Erika Jayne settled her bankruptcy case for $25 million just days before her trial was to begin.
“Based on multiple conversations with our attorneys, we have agreed to a settlement, and we are asking the court to allow it to be dismissed without prejudice,” a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case said in court records obtained by Us Weekly.
The amount of the settlement was not disclosed.
The 54-year-old “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum was sued in August 2021 by the trustee handling her estranged husband Tom Girardi’s former law firm Girardi Keith’s bankruptcy case.
According to a legal demand letter sent to her attorney, obtained exclusively by Page Six in August 2021, the trustee’s attorney revealed that Jayne’s company spent more than $25 million on American Express bills, assistants, and a glam team.
The letter claimed the funds were transferred from the Girardi law firm to Jain’s company, EJ Global LLC, and noted that she was the company’s sole owner.
In court documents obtained by Page Six, the trustee in the bankruptcy case claimed that Mr. Girardi knew that his company had been paying Mr. Jain’s expenses for at least 12 years and was seeking repayment from Mr. Jain.
The trustees argued that because Jayne claimed she had no knowledge of her husband’s financial problems, “it would be a miscarriage of justice if (she) was allowed to continue living on the estate without ever incurring more than $25 million in debt.”
“Erica signed all tax returns and numerous credit card slips and was well aware of the amounts she spent on Debtor’s credit cards and that Debtor paid her personal expenses,” the trustee alleged. “Her feigned willful blindness and ostrich-like approach to these expenditures do nothing to limit her liability.”
Jayne’s attorney told Page Six at the time that the reality star will defend the lawsuit and will also seek “sanctions and all appropriate relief for allegations brought in bad faith and without legal basis.”
“Unfortunately, the amended complaint is an example of the trustee and her attorney jumping to conclusions without conducting a thorough investigation and bullying and blaming Erica for actions taken by Girardi Keith, even though she was not legally responsible,” the statement said.
Girardi was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison last June for fraud. He began serving his seven-year sentence a month later.
Jayne told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live in December that she had not visited Girardi, 87, in prison.
“That’s too much,” she explained. “That’s enough. He’s done. You know, it is what it is.”
