Original subtitles

Erica Jane, I have seen on this show, and I also worked with her on Watch What

Happens Live one or two times.

Didn't get the best vibe from her, but I know a lot of fake people, and it turns

out she's just one of them.

We are back with the Real Housewives star accused with her husband of staging

fake divorce to hide money from the families of plane crash victims.

Thomas Girardi is accused of embezzlement. A federal lawsuit says he

from a settlement fund to maintain their wealthy public image.

It had all the elements.

Hollywood, L .A., huge cases, along with a Real Housewife.

It was like a movie.

Tom Girardi, what?

L .A. law. A superstar.

Legendary for winning millions of dollars in settlement.

Tom is being accused by his own clients, people that hired him, that trusted

him, from stealing money.

That's the worst thing a lawyer can do.

He had private jets. He had a Pasadena mansion.

He was spending $40 ,000 a month on Erica and her glam squad.

They were just blowing money left and right. Tons of money.

He would make jokes like, well, nobody will be more expensive than Erica.

And then out came her song, I'm Expensive.

Like,

yeah, big surprise.

She said, I have two personalities.

I'm Mrs. Girardi and I'm Erica Jane.

It's built on I am the third wife. I have the money. I spend the money.

This man's going to give me the money because I'm that fantastic.

And that's that.

That bothered me a little bit, seeing them live this extravagant lifestyle.

it often made me wonder, like, I wonder if some of that money's mine.

Out of the $135 ,000 settlement, I haven't received anything.

Not a penny.

This is Tom Girardi. Don't be mad at me.

It's not my fault.

Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give in the matter not

pending will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do. So Tom Girardi owes you $12 ,800.

Yes.

Yes. At one point, I had...

It's like, wow, like, broke?

Like, broke broke?

You know, like, but not the client's money, right?

I think the biggest question that everybody had is, did she know?

Any of the lawsuits, like, did you have a heads up? Is that why you got

divorced?

No, I did not.

He was taking money, in some cases, it's being alleged, and investing it into

Erica's business, into her career. And the allegations are that that money was

coming from clients.

People love a good scandal.

I had to be a double agent for my friend.

I always try to tell people, never underestimate the love of a mother.

You want to find something out, I mean, don't call the FBI, call a mom.

Girardi said we're his favorite clients, and I definitely never wanted to be his

favorite client.

But I definitely want to be the client he'll never forget.

I don't think he thought, yeah.

Could you imagine living your life without this kind of well?

Yeah, I could. I wouldn't want to, but I can.

Sure. I could do it.

Yeah. What would that look like?

Small -er.

I don't know. I don't know. You know, less clothes.

You would hate it.

I wouldn't. I don't look forward to that now.

You don't have to look forward to it. No, I would not look forward to

like that now.

I reached out to her right in the beginning. I was like, will you please

my podcast?

Made it clear it was not being filmed, but she arrived with the hair guy, a

wardrobe person, and I think a makeup person.

And I remember thinking that, wow, that's a $2 ,000 day to come do my audio

-only podcast.

Jesus, Marco.

She wasn't afraid of her body, her sensuality.

There's your girl.

There she is. And I liked that even though she really can't hold a tune, she

sang.

And she entertained.

She was entertaining.

I think what intrigued people on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

was that they seemed to be this incredible power couple.

She's hot and beautiful and confident. And then Tom Girardi is this rock star

attorney who fights for the little guy, makes hundreds of millions of dollars.

Tom Girardi was L .A. law.

He is Mr. Lawyer. A superstar.

An icon.

A badass trial lawyer.

We're just talking about the money that we're really going to get. About $15

million.

If you had a case that had the potential to resolve itself or be resolved for

millions and millions of dollars, his was the kind of firm that you wanted to

to. He didn't just represent L .A.'s elite. He represented a lot of average

folks, too.

When I became a lawyer over 30 years ago, I knew Tom Girardi was from day

And then, of course, the case came along, which a lot

of people refer to as the Brockovich case, where he sued PG &E. PG &E has

requested that we submit to binding arbitration.

What's that?

Tom Girardi was depicted in the Aaron Brockovich movie, but in real life, he's

the actual attorney who closed the deal that at the time was the largest

settlement of its kind.

Good evening and welcome to Primetime. This is a story you have never heard

before, a story about family and neighbors, the country's largest public

and broken trust.

We've represented people against Exxon. We've represented people against Dow.

This is a million times worse.

A million times worse? That's right.

They let these innocent people drink water, which was laced with chromium,

in and day out. It's as bad as it gets.

He was famous for that, and people knew that he was famous for that. But he was

famous before I became a lawyer. He was famous before many people who are

lawyers today were even born.

Erica was born in 1971 to a music teacher in Georgia. Her dad left when

she was only one years old, and she always wanted to be in the entertainment

industry.

When she was 18, she moved to New York to try to get a career going.

She ended up working at a very famous go -go slash strip club.

This is a go -go dancer at Shakers Bar in New Jersey.

Erica and I worked at this same strip club.

Shakers is in Lodi, New Jersey, and it is one of the clubs next to the Bada

Club, which was on the Sopranos.

A lot of girls have been wheeled through there. I was just one of them and one

of many.

She was someone who wanted a different life for herself and then eventually

her way to L .A. and was a waitress and met a very wealthy, much older man that

she connected with.

And, I mean, that's kind of the L .A. dream.

They got married very off the cuff at a country club. As the story goes, Tom

Girardi asked the judge if the judge would officiate over a marriage ceremony

with Erica.

They pulled an attorney from the bar as a witness.

They got married on the spot, and there was no prenup.

Tom. had a law firm, Girardi Key, the pay was good, but the perks were great.

It was just extra.

I don't know.

It was normal to stay at the Ritz -Carlton. The Christmas party was at the

Johnson Club.

Every year you have someone like Leanne Rimes come and sing Christmas carols to

your 300 closest friends.

There's an annual conference in Las Vegas.

You would host a dinner, and that was the hottest ticket in town.

There was Jay Leno performing.

Aaron Brockovich was at the table.

I remember one time I was with Tom, and he actually points to a judge across the

room and actually goes like this.

And this judge ran up to him like a puppy dog.

I saw the power that he could wield right then and there. He was the man

people went to who wanted to get appointed to the bench and become

He was the person that people who wanted to run for public office would go and

meet and talk to.

You have some ties to Erica Jane.

That's right. Right. Well, I mean, indirect ties, political ties. Right.

her husband's one of the major donors in California politics.

Wow. And does he give to you? He has been extraordinarily generous. Nice. So

is my favorite real housewife.

So Erica Girardi, after being a housewife for years to Tom Girardi.

goes to Tom Girardi and says, I really want to have a music career and be an

entertainer.

And she asks him, more importantly, to

finance it.

I think he kind of loved that he had this very sexy, young, burgeoning pop

wife. They put a lot of money into making her Erika Jayne.

I mean, the titles of her songs and stuff are now just like, it's expensive,

I give zero Fs and everything.

Nine, not one, zero, zero, zero, die.

Erica says there was no return on investment.

So Tom Girardi was probably going to have her throw in the towel, but then

of a sudden she gets cast on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

I'm an enigma wrapped in a riddle and cash.

She was very good casting.

She was probably the best since me. Being broke sucks and being rich is a

better. They wanted girls that could get in there and entertain but yet hold

their own.

The wealth that we get to see Erica Girardi have on the show is almost

to wrap your brain around. She leveled up the whole housewife game when she got

on Beverly Hills.

I'm going to give you a little tour of the house.

I will take you down to the fun part of the house, which is my closet. Oh, I

love this.

It's excessive.

So come in here.

Oh, my gosh.

It's kind of a mess, but you can come in here. Oh, my gosh. Oh, yeah, it's a

mess. It's a mess. It's a mess, but it's a good one.

It made me think that I probably should have gone to law school. I didn't know

that you could attain.

that much wealth by being a trial attorney.

So this is supposed to be reality, reality television.

But is it really a reality? Are we really seeing what's going on?

Probably not.

And this facade starts crumbling when Erika Jayne filed for divorce in

2020. We now start to learn.

what is really going on there.

There's a huge amount of pressure to maintain the lifestyle on The Real

Housewives of Beverly Hills. Did you know? $25 ,000. If you don't want to

like a loser with a loser event, for example, I might be launching a shoe

and I was going to do a $10 ,000 party, but now that I know it's on TV, I'm

like, uh -oh, I better make it a $100 ,000 party because I don't want to look

like my shoe isn't great.

So then the number goes up.

It's all about keeping up with the Joneses, or in this case, the Leakes, or

Candys, or the Kenyas, or the Teresas, or the Vickys, or the Tamras.

The ladies, ladies I use loosely, they had a tendency to

always, and still do, flaunt well beyond their means.

There's a duality that wealth plays on the show because at one hand it is

aspirational or it feels to be aspirational, but at the other hand you

wealth does not solve really any of these women's problems.

There's a specific category of housewives that fall into this echelon

housewives with legal issues.

Real trouble. The charges she's facing are serious.

Preparing to serve a 15 -month sentence for fraud.

You've got sort of the patron saint of this category is Teresa Giudice, who

famously, you know, committed wire fraud with her husband and went to jail and

the whole entire thing was sort of filmed on the show.

Luann. Hicked a police officer. And Jen Shaw from Utah is accused of running a

telemarketing scheme.

Charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Pleading not

guilty. And what is so interesting is every time one of these women is caught

in some type of legal situation, the first thing that all of us think is, my

God, I hope the cameras are rolling.

What's it like to have cameras in your house all the time? It's really bad. Do

you ever get used to it? No. No, oh my gosh. Nobody gets used to it.

I'm always asking this one for advice. I'm always asking this one, what should

do? How do I handle it? What do I do? And that's, you know, that's the truth.

This is my leader.

How do you like being on camera for Real Housewives?

I prefer to be in a courtroom someplace.

There you go.

I recall watching a couple episodes, and I just shook my head because there was

talk in there about Tom's age.

There was talk in there, I believe, about his sexual prowess at his age.

What was he like in the sack?

My wife turned to it one day some months ago, and he was on the show.

She said, don't you know him?

I decided to give you something to put on your eyes.

I was more than a little bit surprised.

Surprised to see him there.

Here's a painting by Marc Chagall.

Chagall is one of Tom's favorite painters.

Is this it?

And his paintings can go for over a million dollars easily.

Oh, wow. Oh, that's beautiful.

Probably most appalling was the talk about the fact that they had two

We have two airplanes in the family, so, you know, the little one is more

regional and the larger one is cross -country in Europe.

And that's...

I think crossing the line in what we do, we represent people who are victimized

by big corporations and rich people.

And here you're putting that out that you're super wealthy and that you're

basically the man.

We sue the man. You don't want to be the man. And he's showing people that he's

the man.

When your money comes from people who had cancer and burns and had great

suffering, you know, there's a little bit amount of decorum that you think

want to have in the way you display the wealth.

There's plenty of lawyers that have private jets and beautiful homes, but

there's one way to do it and one way that's basically like a middle finger to

people.

My name is Joe Regomez, and I'm a survivor.

So the first time I met Tom Girardi, I had just woken up out of my coma.

To be honest, there's not a lot I remember about meeting him.

I have, like, a vague memory of just, like, some guy in my room, like, you

I'm going to do a good job for you, kiddo. And he made you feel like you

trust him and that he's that guy.

Good morning, America. Thursday, September 9th. We're going to start with

going on in the western areas.

So, September 9th, 2010 felt

like the longest day of my life.

Everything we did that day, like, kind of was a matter of life or death.

My son and his girlfriend, Jessica Morales, were going to sit on the couch

watch the game.

We go at the goal line.

It's going to be opening day of the NFL season that day.

My living room is probably right about here.

And then out of nowhere, the ground just starts rapidly shaking.

And it sounds like there's a jet engine right out front.

That went on for about three seconds and then just boom.

Breaking news tonight, San Bruno, California. A towering fire is just

out of control.

Police say a gas line erupted into a massive fireball. Fire just came flowing

through the house.

I couldn't see anything. I was surrounded by flame.

Managed to find the door to my backyard.

And I remember as I was opening up that door, for a split second, I just

remember having my life flash in front of me and just thinking like, all right,

this is it.

100 % certainty I'm dying. A scene of total devastation, home after home

leveled.

I just remember them putting, like, an oxygen mask on my face, and then within

five seconds I was out.

I can remember that day like it was yesterday.

I was watching Thursday Night Football.

And I received a phone call, went to the hospital, and that's where my

interactions with Joe began.

He had burns over 80%, 90 % of his body. It was a little bit more than, oh, my

God. It was more like, holy.

They're like, you've got to get out of here. They looked like they were really

working on him. Joe was like inside an oven.

Not only was the external part of his skin burned, but the air he was

It was burning his lungs.

After we ended up leaving the hospital, me and my husband and his sister went

back over to our old neighborhood.

We could just see it was just devastated.

And was, like, wondering about, you know, where's Jessica? And, like, went

around. People need to look for her, find her.

And, yeah,

they ended up finding her a couple days later, I guess, in our neighbor's shed.

She must have died in the shed. So, yeah, that was

devastating.

One of the last words we said to each other was, I love you. So just, you

My first instinct was to get my car and just go there. When I got there, Kathy

was literally, you know, white as a ghost.

She came up, and thank God she did, and just handled so much so I could just

keep going to the hospital.

So Kathy Bergomez is my childhood best friend, and we met when we were three

years old.

We were in the same preschool, and we lived on the same street.

When we were around 11 years old, there was this trend of doing this blood

sister ritual.

Luckily, I still have my copy.

We just decided we were going to be bonded forever.

We were pregnant.

at the same time with Joseph and Paul.

It's been 48 years of friendship, and I can say that we've never said an unkind

word to each other.

We were getting bombarded with people at the hospital. Everybody was wanting to

be our lawyer.

I knew we needed to get a lawyer because I knew Joe was going to need a lot of

assistance in the future.

Kathy and her husband at the time wanted to meet with Tom Girardi. And because I

had worked with Mazarin Vitido, I called them and asked them if they would set

up a meeting.

At the time of the explosion, Kim was working as a legal consultant. And that

was so crucial for Kathy because...

The average person doesn't know how to navigate this kind of situation.

Who do you find?

What kind of lawyer do you need?

Where do you go? Who do you call?

Kim had all of those answers.

We went and met with him in this big high -rise office on Montgomery Street

downtown San Francisco. And that was the first time I had met Tom in person.

Tom Girardi, you know, let me know that everything was going to be okay.

No one had said that to me yet, and it just was comforting.

I call Tom a chameleon of words, meaning that he always knows what to say to a

person. We walk in, he's calculating by what we wear, what we say, how we hold

our posture.

We thought he could win it for us. We were confident about that. We just

know how much of a snake he was going to be along the way.

When Kathy and her family picked Tom, it felt like such a big relief off of our

shoulders, you know? Like, it's Girardi Keys.

Like, they're going to kick their ass. Like, we don't have to worry about any

the legal stuff anymore.

This is what he handed me when...

When I met him, he gave me a resume with all his credentials.

And then magazines with post -its on every page that he's mentioned.

When you're going up against PG &E, they're a shark. You're not going to

the guppy to the shark fight. You know, the fact that Tom had taken on PG &E

twice.

and beat them, not only is the track record with the defendant matter, but

the fact that when you're a mom on a mission, you want your lawyer to hate

bad guy as much as you do.

Really, he took me under his wing.

He'd answer any question I had about the legal profession.

And he was a master of it. And so I feel like I got this informal internship.

How crazy is that, knowing what I know now?

So once I actually got to know Tom a little bit, he would take me out to

He was not a very big guy physically.

He was probably like...

5 '5", maybe at the tallest.

But he just exuded confidence and charm. He was always talking about Erica.

Oh, she's the sweetest thing. Look, you like this tie I'm wearing, Joe? She

picked it out. Yeah, she's really good at style.

And, oh, look at this music video that I did for her.

He's fought these big battles before and has gotten large settlements.

So I'm like, this seems like the perfect guy for the job.

They found out it was a faulty pipe.

Basically, it was negligence on their part.

He never really gave us details about what he was doing in the case, but I

thought he was really, really great.

He just seemed like he was trying to be very friendly and letting us know that

he was there for us, gave us his cell phone, home phone.

We had went to mediation, and he, you know, made it sound like we were going

go to trial.

And when we walked in, he was like, I settled your case. You know, it was

like... Oh, okay, you did?

You know, it didn't feel like they really had a grasp on what happened that

And I knew part of it is you're stunned in a situation like that, and you're

just not absorbing it.

They were just throwing numbers out, like, you know, he could get this much a

month, he's going to, you know, have payments throughout his life.

The number of the settlement that Tom got, yeah, I was okay with that number.

Yeah, to put it simply, yeah, it was a...

Yeah, it was a good amount. It was a good amount, and it made me feel

comfortable. So it made me feel like it would be able to cover any issues in

life, and then some.

After a trial, or it can be just a settlement, your money goes into your

account.

Those funds need to be held in that trust account, separate and apart from

law firm.

Now, at that point in time, you're entitled to your legal fees, but the

the money belongs to the client.

You're not allowed to touch that money. It's not your money.

To remove those funds for any reason before it's clear that there's a proper

accounting of what the client should get, that is probably one of the most

serious offenses by attorneys, certainly in California, and I would think

nationwide. Every single lawyer knows that if you dip into the client's

you will be disbarred.

So he said it would take about three months to process getting the money from

&E and then ask if we'd like to keep my daughter's money and our money and then

my son's big settlement in something that he'd invested in. He suggested that

would take their millions of dollars of settlement funds and put that money into

some kind of an account that would guarantee 6 % interest.

And he's supposedly a millionaire. I thought he knew how to deal with money,

obviously. He was, you know, so he made it sound like it was a great thing to

do. And then after everything was paid, he would send us, you know, our balance.

So we were like, okay, you know, that sounds good. And so that's what we did.

So in the very beginning, after it settled in 2013, I mean, it didn't feel

things made sense right away.

The amounts of the investment he claimed were not accurate.

He never sent any statements of any kind.

I mean, it was as simple as me noticing like, OK, I'm expected to get a payment

this day and I didn't get it.

So I would call him and, you know, he was hard to get a hold of. He'd be like,

oh, yeah, sorry about that. These things happen.

I'll get it to you next week.

And half the time, the check would come when he'd say so.

the second time, and other times it wouldn't.

That was the three months after we settled.

That was the first time we were supposed to meet with him where he was supposed

to bring our money.

That's when he met with us and then basically offered us the investment

I want to do as good as I can for you. I'm in your corner.

I've never believed in a case more and I've never liked a family more than you

guys. I mean that.

Okay. I'll try and reach you over the weekend.

When I hear the voicemails, it makes me sick to my stomach because I know that

it was just all a lie.

Me and Kathy were on the phone every day for hours trying to sort things out,

viciously Googling things. And she's asking me my point of view with my

perspective, you know, my experience in the legal profession.

And we're trying to figure it out. You know, I would be coming home from

wherever and my mom would be like buried in paperwork or talking to Kim on the

phone and she had connects on the inside.

There were times that we were pretty scared because we didn't know what

this would really do.

Ms. Hernandez, is Tom Girardi. I know you're so frustrated and mad and

everything, and I don't blame you. I am too.

My name is Josie Hernandez, and I am a former client of Tom

Girardi.

In 2010, I seeked out a doctor. I have three kids.

And as most women do when they have kids, they have incontinent issues. So I

talked to my doctor about it. He said, oh, we have this sling.

It's so super safe.

Implant it. You'll be good.

Did the procedure.

Didn't work.

Started feeling sick.

I went back to the doctor. He says, okay, let's put in another one.

And things just got worse.

So a friend said, you know what, I know somebody who can help you.

He's going to fight for you.

So I went to the Girardi Keys firm. I signed up with them in 2014.

During the time that I was with that firm, my case changed hands various

times, which I thought was strange.

I thought, okay, why are these attorneys leaving?

It was just a big turnover. That was very stressful.

By 2019, I was getting really like, okay, no, I'm done. I'm done waiting.

guys have had more than enough time. What is going on?

And I said, you know what, I need you to tell Mr. Girardi that I need to know

what's going on with my case.

I just can't imagine being a victim and watching

any episode of The Real Housewives and watching Erica Jane

go through her extensive shoe collection, her closet, her home.

her private plane, going on trips and flaunting all of this

wealth without wondering where it came from.

Joe Ragomez checking in, 10 .30.

Joe, come on in, bud. Dr. Cole.

What's up, man?

Have a seat.

In terms of how you feel today, what's going on today?

I got restrictions underneath my arm. Like when I lift up, I still got the

of motion, but it's just super restrictive and painful.

I've had over 30 surgeries.

Just as of today, I have like five or six that are on the back burner that I

need to get done.

And it's just going to be a continued process for the rest of my life,

unfortunately. A skin graft in a skin grafted area is probably not your best

answer.

Also, I'm in quite a lot of fear.

I'm going to need a lot of money for the medical life that I have ahead.

Whenever I would complain to him about, you know, hey, Tom, you said you were

going to pay me on this day and it's been three weeks.

What's going on?

He would call me back and be like, oh, are you mad at me?

He would butter me up.

You know what, Joe?

You're a bitching guy. That's something he would say a lot.

You're a bitching guy, baby.

When I'd ask him for money, he would reference this guy called Justice

Edward Pinelli is a former California Supreme Court justice.

He retired and became a private judge.

He was the mediator between the Rua Gomez family and PG &E.

a lot of money to a young person. He's seen so many of them go bad, and he's

such a wonderful, sweet man, and he was so taken by this case and the terrible

things that went on that he's very, very protective.

And it was always, Justice Pinelli said this, Justice Pinelli said that. That

was like his scapegoat guy.

And I'm like, well, some of this stuff is for surgeries, you know? But he would

always reference him and make it sound like, I can't give you... this money or

can't give you this amount because Justice Pinelli said I can't.

Definitely kind of treated me like a child a little bit.

Yeah, he was already over 18 when it happened, so yeah, there's no reason for

that. And the way he makes it sound like Justice Pinelli really cared, Justice

Pinelli really wasn't very interested in us at all, you could tell.

About a year after the settlement, the Ragomes family realizes

that something is going on. They haven't gotten their settlement money, and

they're starting to question this more and more.

And then something terrible happens.

After Paul died, Kathy came down the next day, just like I

went to her house when something terrible happened to her family.

No one could imagine that amount of tragedy.

That kind of detoured us from a lot of it, and now we're just devastated over

her son and dealing with that.

It was that moment, basically, where my son's death gave Tom a free pass to

start all over again with me and Kathy.

Because now my son's dead.

And we don't really want to know the truth.

Because the truth is so ugly at this point.

And now we're dealing with a whole new set of tragic circumstances.

Kathy and I talked about, you know, maybe it's a good idea for me to take it

another attorney so that it doesn't add any more complications because what if,

you know, what we think is true or what if we need to make a demand for Joe's

money? So I went and met with other lawyers, but people didn't want to do my

son's case because they didn't want to step on Tom Girardi's toes.

My back's against the wall, too.

So we pulled the trigger.

and file the lawsuit with Tom as, you know, my attorney.

You know, what choice do we really have?

January 2017 would have been the last time that Tom gave

Joe money.

from the money that he was managing for him.

Got to a point where he just, you know, the checks disappeared completely.

It was pretty conclusive to me in my mind. I'm like, okay, something really

sinister is going on here, and it's making me really nervous.

I'm like, you know, I just bought a house. Like, you know, I might have to

that now because I can't keep up with the mortgage.

Kathy and I would joke, like, because I was like, who are we going to call?

Like, we can't call the DA. That's Tom's friends. We can't go to the chief of

police. That's Tom's friend. You can't go to the California attorney general.

That's Tom's friend. You can't go to the California bar. That's Tom's friend.

Like, who are we going to call? Like, Ghostbusters?

Who's going to help us?

20 or more years ago, you started hearing rumors about him not paying his

-counselor, his referring lawyers.

There were stories about a lot of...

lawsuits that were filed against him. And of course, I think a lot of people

chalk that up to big name, big cases, enemies come out of the woodwork, and

maybe that's what was going on. I plugged Tom Girardi's name into our own

archive. You know, every once in a while, something kind of slipped in

there was a client accusing him of doing something wrong or doing something

unethical or not giving them all of their money.

There were lawsuits.

You know, we knew there were lawsuits referenced on a Watch What Happens Live

on blogs or whatnot.

Vegan in Minnesota said, ask Erica if she feels the need to cut back on her

squad since her husband is being sued for a huge amount of money. We got a lot

of questions about this. Anything you want to say about that?

Yeah, it's a lawsuit and you can't comment on it.

I think when she brushed it off and said, I can't discuss it.

I think people just were like, okay.

It was too complicated for anyone to really want to sink their teeth into and

expose it.

They took her word for it.

You'd hear like, oh, the dryer doesn't have any more money. You just kind of

hear things, talking to people, people gossiping, the rumor mill.

I remember at some point in time a judge telling me, you know, Tom doesn't have

that much money left. I thought, you've got to be kidding me. This is a guy that

we believe is worth a couple hundred million dollars.

He's set for life.

I don't want you mad at me. I'm working like a dog trying to get this thing

resolved.

He sounds like he wouldn't hurt a fly.

Like he's...

Team Josie, like even though he's an attorney for all these important people,

he's Team Josie, you know?

I know it's very frustrating to wait so long for the settlement and then

to be delayed further, but I'm in your corner.

Believe me, we'd like our money just like you'd like yours.

Yeah, he's unbelievably cruel doing that, knowing he already

had my money.

Don't be mad at me. I'm a good guy, by the way.

Goodbye.

I filed a complaint with the bar.

I was also able to get a confirmation.

His firm received my money May 2020.

The messages that he left me was in August.

So he was lying.

He was lying. He had my money already.

You thought you were going to get...

Maybe as much as $100 ,000.

I haven't received anything.

Not a single thing? Not a penny.

Election Day 2020.

I was at home.

And I was, you know, just scrolling the Internet. I think I was getting ready

for work. The news alerts came in so early.

Erica Jane and her divorce from estranged husband, Tom Girardi, amid

ongoing legal troubles.

Erica Jane, from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, filed for divorce from

her husband, Tom.

It was breaking news that Erica had filed for divorce from Tom.

My phone was flooded.

With text from friends.

Everyone was like, something crazy is brewing.

I was not surprised when Erika Jayne announced that she was divorcing Tom

Girardi because there were rumors swirling in Beverly Hills that that was

coming.

Can you elaborate at all on the rumors?

I can't, but I can tell you that it may or may not have had to do with financial

problems.

I definitely had heard some rumbling that...

There were some legal issues, but I had no idea the magnitude.

To put it into complete context, you have to understand that before Erica

for divorce, there were these lenders who were suing Tom very publicly.

He had taken out tens of millions of dollars in loans, and he wasn't paying

back properly.

Why would Tom, who has won hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and

verdicts, need to...

to borrow money. The easiest way for people to basically understand this is

just like any business might go out and secure a loan in order to run or operate

their business, lawyers will do the same thing. But sometimes people do it

because they're in trouble. And apparently, these were the types of

were coming due for Girardi before the divorce.

So after a couple of the lenders had filed lawsuits against Tom, I mean, we

that we had to get out of there. We couldn't wait for Paul's case to be done

anymore. We had, Paul is dead. Joe is still alive.

So we had to pick Joe.

He had to be the priority again because he's the one still here.

You know?

And so me and Kathy scooped up our stuff and left.

And, you know, luckily we found an attorney who could help them and help

He signed an agreement that he would make a million dollar payment. And then

like a couple months later, it was like a two and a half million dollar payment.

But he never got the second payment.

It's very disappointing when you find out your lawyer basically robbed you,

knowing that he knows everything that I've been through. I just don't get it.

So they dragged him back into court, turned this settlement into an actual

judgment that's enforceable, and then they deposed him.

We are on the record to begin the deposition of Thomas Girardi in the

Joseph Rio Gomez et al. versus Thomas Girardi et al.

Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give in the matter not

pending will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

You don't see depositions this alarming.

Do you have any personal data?

No, I don't.

At one point, I had about $80 million

or $50 million in cash.

That's all gone.

It's like, wow, like, broke?

Like, broke broke?

You know, like, but not the client's money, right?

It was like, oh, crap.

He admits it. This is his own word. He had $50 or $80 million, he says, and

you know, there's nothing left.

So the first question that comes to my mind is, where did it go?

Where's the money?

And that admission that he is broke, he has no money, opens up the door to

Erica's finances.

I think there was a period of time where the rumors started to escalate. It was

a very slow, it's almost like a slow car wreck that you're watching occur.

Tom had a very substantial legal history. We saw one case, and then

then another. We saw this flurry of activity that had been going on very

over the last several years.

That was really where we started.

just trying to map out what exactly was happening. It was just very unusual to

have all that happening at once.

In December 2020, a Chicago lawyer filed a lawsuit against Tom

because he hadn't been paid, several of his clients hadn't been paid.

And now this whole thing blows up because now it's public.

The Chicago case was groundbreaking in the sense that it finally brought out in

the public eye to all the media outlets that Tom Girardi potentially was a

fraud. This was the Lion Air crash, the 737 MAX that crashed in Indonesia in

2018. I was involved in that litigation.

I represented families as well who had lost loved ones on that crash.

We were all in the process of working with Boeing to resolve our cases.

Tom Girardi and his firm represented several, specifically widows and

of these plane crash victims.

So on their behalf, he won multimillion -dollar settlements.

The attorney who filed the Chicago case, Che Edelson,

What he said is that, actually, I had been trying for a long time to get the

settlement money for my clients, basically chasing Girardi and his staff

money for months.

I think this was the emperor is not wearing any clothes moment, if you will.

One of the things that really struck me in my interview with Jay Edelson on my

podcast was the thing that made him realize that he had to file the civil

litigation against Tom Girardi. Was Erica Girardi filing for divorce?

When she filed for divorce, we actually huddled up as a firm and said, this is

bad. Tom probably is in really bad financial trouble.

And is it possible, which we did not think could really be true, but is it

possible that he's actually stealing money from clients?

He believed that Tom had stolen tens of millions of dollars from creditors, loan

companies, and victims so that he could fund his lavish lifestyle that he

presented to his colleagues and on the show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

his wife, Erica Girardi.

That's the worst thing a lawyer can do, is steal money from clients. And it's

worse if it's from the families of widows and orphans.

My name is Bias Ramadan.

My mom was one of the victims in the Lion Air crash in Indonesia.

Her name is Aznawati.

This is a tragedy, right?

And then the lawsuit is also emotionally draining.

And this is almost...

I don't like that maybe the lady is not crying.

After the settlement, Tom Girardi got the money. And it was kind of the same

thing that you heard about Kathy Rowe Gomez, where it'll be coming soon, don't

worry.

But, of course, it never showed up.

We wait and we wait. We kept sending email almost every week.

I'm getting chills just thinking about what Tom allegedly did and my sort of

initial reaction.

So that was no way. I initially was like, no way, not Tom. Tom is Erica's,

know, steadfast, quiet, 81 -year -old husband. There's no way he could

be doing this. But then the more that I read, especially about the Lion Air

victims, I was

profoundly...

Judge Thomas Durkin, a former federal prosecutor, was overseeing all of

these cases.

And Judge Durkin not only found Tom Girardi in contempt, he also

froze Tom's bank account and he froze all the bank accounts that Girardi

oversaw.

That immediately paralyzed the firm, paralyzed Tom financially.

Additionally, Judge Durkin referred the case to federal prosecutors, which means

that Tom Girardi could be facing time behind bars.

I was a federal prosecutor.

The last thing you want is a referral to the U .S. attorneys office. As an

attorney, it is doomsday for you.

it means that you are likely going to be investigated.

The Chicago kids, right off the bat, they name Erika Jayne in their lawsuit.

One of the lenders owed money by Tom Girardi claimed in a lawsuit that Tom

given his wife $20 million in loans from Girardi Keys.

And that money went to Erika Jayne's entertainment company, EJ Global LLC.

He was taking money, in some cases, it's being alleged, and investing it into

Erica's business, into her career. And the allegations are that that money was

coming from clients.

But those documents aren't public yet.

So while we've heard about this, and it's been repeated in several other

lawsuits, including Edelson's lawsuit, we haven't seen the proof yet.

I think the biggest question that everybody has is, is she going to be in

trouble? Did she know?

I was pretty shocked and pretty saddened by it. And I felt really bad for the

victims that thought they hit the jackpot with Tom Girardi.

We are the victims here.

Not him, not Tom, not his wife. It's only me and three of my siblings, so

of us. And that's it. We just want to know, can we get our money? And when

we get it?

Whether...

It's my understanding that Tom Girardi is now under a conservatorship with his

brother taking over control of certain aspects of Tom Girardi's life.

His defense attorney suggested that he might have been mentally incompetent.

And that kind of hints at the defense we've seen developing over the course of

the last few months.

There is a psychiatrist in Los Angeles who has diagnosed him with Alzheimer's.

I think the whole Alzheimer's diagnosis will carry some weight on whether he can

be criminally charged or not. I can't comment on whether or not he's

suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's or some form of diminished capacity.

I just think that it's strange that months earlier he was speaking at

public events.

And certainly before the pandemic, I would see him frequently at events. And

didn't have any sense that he was suffering from any kind of diminished

capacity.

At the time that Tom Girardi's firm, Girardi Keys, shuts down, they have

approximately 9 ,000 clients, 900 cases.

What happened to those clients, those cases?

The California State Bar filed charges against Tom Girardi in late March.

That is pretty serious.

That's the beginning of the disciplinary process that's visible to the public.

Day late and a dollar short, right? A day late and a dollar short when the bar

comes and takes somebody's license away after there have been allegations for

years. And maybe that kind of action should have taken place sooner.

If you were to ask me in 2019 who would come out paying whom in

this divorce, I'd probably say that Erica would be getting a lot of money

Tom. But at this point, she's earning more than Tom is, and she probably has

more assets than he does.

So I don't know how she's going to fare in the litigation surrounding Tom. She

could come out on top, or she could get dragged in and end up in a whole lot of

debt.

What do I think of Erica now?

You know, the whole, like, empowerment of having an alter ego, I

thought was cool in the beginning.

But now realizing that not only were they spending the money that came from

tragedy,

But Tom was taking money that didn't belong to him, and they were parading it

around for everyone to see. It's outrageous.

It doesn't look good.

This season on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

With any of the lawsuits, like, did you have a heads up? Is that why you got

divorced?

No, I did not.

I can't believe that Erica puts herself in positions to be asked those

questions, and I most certainly can't believe that she's actually answering

them. No one knows the answer but him.

Tom had a lot of companies.

Girardi Financial is one of them.

He had Erica Girardi on that company.

Erica's name being on one of these businesses, it would definitely raise

questions as to what she knew.

whether she benefited from this, what she's received in that capacity.

I think that the trustees are going to be looking really hard at this, and

they've hired attorneys, they've hired law firms to dig into Erica Girardi

specifically.

I'm dying to know what she did with all her clothes and her jewelry.

On the show, we see these possessions.

Oh, that handbag is worth $4 ,000, and this Cartier ring is worth $170 ,000,

oh, I know that that Chanel thing is a classic, and they could go now. Where is

all this stuff?

Erica Jane's defense is that many of these things were gifts to her and thus

separate property.

I'm not sure that that, as a legal proposition, wins the day.

And I guess we'll see.

Tom and Erica, they're stuck together in these bankruptcy proceedings.

A lot of these debts that they owe in bankruptcy proceedings, they owe

possibly. It's going to be hard for her to say that she didn't know anything was

going on.

It's complicated because under the law, Erica has not been charged with

anything. All of her legal issues are sort of tied around Tom Verratti.

Erica Jane is still on Housewives and still having cameras follow her

around.

Any lawyer is now transcribing every single episode of The Real Housewives,

know, documenting.

all of the wealth, all of the property.

It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

People like to see the demise. They want to see that less glammed -up face.

They want to see her defend herself. They want to see her roll around on a

and cry.

Erica Jane is a very strong woman. I can tell.

And she's a warrior. And she's a bitch. So am I. It's fine to be a bitch. She

knows her mind. She has a lot to say about it. But my advice to her would be,

shut up, sit down, pay attention to what's going on in your case, and don't

worry about TV.

I'm an enigma wrapped in a riddle and cash.

I've never seen that first episode. I don't think anyone's even sent me a clip

of it before.

Going from nothing to everything is pretty amazing.

Being broke sucks and being rich is a lot better.

Oh, wow.

Fun days ahead for Erica.

I need therapy now.

already said you know like we were his favorite clients and I definitely never

wanted to be his favorite client you know but I definitely want to be the

he never forgets because he's not going to do this to anybody else and he should

have never done it to me shouldn't have underestimated me moms are just unsung

heroes of society I mean we know we're the ass kickers we just do it because

We love our kids. I mean, there's nothing a mom wouldn't do for their

The scars tighten over time.

When I look in the mirror, I see someone who's been through a lot.

Surgeries will have to go on for the rest of my life.

I've already accepted it. I treat it like a challenge at this point.

I trust that my will could handle anything that gets thrown my way, so

look in the mirror, I'm actually not bothered at all.

As far as all worried about the scars, should I hide them?

I wear them with pride.