Erika Jayne Investigator to Use ‘Inconsistent Statements’ From ‘RHOBH’ in Case

Ronald Richards, who is investigating Erika Jayne amid Tom Girardi’s bankruptcy case, spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about the ‘RHOBH’ star — read more

Could Erika Jayne’s candidness on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills come back to haunt her? Ronald Richards, who is investigating the reality star amid her estranged husband Tom Girardi’s bankruptcy case, certainly thinks so.

“There’s a lot of inconsistent statements and admissions made by the non-scripted actors that we’re putting together to use in court,” Richards exclusively told Us Weekly, noting that his team is “going to take discovery from people that used to work for her.”

The attorney added that there is no timetable for when the 50-year-old “Pretty Mess” singer — or her former employees and costars — could be called in for questioning.

“There’s a lot of things we’re still trying to uncover,” Richards told Us. “We are going to be deposed at some point but I want to get all the documents first. What’s important right now is following the money.”

When asked whether he’s “seeing a lot of inconsistencies with the story” being told on RHOBH in regards to Erika and Tom’s finances, Richards added, “That’s correct.”

One month after filing for divorce from her 82-year-old spouse in November 2020, Erika and Tom were accused of faking their split to hide assets, a notion that the Bravo star has vehemently denied.

“That lawsuit that says my divorce is a sham so I could hide assets — people want to believe that,” Erika said on the reality series earlier this month. “I mean, I could have never predicted this f—king s—t. This is the end.”

The twosome were also accused of embezzling funds from Tom’s firm Girardi Keese’s clients. Lawyer Jay Edelson, who filed the class action lawsuit against the pair, alleged in June that Erika received “10s of millions of dollars” from Tom’s firm to fund her brand.

“We think that money came from client funds. And we’re going to look into all of that. And that’s all going to be, you know, part of proof that we showed to a jury … and she can say, ‘Oh, she didn’t know anything about it.’ And I think that’s going be hard for her to convince a jury of,” Edelson alleged on the “Reality Life with Kate Casey” podcast on June 16. “She was basically taking client funds and using it to fund her lifestyle. And if we’re successful [in our case], that means that we’re going to be able to get whatever possessions she has back in order to pay off any sort of judgment.”

Richards, meanwhile, claimed to Us that there are $25 million in receivables — “receivables on the firm’s tax return that’s directed to one of her companies, EJ Global” — listed on the firm’s bankruptcy.

“There’s tax returns from 2015 to 2019 actually that says $25 million in receivables … receivables doesn’t necessarily mean money. It could be value,” he explained.

Us Weekly has reached out to Erika’s team regarding Richards’ claims. She previously referred to him as a “clown ass” and “low budget” lawyer via Twitter.

“It is unfortunate that there is no client control, which has resulted in more profane and tone-deaf posts which now are apparently directed at myself and my hardworking team,” Richards said in a statement about Erika’s social media activity eerier this month. “We cannot help but point out the irony that she previously complained about comments made about her. However, now in a transparent attempt to deflect scrutiny from the source of her mass amounts of capital she is spending, she has now resorted to weaponizing her vast platform to hurl low-brow insults and mean tweets. Obviously, we will ignore them as they have no bearing on the work we are doing. We look forward to her attorney’s anticipated cooperation.”

With reporting by Marjorie Hernandez

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Sarah Hearon

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