Erika Jayne Served For $50 Million Lawsuit In Los Angeles Airport!
Erika Jayne was served documents for a $50 million racketeering lawsuit, upon her arrival in Los Angeles Friday night. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was leaving the Los Angeles International Airport when she was approached by a woman who handed her two piles of paperwork.
Erika, 50, who was dressed in a white sweatsuit, was approached by the woman in the airport’s baggage area. The bare-faced reality star had her hair in a top knot in the comfy ensemble, which she accessorized with white sneakers and a Gucci bag. The Bravo star was returning from a Hawaiian vacation with co-stars, Lisa Rinna and Diana Jenkins, when she was cornered by the process server.
“I just wanted to give you these documents. This is a summons and complaint to serve you,” the woman said in video footage shared by Page Six.
The lawsuit accuses Erika of nine charges, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, unlawful business practice, and deceit, pertaining to the legal firestorm surrounding her estranged husband, Tom Girardi. The documents allege that the “Pretty Mess” singer had “specific knowledge” of her estranged husband’s alleged misdeeds.
The lawsuit, filed by Edelson PC, reads—“Tom and Erika Girardi purposefully portrayed themselves to the public as an extremely wealthy Beverly Hills power couple.”
The suit also alleges that Erika’s company, EJ Global, “was created for the purpose of funneling money from Girardi Keese to benefit Erika.”
The lawsuit points out that lavish spending was “a part of Erika’s personality” on RHOBH, which often featured the Bravo star’s “never-ending parade of designer clothes and high-end jewelry, her $250,000 Lamborghini Huracán, and her personal 24/7 ‘glam squad’ team that she paid $40,000 per month to pick out her clothes and do her hair and makeup.”
“Tom and Erika routinely misappropriated client settlement money to project an image of wealth and to prop up a lifestyle made for reality TV,” the lawsuit claims.
Edelson alleges that “Erika knew of the scheme” to embezzle funds owed to Tom’s former clients and family members of victims of the 2018 Lion Air plane crash.
The couple was slammed by multiple lawsuits shortly after Erika filed for divorce from the since disbarred attorney, in November 2020.
“Erika knew of the scheme, intended to participate in it and — critically —share in its profits, both directly and through her wholly-owned company, EJ Global,” the legal filing claims. “Despite her public claims that she and Tom were spending their own money, financial records show that more than $25 million of her own expenses were paid by Girardi Keese in furtherance of the Girardi Family Enterprise’s illegal scheme.”
The suit alleges that Erika acted as a “frontwoman” who put out a narrative of her husband’s firm’s success to a worldwide audience.
Erika has vehemently maintained her innocence amid the legal drama and continues to claim that she had no knowledge of her husband’s misdeeds.
“I feel terrible. This is not who I am,” Erika said during the Season 11 RHOBH reunion in October 2021.
“And I hope this is not who he is. … I hope that [Tom] has not done what is alleged here.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Wednesdays at 8 pm, ET, on Bravo.
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.