Erika Jayne‘s estranged husband, Thomas Girardi, is being accused of utilizing over $25 million belonging to his shoppers and his now-defunct legislation agency, Girardi Keese, to fund her profession in leisure.
Weeks earlier than the scheduled begin of Thomas’ upcoming trial, the place the 85-year-old disbarred legal professional will handle claims of getting stolen $15 million from his former shoppers, prosecutors have launched new proof to the case that includes the 52-year-old Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills forged member.
In line with a June 22 report from the Los Angeles Occasions, prosecutors filed paperwork on Friday through which they alleged that Thomas misappropriated funds from his shoppers, together with over $25 million that he allegedly used to pay for the “illegitimate bills” of Erika’s recently-suspended leisure firm, EJ World LLC.
“By directing Girardi Keese accounting personnel to make these funds for the good thing about EJ World, defendant [Tom] Girardi knowingly and deliberately funneled funds sourced from shopper funds for the improper private enrichment of his members of the family,” their submitting said, not revealing how they deliberate to show such claims.
In response to the submitting, Erika’s lawyer, Evan Borges, identified that his shopper’s title wasn’t talked about and famous that it was “undisputed” that Thomas and his agency dealt with the funds and accounting of her firm.
“She had no information of the actions of Tom Girardi or Girardi Keese relating to shopper issues or funds,” he mentioned. “Years in the past, Erika filed for divorce and separated from Tom Girardi, and lives in a rental. She is entitled to maneuver on together with her life.”
In the meantime, throughout a listening to on Thursday, Thoma’s attorneys revealed plans to position blame on Girardi Keese’s former CFO, Christopher Kamon, who was arrested on suspicion of wire fraud in 2022 and charged with “eight counts of wire fraud and 4 counts of contempt of courtroom” months later after allegedly misappropriating over $3 million in settlement funds meant for family of victims of a 2018 aircraft crash.
As famous by Deputy Public Defender Charles Snyder, Thomas wasn’t “operating the machine” at Girardi Keese. As an alternative, it was Christopher who oversaw the accounting of the agency and its greater than 100 financial institution accounts. And when it got here to the deficits within the agency’s accounts, his alleged “aspect fraud” could be highlighted.
Thomas’ attorneys additionally plan to counsel that he was truly liquidating his private belongings to cowl payroll and different bills because of Christopher’s alleged scheme, which was supposedly what left Girardi Keese depleted, and clarify that Thomas’ lies had been advised to permit him to unravel what occurred.
In response, nonetheless, Christopher’s legal professional, Michael Severo, advised the courtroom, “It’s simply fiction,” and prosecutors have said that the alleged proof of Thomas’ paying of EJ World’s payments is “important” to inform “a coherent and full story of the charged scheme.”
“Excluding such proof would solely serve to distort the reality and go away the jury with the mistaken impression that solely defendant Kamon is in charge for such misappropriation when, in fact, defendant Girardi equally misappropriated tens of hundreds of thousands himself,” they wrote in courtroom paperwork.
Whereas Thomas and Christopher are anticipated to go on trial collectively on August 6, Thomas’ attorneys have requested separate hearings, stating that their protection methods are “mutually unique.”
The choice of whether or not or not their trials will likely be cut up is as much as U.S. District Choose Josephine Staton, who deemed Thomas match to face trial earlier this 12 months, noting that the previous legal professional “clearly understands the character of the fees towards him.”
