A Chicago law firm asked a federal judge Friday to order a “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star to stop selling designer clothing amid an effort to recover $2 million in missing money owed to people who lost loved ones in the Lion Air Flight 610 crash.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin froze the assets of Erika Jayne’s estranged husband, Thomas Girardi, as well as Girardi’s law firm, on Monday. He also held Girardi and the firm in civil contempt over the missing money. Durkin told Girardi the “simple way to cure all of this” is to pay at least four clients who are each owed a half-million dollars.
But Girardi’s lawyer has said he is not able to pay the money, which stemmed from legal settlements with Boeing over the 2018 Lion Air crash.
On Friday, the law firm Edelson PC asked Durkin to enforce the contempt order against Erika Jayne, also known as Erika Girardi, noting that she promoted designer clothing for sale on Twitter two days after Durkin froze Thomas Girardi’s assets.
Edelson said a link in the tweet directed users to the French company Vestiaire Collective, where Jayne has allegedly offered to sell tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of designer clothing from Chanel, Versace, Gucci, Armani and others.
“While Edelson is unaware of the exact relationship between Vestiaire Collective and Erika Girardi, Erika Girardi may be attempting to move Tom Girardi’s assets outside the United State by selling them through a French company,” lawyer Jay Edelson wrote.
Durkin earlier this week referred the controversy to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago after Tom Girardi in a telephone hearing could not explain what happened to his clients’ $2 million. Following that referral, federal prosecutors asked Durkin to give them and other law enforcement personnel access to sealed filings in the case, a request he has granted.
“These are widows and orphans,” Durkin said earlier this week. “Half a million dollars for any one of these families is a significant amount of money. Life changing, given the tragedy they went through.”
