Prosecutors in the lawsuit against Tom Girardi referenced Erika Jayne. Six weeks before the disgraced former attorney’s criminal trial begins, the Feds disclosed key evidence. “$25 million of client and law firm money [was spent] on the career of his reality TV star wife.”
The crime:
Tom Girardi and his law firm’s former Chief Financial Officer are accused of stealing $15 million from several clients in a years-long scheme. Yahoo.com reported, “Until now, Erika Girardi — a mainstay of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills — has rarely been mentioned in her estranged husband’s federal prosecution. ICYMI, Tom created a company for his estranged wife’s entertainment career, EJ Global LLC.
New court info:
“In a court filing Friday, prosecutors said they plan to show the jury evidence” against Tom Girardi. They will argue he “misappropriated far more than that from his law firm and his clients.” That includes the $25 million that was allegedly diverted to cover the “illegitimate expenses” of EJ Global LLC. Prosecution’s filing stated, “By directing accounting personnel to make these payments for the benefit of EJ Global, defendant [Tom] Girardi knowingly and intentionally funneled payments sourced from client funds for improper personal enrichment.”
“No underlying evidence was included in the filing. It’s unclear how prosecutors plan to prove their assertion. They did not mention Erika Girardi by name, nor did they accuse her of wrongdoing or knowledge of her husband’s financial practices.”
“Instead, prosecutors want to rebut Tom Girardi’s defense strategy.” They want to prove Tom misappropriated “money to spend on his wife and her career.” Erika’s lawyer emphasized “prosecutors did not say the Housewives star did anything wrong. It was undisputed that Tom Girardi and his firm handled the finances and accounting of EJ Global LLC.”
Erika’s lawyers assert, “She had no knowledge of the actions regarding client matters or finances.” Never forget, one judge already dismissed a suit against Erika because there was “ZERO evidence of her involvement in client matters.”
A summary of more boring legal jargon:
Tom and the firm’s CFO, Christopher Kamon, strategized to place blame the other for their firm’s crimes. Kamon’s team plans to argue that Girardi was liquidating his assets and putting funds back into the firm. Additionally, prosecutors wrote in their filing that “evidence of money misappropriated to pay EJ Global’s bills is essential to telling a coherent and complete story of the charged scheme.”
Bravo TV fans react:
- Like I’ve said from the beginning…🎶We Embezzled to be ME-EE-EE!🎶
- Oh wait…is she going to develop Alzheimer’s now too?? Let the countdown begin! 🤡🤡
- Apparently she knew in 2015, because she was subpoenaed. Yet she spent millions after that on her worthless career…
- She’s got that Vegas residency money 💰 to use to pay it back 😂
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