Erika Jayne Denies Involvement After She’s Named in New $2.1 Million Lawsuit as ‘Aiding and Abetting’ Husband Tom Girarditoofab.comon February 18, 2022 at 5:58 pm
“The complaint is another misguided effort to blame Erika for the conduct of others in which she had no part,” said Erika’s attorney, Evan C. Borges.
Less than a month after Erika Jayne was dismissed from estranged husband Tom Girardi’s embezzlement and fraud lawsuit in Illinois, the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star has now been named in another lawsuit.
As reported by multiple outlets on Friday, Erika and her company EJ Global, LLC were slammed with a $2.1 million lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday by attorney Manuel H. Miller and Kathleen Bajgrowicz.
In the docs, per PEOPLE and Us Weekly, Miller and Bajgrowicz — who is the mother of the late NFL star Chuck Osborne — allege that Erika “aided and abetted” Tom’s “breach of fiduciary duty and has direct liability for participating in and facilitating the conduct.” Miller and Bajgrowicz claim Erika, 50, “knew about the scheme” allegedly created by Tom, 82, to withhold money from clients. The complaint also argues that Erika knew that the victims of Tom’s alleged wrongdoings were “funding her notoriously lavish lifestyle.”
Miller is suing for $277,630.40, while Bajgrowicz is suing for $1,889,150.50, according to Us Weekly.
In 2012, Bajgrowicz’s son, Chuck Osborne, died after repeated head trauma. Tom and Miller jointly represented Bajgrowicz when she sued the NFL over her son’s death, with the two attorneys agreeing to share the fees. Tom was allegedly assigned with distributing the funds to Bajgrowicz and Miller after they had reached a settlement with the NFL.
However, in the complaint, per PEOPLE, the two claim Tom “lulled Plaintiffs into believing that the funds could not be distributed to anyone until various issues were first resolved.”
“Unknown to Plaintiffs, Girardi had already taken their money and breached his and the firm’s fiduciary duty to distribute the funds to Plaintiffs,” Bajgrowicz and Miller allege.
They also claim that Erika was “intimately involved in Girardi & Keese’s business dealings.”
“Defendants knew that Plaintiffs were fraud victims but did nothing to protect them and instead prioritized their own financial gain at Plaintiffs’ expense,” the complaint read. “Defendants should be required to compensate Plaintiffs for the harm they have caused and should be punished for aiding and abetting Girardi’s breach of fiduciary duty and their financial elder abuse of Plaintiffs.”
Erika’s attorney, Evan C. Borges, shared a statement with PEOPLE, in which he denied Erika’s involvement in the lawsuit.
“The complaint is another misguided effort to blame Erika for the conduct of others in which she had no part,” he told the outlet.
“Erika has no law degree and never worked at or managed her former husband’s law firm,” Borges continued. “Whatever Mr. Girardi or others at his law firm did or said to the plaintiffs in this case, Erika had no knowledge or role in any of it.”
“The focus should be on Mr. Girardi, his law firm, and anyone else who enabled what he did,” he added. “Piling on Erika may generate publicity, but it’s without any basis in reality.”
On November 3, 2020, Erika filed for divorce from Tom, citing irreconcilable differences after being married to him for 21 years. Since then, the former couple has been hit with several lawsuits, including an embezzlement case in which Tom has been accused of stealing money owed to the families of the victims of a jet crash.
On “RHOBH,” Erika has been candid about the experience and claims that she did not know about Tom’s alleged wrongdoings, as she says she had no control over the couple’s finances. She has also denied reports that the couple faked the divorce to help conceal her involvement in the case and protect assets.
Meanwhile, amid his legal troubles, Tom was disbarred and placed in an assisted living facility following dementia and Alzheimer’s diagnoses last year.
Erika is currently filming the upcoming 12th season of “RHOBH.” The show has not shied away from digging into the ongoing scandal rocking her marriage, so there’s no reason to suspect this new season will be any different.
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