Bombshell $890k Bankruptcy Lawsuit Questions If Erika Jayne’s Husband Tom Girardi and His Law Firm Illegally Funneled Money For Their Own Benefit
Dec. 28 2022, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne’s husband Tom Girardi faces claims he may have used a 'straw' company — designed to appear as a staffing business — to funnel money fraudulently and illegally to himself and others, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, the trustee presiding over the involuntary Chapter 7 for Girardi’s now-defunct law firm Girardi Keese has filed a bombshell lawsuit seeking the return of $866,558 in alleged fraudulent transfers in the years before the bankruptcy.
As RadarOnline.com has previously reported, Girardi was once a well-respected lawyer in Los Angeles but that all came crashing down in 2020. Jayne’s husband was accused of running his firm like a Ponzi scheme for years with many of his former clients claiming he stiffed them on money owed.
In bankruptcy court, claims totaling over $500 million were filed in the case but Girardi had little assets to his name. Jayne has been dragged into numerous legal battles over her husband’s alleged financial misdeeds. The Bravo star has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Despite her attempts to be dismissed from the legal battles, Jayne still faces a $25 million lawsuit demanding she returns money that Girardi Keese spent on her company EJ Global’s bills over the years.
In the new lawsuit, the trustee said they want to recover payments made to a company called Staffing Partners in the six years before Chapter 7 was filed.
However, the trustee said they believe the company “may have been a “front” or “straw” company for Thomas and/or other employees or third parties, including Christopher Kamon, the Chief Financial Officer of Girardi Keese, and may have been used to fraudulently and illegally funnel money to Thomas and/or other employees or third parties, including Christopher Kamon.”
Kamon is a former Girardi Keese CFO who was recently arrested on felony wire fraud charges. “During a time when Girardi Keese was in a precarious financial state, and was not paying its creditors, Girardi Keese began a systematic process of draining the available cash, oftentimes consisting of stolen client trust funds, by, among other things, making distributions to certain preferred creditors or third parties from funds of Girardi Keese’s estate,” the suit explained.
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In regard to the “fraudulent transfers” to Staffing Partners, the trustee said, “these were on account of services that solely benefitted Thomas and Erika Girardi aka Erika Jayne, Christopher Kamon, or other employees of Girardi Keese, or were part of a scheme whereby checks would be made payable to Staffing Partners on account of fraudulent invoices and the funds would then be funneled back to Thomas and Erika Girardi aka Erika Jayne, Christopher Kamon, or other employees of Girardi Keese, such that the Fraudulent Transfers had no relation to the operation of, and did not benefit, Girardi Keese.”
The trustee has demanded Staffing Partners be ordered to return the money immediately.
