Tom Girardi’s wife hiding California Lottery payments, attorney says

A recent filing claimed that Erika Girardi, the estranged wife of disgraced plaintiffs’ lawyer Thomas V. Girardi, hid payments that she received from the California State Lottery following a 2012 settlement agreement involving her husband’s law firm.

“[D]efendant 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 [Girardi Keese] to the Defendants [Erika Girardi],” Ronald N. Richards, special litigation counsel, wrote in the motion on Wednesday.

Erika Girardi, known professionally as Erika Jayne, is a member of the cast of the reality television show “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

Richards said in the filing that she collected payments stemming from an agreement in a lottery dispute case in San Bernardino. Instead of collecting attorney fees, the Girardi Keese law firm allowed an ongoing stream of payments from the California Lottery to go to Erika Girardi, Richards wrote.

He said that Erika Girardi received more than $242,658 from the agreement since 2012 and was scheduled to receive $78,000 from 2022 to 2025. According to court documents, the firm’s bankruptcy trustee, Elissa D. Miller of SulmeyerKupetz, holds almost $20,000 in payments that were supposed to have been paid out in 2021.

Miller hired Richards to find assets transferred to Erika Girardi from the law firm. He has subpoenaed Erika Girardi’s landlord, accountant and divorce lawyer.

Creditors forced the Girardi Keese firm and Tom Girardi into bankruptcy following allegations that he stole money from several personal injury clients, including relatives of those who died in a plane crash in Indonesia. His law license has been suspended and federal prosecutors are believed to be investigating the alleged thefts.

Girardi Keese cases have been disbursed to other firms under different fee-sharing agreements to bring in money to pay millions of dollars to creditors.

The filing seeks a judgment declaring that the lottery payments belong to the estate of the defunct law firm. It goes on to say that Tom Girardi conspired with Erika Girardi “to conceal the Transfers and keep these assets away [from] the Debtor’s creditors.”

Meanwhile, Tom Girardi’s personal trustee, Jason M. Rund of Sheridan & Rund PC, can subpoena the disgraced lawyer’s brother, Robert Girardi. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Russell issued the order Thursday after Rund asked to examine whether Robert Girardi has information about potential assets belonging to Tom Girardi’s estate.

Robert Girardi acts as Tom Girardi’s conservator after a doctor told a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge that Tom Girardi has Alzheimer’s disease.