Pop singer and “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erica Girardi quietly ended a long and showy legal battle over her ex-husband’s now-defunct law firm, settling a $25 million bankruptcy lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court on Thursday.
The lawsuit alleges that the singer should have known that she was profiting from the embezzlement of funds related to the extensive case against her ex-husband, former L.A. legal heavyweight Tom Girardi and his firm Girardi Keyes. The couple was accused of raising millions from the law firm to further Erica’s music career.
Performing as Erika Jayne, she topped the charts in the 2010s with a series of raunchy dance club hits. But court records show he spent millions more than he earned as a musician.
Larry W. Gabriel, the plaintiff’s attorney in the case, wrote in a pre-trial filing Monday that Erica and a company associated with her “benefited from (Tom) Girardi’s massive fraudulent scheme.”
Tom Girardi currently serving seven years imprisonment In federal prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to wire fraud for billing his personal-injury clients. The disgraced former lawyer was found guilty of stealing millions from his firm.
His wife’s pop hits boasted about luxury brands and explicit sexual acts with pulsating dance beats and a brutal falsetto, a tone actress Lake Bell famously dubbed “Sexy baby voice.”
In testimony taken as part of the trial, Erica said that she had no knowledge of her husband’s crimes. She claimed that she was unaware of where the millions she spent on recordings, merchandise, tours and “fun, playful and flashy costumes” came from.
“I didn’t know how much I spent per month or per year,” she said in one conversation. “Girardi Keyes pays my Amex credit card bill every month.”
Monday’s filing shows Girardi Keyes wired at least $14 million into his American Express account between 2008 and 2020.
The payments began in the late 2000s when Erica, who was a stay-at-home mom at the time, tried to relaunch herself as an artist. In 2016, near the peak of her pop fame, her husband began complaining that she was charging too much on the credit card account. After repeated urges to reduce his spending, Girardi tried to look at his balance for the first time.
Shortly thereafter, Girardi became suspicious of charges placed on his card by a Hollywood costumer – records show that he reported this to one of Girardi Keyes’ clients, an agent in the Secret Service.
On the advice of the agent’s Secret Service colleagues, she said she disputed the AEX charges and ultimately had more than half a million dollars refunded to her personal account, despite the original payment coming from the law firm.
Erica Girardi’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
