Griffin. Around midnight, an apartment security guard encountered Fahim on the roof. Despite all indications that Fahim was not a tenant or authorized to be on the premises, the security guard allowed him to remain. For the next six hours, security cameras and doorbell cameras repeatedly recorded Fahim waiting for Griffin in the complex’s common areas.

The suit, which contains several allegations of negligence leading to wrongful death, was filed in the Superior Court of Orange County.

About Boucher LLP

Boucher LLP, available at www.boucher.la, is a boutique law firm with extensive legal expertise in cases involving sexual abuse, assault and harassment, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, workplace accidents, wage and hour violations, faulty medical devices, false labeling, and civil rights. It has tried or otherwise resolved cases resulting in the recovery of more than $500 million for its clients over the past four years.

About Raymond P. Boucher

Raymond P. Boucher is a veteran trial lawyer and the founder and senior partner at Boucher LLP. He has tried more than 50 cases and obtained verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients in excess of $3 billion. He is proud of two notable cases in which he recovered $860 million in damages for nearly 400 sexual abuse survivors in lawsuits against the Archdioceses of Los Angeles and San Diego.