Erika Jayne’s legal battles over the years are explained, including her divorce from Tom Girardi and all of her lawsuits.
Erika and Tom Girardi announced their divorce in 2020, and things haven’t been going well since. In reality, shortly after their divorce was announced, a complaint was filed claiming that the divorce was staged to divert attention away from Tom’s alleged attempts to steal money from the “widows and orphans” of the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 tragedy, according to Insider. Erika did not escape unharmed. She’s also caught up in the legal turmoil.
According to The New York Times, Tom was charged with five charges of wire fraud on February 1, 2023, for taking money from clients between 2010 and 2020. He and another lawyer (his son-in-law) from his prior business, Girardi Keese, are still charged with wire fraud and criminal contempt of court. While Erika has not been prosecuted, the Department of Justice claims the investigation into her activities is still “ongoing,” according to Us Weekly.
Erika is now embroiled in multiple litigation, including a recent $50 million racketeering claim, which she was reportedly served on July 22 after returning home from a trip to Hawaii, according to Page Six. (Racketeering, for those who are unfamiliar, is a felony in which a person extorts money from another person using fear or force.) So, things are looking quite hot on the legal front right now.
Erika did, however, win a huge $5 million fraud case in August of 2022—but more on that in a moment.
To begin, despite their 32-year age difference, Erika (a.k.a. Erika Jayne) and Tom appeared to be pretty happy together on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, so it came as a surprise to fans (and her co-stars) when the couple announced their divorce after more than 20 years of marriage in November 2020.
“This is not a move to be taken lightly or lightly…
I urge that people respect our privacy as well “At the time, the reality TV star told Us Weekly in a statement.
Erika filed for divorce in November 2020
Tom met Erika at Chasen’s restaurant in Los Angeles, where she worked. In her 2018 memoir, Pretty Mess, she wrote, “One night, I decided to give Tom my phone number.” Tom got in touch with Erika through his secretary, and six months later, in 1999, the two of them got married.
Us Weekly says that Erika filed for divorce in the year 2020. The New York Times also said that Erika filed the lawsuit just a few weeks after filming for season 11 began.
According to the New York Times, Erika’s lawsuit came in only a few weeks after production on Season 11 had begun.
As far as Tom knows, she left without informing him: “I drove him to work, I told him I loved him and he responded, ‘Thanks, hun.'” As if I were a worker,” Erika remarked. “When I got home, I immediately began loading up the moving vehicle.”
In the meantime, Tom was sued several times.
The 1126 Wilshire Partnership was sued by several of Tom’s former business partners. According to court records acquired by People, Tom’s partners allege that he stole their share of the partnership’s $315,000 in profits and spent it on himself instead.
In addition, they claimed that Tom had secretly taken out loans against the company’s assets. The partners want the partnership dissolved and the assets liquidated so they can collect what they believe to be owing to them from the partnership.
Families who lost loved ones in a 2018 Boeing jet tragedy are suing Tom, claiming he embezzled money from them. According to The Chicago Sun-Times, Tom phone-appeared at a court hearing in Chicago in the middle of December 2020 and failed to explain to the judge how at least $2 million had disappeared from the compensation for the Lion Air Flight 610 accident.
E! News reports that the plaintiffs’ company claimed Tom stole the money “to continue paying his and Erika’s extravagant Beverly Hills lives,” therefore the couple was also named in the case. Erika was formally taken off the case on January 29th, 2022. Case against EJ Global LLC and Erika Girardi is “dismissed without prejudice and without costs according to agreement,” according to the papers.
On Twitter, plaintiffs’ attorney Jay Edelson said he will launch a new lawsuit against Erika in California. Evan Borges, Erika’s attorney, released a statement saying, “although Edelson has the ability to re-file in California, the dismissal of Erika from the federal action that prompted the bankruptcies of Girardi Keese and Tom Girardi is vitally important.”
“Having access to the truth is crucial. In this case, the fact is that Erika had nothing to do with the attorneys’ and their clients’ dealings, acts, or inactions regarding Lion Air, and she never got any of the Lion Air customers’ settlement payments “E! News reports that he elaborated.
After the legal situation in California began to heat up in March 2021, forensic and clinical psychiatrist Dr. Nathan Lavid of Long Beach presented a sworn affidavit to the Superior Court of California. Since Tom was diagnosed with dementia and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2021, he testified that Tom is physically incompetent to attend any court sessions “for the foreseeable future,” as reported by People.
Alzheimer’s disease makes it difficult for him to comprehend what he is hearing, Dr. Lavid wrote. His perplexity and dementia go hand in hand, and his confusion just adds to his mental misery.
According to reports, Erika was issued with papers for a fresh $50 million lawsuit
After returning from a lavish Hawaiian vacation on July 22, 2022, Erika was reportedly issued legal papers for a $50 million racketeering case by Edelson PC at the airport. This was the company’s second lawsuit that she’d been named in throughout the year 2022.
According to Page Six, Erika was charged with nine counts of wrongdoing in connection with her legal tussle with Tom. These included racketeering, conspiracy to conduct racketeering, unlawful business practise, and dishonesty.
The news organisation filmed the encounter, which depicts a lady approaching Erika (clad in a mask and with her hair in a bun) at Los Angeles International Airport and delivering her two huge piles of paperwork.
Erika’s attorneys claim she had no knowledge what Tom was doing to at his legal practise
Erika’s lawyer submitted paperwork in October 2021 claiming she had “no participation in the administration of [Tom’s] business” and that she “had no knowledge of whatever occurred at GK connected to the Lion Air case filed in November 2018, or the settlement payments,” as reported by Us Weekly.
It was also stated in the petition that Erika “had no access or visibility into the bank accounts of GK, including client trust accounts, into which Edelson [the class action law firm] contends the settlement payments in the Lion Air case were paid.”
Later, in early November, Erika’s lawyer submitted further documents in which she reiterated her client’s denial of any involvement in Tom’s alleged “illegal fee sharing” in connection with the Lion Air matter. According to court documents, she “never had and does not have any of the fee agreements between [the Girardi Keese business] and the Lion Air customers.”
In an interview with Us Weekly, investigator Ronald Richards said the “bombshell file” might have a major effect on Erika’s case. The document “accuses Edelson’s firm of an improper fee sharing agreement, subjecting them to discipline,” he explained. “Fee sharing obligations in connection with attorney-client fee agreements are serious business in both California and Illinois.”
A lawsuit filed in April of 2022, however, suggests she was aware of Tom’s plans the whole time
According to Vulture, in April of 2022, Erika was listed in a lawsuit against Edelson PC for $55 million. According to Page Six’s reporting, the corporation sued Erika in April for allegedly “prolonging” Tom and his legal firm’s alleged misbehaviour.
Unlike the April action, which Edelson PC attorney Jay Edelson told Page Six was “more restricted, in terms of who we sued, what we were suing about, and the legal theories we are pursuing,” the latest case is “prosecuting the claims of the clients (the widows and orphans)”
A complaint filed against the pair in April alleges that they “routinely stole client settlement money to create an appearance of riches and to prop up a lifestyle built for reality TV,” as reported by Page Six. In addition, Erika is accused of acting as the “frontwoman” for Girardi Keese by “flaunting” her fortune and insisting the business is still doing well.
As Time notes, “Even now, Erika uses her massive public platform to lie about her own involvement and to attempt to help Tom and the others in getting away with it.” “The news articles carried on.
The victims of Tom’s deception have had to sit back and watch Erika spend absurd sums of money since they had nothing, Jay Edelson said in a statement, as reported by Page Six. This is a huge step forward in bringing those responsible for the greatest criminal racketeering operation in plaintiff’s law to justice. Time for her to quit making excuses and start accepting responsibility.”
Erika has also been named in the bankruptcy case
An investigation revealed that Tom’s legal business may have paid up to $25 million of Erika’s bills. According to The New York Times, a bankruptcy trustee sued Erika in July to recover the funds.
More than $850,000 was spent on hairstylists and manicurists, at least $1.3 million was spent on advertising, and she racked up American Express bills totaling $14 million, according to court filings. Fans of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills may recall that Erika has a “glam squad” on call, since they have appeared in several episodes.
Previous court filings suggest she intentionally withheld funds from her creditors. Documents state that Erika “has leveraged her attractiveness and reputation to continue to help and abet in fake transactions that have happened with relation to massive transfers of assets from the Debtor,” with People quoting this as the source.
According to Erika’s attorney, Evan Borges, Erika has no idea what Tom is being accused of or how he handled the money at his legal practise. According to Borges, as reported by the New York Times, Erika “does not have personal accountability for any of those transactions.”
Last year, she was awarded $5 million in a fraud action.
In late August of 2022, Erika won a significant case in court.
In May of 2022, she revealed on Instagram that she was being extorted after two lawyers from Tom Girardi’s business, Girardi & Keese, sued her and Tom for $5 million for fraud in 2020.
“Extortion.
“This is my reality,” she wrote as the caption.
When Tom’s former coworkers accused her of “aiding and abetting” Tom’s alleged crimes, a court ruled in August that there was insufficient evidence to support such allegations, as reported by Page Six.
In the lawsuit, it was alleged that Erika knew that her husband was using client settlement money to fund the couple’s lavish lifestyle. However, the judge dismissed the claims as inferences due to the lack of direct evidence connecting Erika to the alleged misappropriation of funds, as reported by Page Six.
Erika said in a deposition that she lacked business experience.
‘They did all the books at Girardi & Keese,’ she reportedly told Page Six.
They managed all the books and records…
If you have any questions about the bills, please contact the office.
Despite her interest in the subject, she “didn’t really inquire” about money, she said.
Christina Fulton also filed a $745,000 lawsuit against her
People reports that Christina Fulton, ex-girlfriend of Nicolas Cage, filed a lawsuit against Erika and two former workers of Toms company on July 19, 2022, for alleged theft and conversion.
Christina also alleges that Erika’s EJ Global LLC was utilised by Erika to evade taxes and transfer funds from Tom’s legal practise to Erika. As the text further explains, Erika was also familiar with the inner workings.
“Erika and Tom Girardi would deduct EJG’s costs on their personal tax return… Girardi Keese would maintain the money paid to Erika as a phoney receivable on its books and records,” it reads. The FTB found that the business was formed as a tax avoidance entity for tax years 2011 through 2013, that Erika was aware of this fact.
Erika’s lawyer, Evan C. Borges, countered that the charges were unfounded since Erika is not a lawyer and never dealt with Tom’s firm’s clients. He also told People that Erika thought she was married to “an extraordinarily affluent attorney with a financially successful law company.”
For his part, Ronald Richards, the attorney representing Christina, pointed out that Erika was being sued for being the recipient of their client’s assets, not for being Tom’s wife.
“She has to restore part but not all of this compensation that Tom took with the aid of others at this business who we are investigating but may not be defendants yet,” he stated. “Stolen client funds are not hers to keep in their entirety. Misappropriated monies are not excused by the status of “innocent spouse,” “in accordance with the populace.
