'RHOBH' Star Erika Jayne Slapped With $3 Million Lawsuit Over Husband's Unpaid Loan
Aug. 5 2019, Updated 12:41 p.m. ET
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne is facing a $3 million lawsuit after her husband, lawyer Thomas Girardi, allegedly failed to pay back a loan. The Blast has reported from court papers that Erika, 48, is now a named defendant with her husband in a new lawsuit over another massive loan he allegedly failed to repay. Court docs show that a company named Stillwell Madison filed a federal lawsuit against the reality star, her husband, and his law firm Girardi Keese.
Stillwell Madison claimed in the legal docs that they loaned Girardi Keese $5,110,440.38 in 2016 on the grounds that they would be repaid with funds generated by the firm. Girardi allegedly agreed to hand over financial statements regularly and make timely payments, the court papers show. But the lender has contended that “Mr. Girardi re-directed all or part of the proceeds, to which Stillwell was contractually entitled, to himself and his wife in order to sustain their lavish lifestyle and maintain their glamorous public image."
Girardi supposedly then promised to start making monthly payments of $500,000 starting October 2018 and ending in September 2019. However, the legal papers claim, “Mr. Girardi has never followed through on any of his proposals—reinforcing the indication that he (nor the Firm) has, and continues to not have, any intention of repaying the loan balance.”
Stillwell says they, “would not have provided the Loan had it known that Defendants were going to use the Loan proceeds to, upon information and belief, support Mr. and Mrs. Girardi’s high-end lifestyle.” The Blast has noted that Thomas, 80, currently has a past due balance of $3,454,804 with the company, according to the court documents.
Stillwell Madison is suing Thomas, Erika, and Girardi Keese for the full balance, plus damages and interest. The new lawsuit follows Thomas just being hit with a $6 million judgment in a separate legal battle over an unpaid loan from the Law Finance Group. Thomas has been ordered to pay back the millions after allegedly breaching an agreement he made with the Law Finance Group.
The company had contended in legal papers that they loaned Thomas a total of $15 million to fund the operations of his firm and want the funds back. That previous lawsuit had alleged that the Law Finance Group believed the money was used “to maintain Mr. Girardi’s lavish lifestyle.”
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In response to that earlier case, Thomas had told The Blast, “The truth of the matter is this. I have not taken one penny from the law firm in the past three years. I have devoted everything to assist in the cases that we have here. Further, the money that was borrowed, we agreed to repay in approximately two weeks before the lawsuit. It is slanderous that the money was for my ‘lifestyle’ … every penny went for costs in cases that the firm is handling.”
Erika, who uses a different last name from her much older husband, originally moved from Atlanta to New York to pursue show business. She raised her son, Tommy Zizzo, as a single mom. Eventually, she moved to Los Angeles, married Girardi, and hit itbig as a singer and TV housewife.
She's said of her husband, “We try to spend as much time as possible together. And his schedule is two times busier than mine! He’s running his firm and they’re incredibly busy. Tom is the most supportive partner a woman could ever ask for."
Now, however, she's gotten embroiled in his legal problems!