A number of people have filed suit against Erika Jayne of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fame as of late, in connection to the supposed embezzlement schemes of her husband Tom Girardi and his work at the Girardi & Keese law firm. There’s the $2.1 million civil suit coming from the mother of late NFL player Chuck Osborne. There’s the $5 million suit from lawyers who allegedly didn’t receive consultation fees – not to mention, the whopping reported $50 million racketeering case. The reality star is continually being named in these legal matters because it’s believed that she knew what her now-ex-partner was up to and was possibly aiding and abetting him as well. Well, now, even Nicolas Cage’s ex is now part of that list, as she is suing Jayne for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Christina Fulton dated the Mandy actor for only a few years in the late 1980s, but they still share a son together from that time. Presently, the ex-model is suing two attorneys and Erika Jayne over the car accident settlement funds that she reportedly never received, per court documents filed on July 14 that were obtained by Page Six. Apparently, due to the injuries she sustained from the accident, Fulton was supposed to receive $924,300 from the settlement negotiated by Girardi & Keese’s Samantha Gold and John Kelley Courtney in 2019. However, she stipulates in the suit that she has yet to receive exactly $744,300.
As Nic Cage’s former flame tells it in the court filings, she received small payments over time, which she says were a way for Tom Girardi to “dupe his clients” into believing that they’d be paid in full eventually. However, Christina Fulton supposedly learned of certain financial documents that demonstrate the illegality of the matter, to include her settlement check being immediately deposited into a Girardi & Keese bank account. According to her, this occurred without her consent. The suit states:
This was a complete outright forgery as [Fulton] never endorsed this check and certainly never agreed to have it deposited. This negotiated check was in fact a forgery and a lie. The check was never held in trust but spent. It is beyond shocking and the pale that the firm would conceal the arrival of the check and not obtain Ms. Fulton’s endorsement as required by law.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum is attached to the case because there’s an alleged money trail that shows how the huge sum in question was funneled to her own EJ Global and Pretty Mess Inc. companies. Erika Jayne then supposedly “used the money to pay off her expenses.” Furthermore, the docs claim that she was the only one to withdraw funds from the firm, but ultimately, that she and Tom Girardi treated the money as personal assets in order to “pay for their lavish lifestyle.” Fulton’s attorney, Ronald Richards, said in a statement to the outlet:
Erika profited off of these funds, which [were] used to provide content for the ‘Housewives’ show to which she was paid for. She directly received vendor payments from these funds and personally benefited from the misappropriation of our client’s settlement.
In response, Erika Jayne’s attorney, Evan C. Borges, reiterated the 50-year-old’s innocence to Page Six. They maintain that the TV personality had “no role” in the business dealings of her ex, who has since been disbarred from practicing law and now lives in an assisted care facility due to a reported dementia diagnosis. According to Borges, Jayne simply believed that her former husband was “extremely wealthy” and had a “financially successful law firm.” He continued:
It’s a distraction tactic and specious for lawyers representing former [Girardi & Keese] clients to use Erika’s lifestyle and persona on a ‘Housewives’ show as an excuse to sue her. The focus should be on Tom Girardi and, where supported by evidence, the lawyers, accountants, and financiers who enabled his misconduct and wrongdoing.
Season 12 of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills -- on which Erika Jayne was thought to go "full super-villian" -- has been airing amidst the ongoing legal turmoil. So far on the show, Erika Jayne has maintained her innocence and even proclaimed to her castmates that the allegations against her had seemingly been “disproven.” But now, it seems that her legal troubles have proven to be far from over. Check out the latest episodes of the reality series on Wednesday nights on Bravo or with a Peacock Premium subscription.
