Last month, Erika Jayne celebrated a minor victory as a case against her was dismissed.
That was more of a matter of venue than evidence, and everyone — including Erika — knew that this wasn’t over.
Tom’s chicken are coming home to roost in the worst way.
Erika and her company have been named in a $2.1 million complaint accusing her of knowing what her estranged husband was doing, and even helping.
Tom Girardi is accused of embezzling a fortune through his law firm, robbing his own clients.
These were not just any clients — many of them were widows, orphans, and direct victims of horrible injuries who are owed major settlements.
Erika Jayne is not an attorney, but she was Tom’s wife, and this alleged theft is believed to have contributed to the couple’s lifestyle prior to her filing for divorce.
On Thursday, February 17, Erika Jayne and her company, EJ Global, LLC, were named in a $2.1 million complaint.
The complaint accused Erika of having “aided and abetted” her attorney in his alleged wrongdoings and in those of his law firm, Girardi & Keese.
Erika’s lawyer is denouncing this move.
“The complaint is another misguided effort to blame Erika for the conduct of others,” Erika’s attorney Evan C. Borges declared to People.
Borges stressed that this is all conduct “in which she had no part.”
“Erika has no law degree,” Borges noted, “and never worked at or managed her former husband’s law firm.”
“Whatever Mr. Girardi or others at his law firm did or said to the plaintiffs in this case,” Borges continued vaguely.
The attorney then affirmed: “Erika had no knowledge or role in any of it.”
“The focus should be on Mr. Girardi, his law firm, and anyone else who enabled what he did,” Borges stressed.
“Piling on Erika may generate publicity,” Borges acknowledged.
“But,” he noted, “it’s without any basis in reality.”
However, the lawsuit alleges that Erika “knew about the scheme” that involved withholding money.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Manuel H. Miller and Kathleen Bajgrowicz, insists that Erika was aware that victims were “funding her notoriously lavish lifestyle.”
Bajgrowicz is the mother of late football star Chuck Osborne.
Osborne died from repeated head trauma about a decade ago — a horrific risk to football players.
When Bajgrowicz reached a settlement with the NFL, Tom Girardi was entrusted with distributing the funds.
However, like other past clients, they accuse him of having deceived them into believing that he could not distribute funds until other matters were resolved.
However, it is alleged that he had already seized the funds for his own purposes, spending the money on himself and his wife.
Truth be told, outside of Tom’s legal team, there are not many who dispute that part of things.
However, the complaint accuses Erika of being “intimately involved” in her husband’s law firm’s business dealings.
“Defendants knew that Plaintiffs were fraud victims but did nothing to protect them and instead prioritized their own financial gain at Plaintiffs’ expense,” the suit claims.
“Defendants should be required to compensate Plaintiffs for the harm they have caused,” the lawsuit demands.
“And,” it adds, “should be punished for aiding and abetting Girardi’s breach of fiduciary duty and their financial elder abuse of Plaintiffs.”
It will be interesting to hear if this lawsuit — or any other — will actually produce evidence that Erika knew of Tom’s alleged crimes.
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