For years now, Erika Jayne’s legal troubles have played out on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Most of her legal battles have centered around Tom Girardi, her estranged husband. He’s a former attorney these days, as Tom lost his license to practice law back in 2021. Currently awaiting trial, Tom now stands accused of stealing funds from his clients’ settlements, and the victims involved are ready to see Tom pay.
On Erika’s end, she’s been able to escape liability on several of his cases. Luckily for her, her claims of being completely in the dark have held up in court, at least so far. Yet, Erika is now facing a new lawsuit, and this one won’t be as easy to dodge. You see, her former costume designer is coming for her, and we’ve got the 411 on this entire situation.
Erika’s Original Claims Against Christopher Psaila
Christopher Psaila co-owns the design company Marco Marco. Starting in 2014, Christopher and Erika began working together, with Christopher hired to create costumes for Erika’s singing career. As explained on The Housewife and The Hustler 2: The Reckoning, at her first fitting, Christopher tried to hand Erika an invoice, but she waved him off. Instead, Erika said that he could just keep her AMEX card on file, so paperwork wouldn’t be necessary.
Their partnership continued until December 2016. Here, Erika started to question the charges Christopher was making on her credit card. At this point, she accused him of overcharging her for her costumes. Despite the lack of invoices, Christopher kept a solid paper trail, but his evidence wasn’t enough.
Instead, a raid went down on Christopher’s business, and Erika leaned in with her claims. “I wore a wire, and was a witness in a government case,” she said on Bravo via RHOBH Season 12. This was actually in reference to her case against Christopher, who stated on Hulu that “Erika came in, saying that I had stolen upwards of 800,000 from them.” Now, in their recorded meeting, Christopher acknowledged “excess billing” of “just over $100,000,” which he blamed on a bookkeeper.
Despite this, Erika insisted otherwise, stating that she’d actually lost $800,000, which shocked the designer. These days, Christopher admits that he regrets implicating his bookkeeper, and that the $100,000 in incorrect charges claim was just a result of him not wanting to loose Erika as a customer. “I was so desperate and panicky,” he said on the documentary. The end result of this ordeal saw Christopher indicted in 2017 on nine counts, including wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The Charges against Christopher Psaila Were Dropped
Throughout everything, Christopher held firm on his innocence. He immediately began putting together a file of text messages, receipts and photos to help prove that every charge he made on Erika’s American Express card was legit. And then, in 2021, federal prosecutors quietly moved to dismiss his case. Hello, dropped charges.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles U.S. attorney’s office explained this away, telling the Los Angeles Times that this case had “law enforcement evidence preservation issues.” Even still, the damage had been done, as Christopher’s reputation and life were destroyed. On her part, Erika also saw herself in the hot seat. Many now felt as if she had trumped up these charges, merely to evade paying her bills to the costume designer.
Christopher Psaila Is Now Suing
In an attempt to clear his name, Christopher is now suing Erika, American Express, and the Secret Service. On Erika, Christopher’s citing her financial issues as the reason behind her initial case against his company. In his lawsuit, he notes “Tom Girardi was going bankrupt, and used client settlement funds from his law firm, Girardi Keese, to pay for his and Erika Girardi’s extravagant lifestyle and personal bills. Thus, both Erika Girardi and Tom Girardi had a compelling reason to illegally claim that Chris Psaila and Marco Marco had defrauded them.”
As for the second defendant, Peter Grimm is listed for AMEX. On this, Christopher states that “AMEX accepted Erika Girardi’s false statements of unauthorized charges and refunded Erika Girardi and Tom Girardi $787,117.88, depriving Chris Psaila of the opportunity to dispute her claims.” To date, Christopher states that “AMEX and Grimm only charged back” $4,500, which is “nowhere near the claimed fraud of $787,117.88.”
This brings us to the final suit; the Secret Service. Prior to Erika’s claims against Christopher, the head of the L.A. office, Lorenzo Robert Savage III, was represented by Tom. In this, Tom was trying to help Lorenzo in a lawsuit over a defective braking system found in his minivan. In turn, Christopher stated that Lorenzo arranged for Secret Service agents from a financial crimes squad to meet with Erika over her claims, and they “recklessly investigated” her case.
Christopher is seeking $18.2 million in damages.
The Ex-Secret Service Chief’s Motion to Exit
Lorenzo Savage wants no part of this, so his lawyer filed a motion to dismiss him from this case. “Savage played no role in plaintiff’s criminal matter, except to ask other agents to investigate Erika Girardi’s report of credit card fraud,” his attorney stressed, adding, “And that irrefutable truism is why plaintiff is unable to plead any facts against Mr. Savage – there is simply nothing to allege against him.” Oral arguments will take place on April 8, 2024.
A Judge Just Denied Erika’s Motion To Dismiss
Erika wants out as well. However, her first attempt to kill this lawsuit has just been denied. Michael Fitzgerald, a U.S. District Judge, found that Christopher had established “the probability of prevailing” on his claims against Erika. She has until March 19 to file her answer.
In case you’re wondering where she stands though, Erika wants a win, and she is currently denying Christopher’s claims.
TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON ERIKA’S LATEST LEGAL ISSUE?
