Here Are Five Things You Didn’t Know About Erika Jayne | Billboard
Singer and ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ star Erika Jayne reveals five things you didn’t know about her.
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Erika Jayne has officially resolved a $25 million lawsuit, filed against her five years ago.
“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star, 54, settled the case just as it was set to go to trial, and “all pending motions and hearing dates are hereby vacated and taken off calendar,” according to court records obtained by USA TODAY for the United States Central District of California. The settlement amount was not disclosed.
The case involves a trustee for embattled former attorney and Jayne’s estranged husband Tom Girardi’s 2020 involuntary bankruptcy of his law firm, Girardi Keese. The legal battle began in 2021, when the trustee sued Jayne on allegations she used more than $25 million from the practice for personal expenses. The reality star has long denied the claims and has not been criminally charged.
Jayne recently addressed the ongoing lawsuit during part one of the “RHOBH” Season 15 reunion, explaining several potential outcomes: “You can file for bankruptcy, or you can fight it out in court. You can go to trial, you can cut a deal, you can die in the streets. I have no idea.”
Girardi is currently serving time in a Los Angeles prison for stealing money from his clients
Girardi, 86, was a famed personal injury attorney known for being the lead attorney in the 1993 groundwater contamination lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric that inspired the 2000 Oscar-nominated film “Erin Brockovich.” He and Jayne met in 1998 and were married for 21 years until she announced their split in November 2020, just weeks before news of his legal troubles emerged.
The former lawyer allegedly “operated Girardi Keese like a Ponzi-scheme by providing a litany of lies for failure to pay clients” from 2010 to 2020, according to a previous statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. In addition, prosecutors claimed that he used tens of millions of dollars to “pay illegitimate expenses, including more than $25 million,” that was diverted to Jayne’s company, EJ Global.
A jury later convicted Girardi on four counts of wire fraud, and he was sentenced to more than seven years behind bars, which he began serving in July. He was also ordered to pay $2,310,247 in restitution, along with a $35,000 fine.
“This self-proclaimed ‘champion of justice’ was nothing more than a thief and a liar who conned his vulnerable clients out of the millions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement at the time.
Contributing: KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY
