Erika Jayne was slapped with a major lawsuit after her husband, Thomas Girardi, reportedly failed to pay back a loan that he took out. According to court papers reviewed by The Blast , the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was named as a defendant, along with her husband and his law firm, by a company called Stillwell Madison, which claims Girardi borrowed over $5 million in 2016.
According to the papers, Girardi and his firm, Girardi Keese, agreed to pay back the loan using the money made by the firm. As part of the agreement, the lawyer agreed to hand over his financial statements on a regular basis and to make payments. But that’s not what went down.
“Mr. Girardi re-directed all or part of the proceeds, to which Stillwell was contractually entitled, to himself and his wife in order to sustain their lavish lifestyle and maintain their glamorous public image,” the court docs say.
The suit contends that Girardi started making payments of $500,000 per month beginning in October 2018. But by September 2019, the payments stopped. Not only that, but he allegedly stopped sending his financial statements.
“Mr. Girardi has never followed through on any of his proposals—reinforcing the indication that he (nor the Firm) has, and continues to not have, any intention of repaying the loan balance.”
Now, the 80-year-old owes $3,454,804 on the remaining balance, and Stillwell intends to get their money, plus interest.
Stillwell claims that they “would not have provided the Loan had it known that Defendants were going to use the Loan proceeds to, upon information and belief, support Mr. and Mrs. Girardi’s high-end lifestyle.”
This is the second lawsuit that Girardi is facing over alleged loans that he has failed to repay. He was slapped with a $6 million judgment in a lawsuit with Law Finance Group, which claims he was loaned a total of $15 million to fund his law firm.
That suit also claimed that Girardi used the funds meant to run his business to fund his “lavish” lifestyle. The lawyer denied all of the claims that he used the money for his personal life, according to The Blast . He told the pop culture outlet that he hadn’t taken “one penny” from his firm since taking the loan and asserted that he had only used the money towards cases that the firm was handling.
He added that he agreed to repay all the money before the lawsuit was filed, and that the suit was slanderous.
