Over the past few months, former power coupleErikaandTom Girardihave been slapped with multiplelawsuits, accusations ofembezzlement, a bankruptcy case and claims of a sham divorce, among other legal woes.
The various controversies, which were first made public after theReal Housewives of Beverly Hillsstarfiled for divorcefrom her longtime husband last November, have become increasingly complex as the court cases progress.
Last month, Tom — a once-famed attorney known for his work on the case that inspired theErin Brockovichmovie — was placed under a permanentconservatorshipafter being diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. And thus far, what Erika knew about her husband’s alleged illegal business dealings remains unclear.
Keep reading for everything we know about the situation.
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Erika and Tom Girardi.Steve Eichner/AP
A Surprise Divorce
On Nov. 3, 2020, after 22 years of marriage, Erika, 49,filed for divorcefrom Tom, 82.
In a statement to PEOPLE at the time, Erika said, “After much consideration, I have decided to end my marriage to Tom Girardi. This is not a step taken lightly or easily. I have great love and respect for Tom and for our years and the lives we built together.”
“It is my absolute wish to proceed through this process with respect and with the privacy that both Tom and I deserved,” she continued. “I request others give us that privacy as well.”
RELATED VIDEO:Kyle RichardsSays There Were ‘Definitely a Lot of Breaking Points’ Between Erika Jayne and Ex
During arecent episode ofRHOBH, Erika addressed her divorce filing, saying during a confessional, “I left because he pushed me further and further out. The conversations that I used to have were now reduced down to a sentence or two. I just kept walking around that house and knowing that this marriage was headed down a really s—– path, I had to make a choice to do what was right for me. I couldn’t live that way anymore.”
Erika told her costars that she didn’t tell them what was really going on in her marriage “on purpose,” because it would have put them “in a bad position.”
“I didn’t want to do that, and that’s the truth,” she said. “It also doesn’t serve me to talk a lot about what is happening legally or will happen legally, because I am married to somebody who’s very good in that area.”
Embezzlement Lawsuit
In December, less than a month after the divorce filing, news broke that Erika and Tom were beingsued for allegedly using their split to embezzle money.
“Tom has resorted to embezzling the proceeds of settlements that should have been directed to his clients — including, as the basis for this Complaint, the widows and orphans who lost loved ones in the tragic crash of Lion Air Flight 610 — in order to continue funding his and Erika’s lavish Beverly Hills lifestyles,” the plaintiffs alleged.
Tom’s law firm, Girardi Keese (GK), is also named in the suit, which claimed both Tom and the firm are “on the verge of financial collapse and locked in a downward spiral of mounting debts and dwindling funds.”
Erika and Tom Girardi.Bravo
Edelson PC and Erika declined to comment on the case at the time, and Tom did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
According to a lawyer from Tom’s law firm, Tom was “unavailable in recent weeks due to a serious illness that caused him to be hospitalized for which he sought treatment.”
A Second Lawsuit
On Dec. 15, Tom washit with another lawsuit, this one from his law partner, Robert Keese, and several other former business partners.
The plaintiffs alleged that Tom never paid them approximately $315,000 in income from the partnership and instead kept the money for himself. They further claimed that he took out loans against the property without their knowledge for his “own personal gain, benefit and use.” Tom has not responded to the suit publicly or in court.
The lawsuit resulted in a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition that same month that is still ongoing, as a bankruptcy trusteeinvestigates Tom and his law firm’s assets.
Tom and Erika Girardi.Bravo
In late June, news broke that Girardi Keese had gotten the go-ahead for aCOVID-era loanfrom the federal government prior to filing for bankruptcy.
The law firm was approved for $1,503,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program — which was created to help keep businesses afloat during the pandemic — on April 15, 2020, according to public records.
It is unclear whether the firm actually received the loan. A spokesperson for Girardi Keese did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Tom Placed Under a Conservatorship
In March, Tom’s lawyers claimed that he had “had issues” with “mental competence” and it was later announced that he had beendiagnosed with dementiaand late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
He underwent a mental assessment on Feb. 26 as part of his younger brother Robert’s petition to become his permanent conservator. Robert was granted atemporary conservatorshipin February, which laterbecame permanent.
Tom Girardi.Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty
The judge also found that Tom “consents and does not object” to the conservatorship.
At the hearing, Tomdiscussed the situationfor the first time. “Obviously, I disagree with the conservatorship altogether,” he said, according toLaw360.
“I think that we should put together the reasons why the conservatorship should be dissolved, and then we’ll address it, address the court,” Tom continued. “Right now, I have nothing to say to the court.”
“It’s obviously a heartbreaking situation for Robert, but we agree with the court’s rulings yesterday,” Robert’s lawyer, Nicholas Van Brunt, said in a statement to PEOPLE following the hearing.
Investigative Documentary Airs
In June, an ABC News Originals documentary,The Housewife and the Hustler,took an in-depth look at Tom and Erika’s legal issues.
In the special, streaming onHulu, various legal experts and those accusing Tom of embezzlement and questionable legal practices discussed the scandals surrounding the former couple.The Housewife and the Hustleralso featured voicemail messages, court records and a never-before-aired deposition tape of Tom.
Joe’s family hired Tom after he was critically injured in the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion in 2010. “We thought he could win [the case for us],” said Joe’s sister, Jamie, in the doc. “We didn’t know how much of a snake he would be along the way.”
After settling the lawsuit for the Ruigomez family in 2013, Tom allegedly suggested that he put the multi-million dollar settlement in one of his investments and dispense the money monthly. But after the family stopped receiving payments from the settlement, they became suspicious about where their money was. Joe said Tom became increasingly difficult to reach and failed to give straight answers when they asked about the money.
“He would be like, ‘Oh, sorry about that. These things happen. I’ll get it to you next week,'” Joe alleged. “And half the time the check would come when he’d say so — the second time — and half the time it wouldn’t.”
ABC
According to the documentary, the family took Tom back to court and is now “among the first in line to collect their settlement money from the bankruptcy” case.
Though Erika has not been charged with any crimes, one of the biggest questions posed in the documentary — andon the current season ofRHOBH— is how much she knew when it came to Tom’s legal woes.
“Tom and Erika, they’re stuck together in these bankruptcy proceedings. A lot of these debts, that they owe in bankruptcy proceedings, [they] owe together, possibly,” said Brandon Lowrey, a reporter at Law360, inThe Housewife and the Hustler. “It’s going to be hard for her to say she didn’t know that anything was going on.”
Andy Cohen, who executive produces theReal Housewivesfranchise, laterweighed in on the documentaryduring his SiriusXM showAndy Cohen Live. “I don’t think that documentary will affect her future on the show,” Cohen told a caller in June.
He went on to question the doc’s inclusion ofReal Housewives of New JerseyalumDanielle StaubandRHOBHguestDana Wilkey.
“I will say the idea thatDanielle Stauband Dana Wilkey are the experts in this documentary about Erika is questionable at best,” Cohen said. “So I kind of realized I wasn’t going to learn anything new from them about Erika.”
As for the case itself? “The Tom Girardi stories continue to be deeply disturbing, and we have to see how this plays out,” he said.
Issues from within Erika’s Legal Team Arise
After the documentary dropped on Hulu, Erika’s attorneysmoved to stop representing her— only to backtrack and withdraw their motion later that same week.
Erika Girardi.Amy Sussman/Getty
“The relationship of trust and confidence that is essential to a properly functioning attorney-client relationship has broken down and, in the good faith assessment of counsel, the relationship is irreparable,” the lawyers wrote.
The firm also said they had advised Erika to seek new representation and had warned her of “the potential consequences of not timely securing replacement counsel.”
On June 17, however, they withdrew the motion and have since continued to represent her in the ongoing bankruptcy case.
Erika Is Accused of Refusing to Cooperate
In June, Erika was accused of refusing to cooperate in the bankruptcy case facing Tom and Girardi Keese.
Less than a week later, on June 28, the court ruled in favor of the creditors, ordering that Erika’s accountant Michael Ullman, divorce lawyer Larry Ginsburg and landlord Benjamin Khakshourturn over various “key documents,“including her pay stubs, bank statements and any emails and text messages pertaining to her finances.
Lawyers for Erika did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time.
RELATED VIDEO:Erika GirardiAccused of Refusing to Turn Over Bank Records, Using ‘Glam’ Lifestyle to Hide Assets
One of the original June 23 motions claimed Erika had “refused to provide access” to Ullman, her management company and the books and records of her various companies.
The motion went on to claim that Erika used her companies, including the newly created Pretty Mess Inc, to hide her assets, and had blocked access to Ullman while continuing to show off public displays of wealth.
“At every turn, Erika has used the glam to continue to aid and abet this sham transactions that have been occurring with respect to large transfers of assets from [Girardi Keese] to Erika,” it said. “Moreover, the Trustee has received zero cooperation from Erika which is constant [sic] with someone hiding assets.”
Citing concern that Erika will spend the funds transferred from Girardi Keese, the motion said various recent events — including Erika’s attorneys filing to stop representing her — have heightened “the necessity to trace her money and investigate the receipt of funds, her purchases including the bling and the glam, (diamonds and high expenditures of beauty maintenance, etc.).”
Erika Fires Back
Two days later, Erika’s legal teamresponded to the motion in their own court filing, asserting that she “has been and remains willing to cooperate fully with the Trustee’s investigation in this bankruptcy of debtor Girardi & Keese.”
In addition to responding to the claims that she has not been cooperative, the reality star requested that the court reconsider its decision to appoint Richards as the special counsel to the trustee in the bankruptcy case, accusing him of making “false and inflammatory” statements about her on social media.
Erika Girardi.John Tsiavis/Bravo
“We are representing the Trustee on a limited basis relating to Erika Jayne,” Richards continued. “We only need to zealously pursue our client’s litigation objectives which is to find the money and recover it. Attacking the Trustee’s choice of counsel who is doing an effective job and working hard is a poorly designed strategy. The real issue is the large receivables to Erika Jayne and the money she is refusing to release or return, period.”
Erika Faces Accusations of Conspiring with Tom and His Firm
On July 14, Erika was accused ofhiding assettransfers and owing Girardi Keese $25 million as the bankruptcy trustee continued to investigate both Tom and the firm.
He also wrote that Erika received lottery payments that belong to the Girardi Keese estate in addition to the “luxury items,” adding up to a total of $25 million. A lawyer for Erika did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time.
Richards further claimed that “the defendants” (Erika and her businesses) and “the debtor” (Girardi Keese) “conspired to conceal” the funds to keep the money away from the creditors in the bankruptcy case, which include Tom’s former business partners as well as some of his former clients.
“Erika has used her glamor and notoriety to continue to aid and abet in sham transactions that have occurred with respect to large transfers of assets from the Debtor,” the document said, adding that Erika “refused to return” the lottery payments and luxury items, instead receiving or diverting them for her “own benefit.”
Tom’s Law Firm Auctions Off Belongings
A poster ofJulia Robertsfrom the movieErin Brockovichis also being auctioned off — a reference to Tom’s famous case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in the 1990s which inspired the film.
A representative for Girardi Keese did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time.
What’s Next?
The embezzlement case, lawsuit from Tom’s business partners and bankruptcy case are all currently ongoing, with no clear outcomes yet.
As for Erika, her feelings about her split from Tom and the resulting legal woes areplaying outon the current season ofReal Housewives of Beverly Hills,which is set to run on Bravo through the summer.
source: people.com
