Erika Jayne Accused of ‘Aiding and Abetting’ Tom Girardi’s Legal Scams in New Lawsuit
A brand new lawsuit accuses Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, Erika Jayne, of being fully aware of her estranged husband, Tom Girardi’s alleged shady business dealings. Erika has been slapped with new court documents that claim she had full knowledge of the lawyer’s scams against his clients, despite her insistent denials.
Radar has obtained court documents that reveal that Erika and her company, EJ Global, have been hit by a lawsuit filed by Manuel H. Miller and Kathleen Bajgrowicz, a rep of Charles Osborne. Tom’s former law firm associate, David Lira, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The suit accuses Lira of elder abuse and all defendants of aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty. Miller once teamed up with Tom to represent Bajgrowicz in a case against the NFL, with an agreement to split any attorney fees upon the settlement of the case. The current lawsuit claims that Tom held back and misappropriated the settlement funds. The suit claims that Miller is owed $277k and Bajgrowicz is owed $1.1 million.
The pair believes that Erika and Lira aided and abetted Tom’s alleged misdeeds “because it benefitted them financially.”
The case is unique because it does not seek to recover funds “fraudulently transferred to [Jayne and Lira]” but instead wants to hold both parties “liable for the damages caused by” their actions.
The suit claims that Lira chose not to shut down Tom’s Ponzi scheme-type activity and accuses the Bravo star of having knowledge “about the scheme and that victims like Plaintiffs were funding her notoriously lavish lifestyle.”
Miller alleges that Lira and Erika both “knew that Girardi was operating a scheme that depended on him” breaching his fiduciary duty to his client.
Court documents state—“Defendants knew that Plaintiffs were fraud victims but did nothing to protect them and instead prioritized their own financial gain.”
The lawsuit is seeking to recover the $2.1 million in addition to punitive damages.
Erika’s lawyer, Evan Borges, spoke to Radar about the new lawsuit.
“I’ve not seen the complaint, but it sounds like another misguided effort to blame Erika for the conduct of others in which she had no part,” Borges said.
He continued—”The bottom line is Erika believed, as did most of the legal community, that her husband was extremely wealthy. Erika has no law degree and never worked at the law firm. She was an entertainer.”
The lawyer concluded—”Erika had no knowledge of any of [Tom Girardi’s] misconduct. The focus should be on [Tom Girardi], others at his firm who had law degrees, the [Girardi Keese] employees who managed the money, and outside accountants and others who enabled what [Tom Girardi] did. Remember that in many [Girardi Keese] client cases, [Girardi Keese] had co-counsel who also had a duty to clients and responsibility to make sure the cases were handled the right way.”
Erika has been hit by multiple lawsuits since filing for divorce from the since-disbarred lawyer, in November 2020.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is currently on hiatus.
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Avigail is an Entertainment blogger at All About The Tea, who specializes in The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Real Housewives of Potomac. Avigail has a background in marketing. She’s a Brooklynite living in the Bahamas, with a passion for travel, writing, reality TV watching, pop culture and spoken word.