Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne is suffering another hit in court. As she continues to deal with Tom Girardi’s bankruptcy case, she attempted to delay payments to creditors.
As part of Chapter 11, Erika was sued and expected to return $25 million after Girardi Keese paid bills for Erika’s company, EJ Global. Apparently, Erika suspected fraud was occurring within the bankruptcy and wanted to halt proceedings for an investigation. Well, Pat the Puss tried and she might want to go ahead and add some dates to those Vegas shows.
Erika’s no good, very bad court case continues
According to Radar, EJ’s fraud claim might have gone down the tubes. The allegations fraud was committed as part of Tom’s bankruptcy were “brushed off” by the court. Legal docs show Tom and his buddies were on the hook for embezzling $18 million from clients who trusted him over a ten-year period.
While EJ has always stood by her declaration of innocence, the trustee overseeing the Girardi case requested permission to pay creditors still waiting for money from Girardi Keese. One of those victims was Joseph Ruigomez who was burned in a pipeline explosion.
Joseph retained Tom to rep him against PG&E after his girlfriend died and over 90% of his body was burned. He won a settlement of $11.5 million and has been fighting to receive it ever since the 2010 accident.
Erika’s latest effort found her saying she has “great sympathy” for Joseph’s situation, but he has already “been paid millions.” I’m not sure how much is too much for someone who has suffered like this man, but EJ seems to think he’s good.
Has Joseph received enough money?
“The Ruigomez creditors, while wholly deserving, already have received tens of millions of dollars in cash and other value from GK. The Trustee should not be intimidated by threats of continuing interest on the claims of the Ruigomez creditors. If further investigation would show that additional payments to them would amount to a windfall exceeding their actual loss. Many other legitimate creditor victims have not received a penny,” her attorney said.
Joseph’s team was not at all pleased with this and fired back in court. They argued Erika has been unable to present evidence to back up her fraud claims. Additionally, they challenged the motion based on the fact that Erika has made similar allegations because that’s her go-to party trick.
The trustee explained, “As to the Ruigomez Creditors— whom Erika now argues are being paid too much—Erika offers no evidence in support of her theory that they have been overpaid.” While Erika raises a number of allegations in her Opposition, each allegation is entirely devoid of any evidentiary support.”
The case remains ongoing.
TELL US – SHOULD ERIKA GIVE UP AND PAY THESE PEOPLE? DO YOU THINK ERIKA HAS EVIDENCE OF FRAUD?