Girardi’s wife must turn over $750K diamond earrings, bankruptcy judge says

A Los Angeles bankruptcy judge said reality TV star Erika Girardi must surrender a pair of $750,000 diamond earrings her estranged husband and suspended attorney Thomas V. Girardi bought with money allegedly stolen from a client trust account.

Tom Girardi, once one of the most well-known plaintiffs' lawyers in the nation, is accused of stealing millions of dollars from personal injury clients. Creditors forced him and his law firm, Girardi Keese, into bankruptcy last year.

Elissa D. Miller of SulmeyerKupetz, acting as the trustee for the Girardi Keese estate, filed a motion last week asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Russell to order Erika Girardi to turn over the earrings, now estimated to be worth $1.4 million.

"Ms. Girardi shall, within 5 days of entry of this order ... deliver to the trustee the earrings for safekeeping and preservation, and the trustee shall hold the earrings in trust pending a final, non-appealable order from this court regarding the rights of the parties to the earrings," Russell said in an order signed Wednesday.

According to Miller, Tom Girardi in 2007 issued a check for $750,000 to an M&M Jewelers drawn from a client account held by Girardi Keese. At the time, the law firm was holding settlement funds for clients suing a pharmaceutical company over alleged liver damage caused by the diabetes drug Rezulin.

"Not only did Girardi steal money from the GK client trust account to buy the diamond earrings, he covered up the theft by describing the purpose of the check as a 'cost' of litigation incurred by the firm in the prosecution of the 'Rezulin,' mass tort, complex litigation cases in which GK functioned as 'lead counsel,'" Miller wrote.

Responding in an opposition motion less than 24 hours after Miller demanded the earrings, Erika Girardi's attorney Evan Borges of Greenberg Gross LLP, said the star of the Bravo TV series, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," had "innocently received a gift of earrings," and was willing to "hold and not transfer or sell the earrings."

Borges went on to argue that among other things, Miller's claim in 2022 to earrings bought by GK 15 years ago in 2007 is time barred by statutes of limitation as well as statutes of repose.

After meeting to discuss the matter, Miller and Borges agreed Erika Girardi would surrender the earrings to Miller to be held in a safety deposit box with a national banking institution. Miller will be allowed to obtain an official appraisal for the earrings while they are in her possession. During this time, Erika Girardi will be allowed to conduct discovery related to the "earrings motion."

The trustee handling Tom Girardi's personal bankruptcy - Jason M. Rund of Sheridan & Rund PC - has also asserted an interest in the earrings.

A hearing on the "earrings motion" is scheduled for May 17. In re: Girardi Keese, 20-BK21022 (C.D. Bankruptcy Ct., filed Dec. 18, 2020).