Attorney Jay Edelson, one of many many who’ve taken authorized motion in opposition to Thomas Girardi and his estranged spouse, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, appeared on a podcast the place he defined the current indictments in opposition to Thomas and commented on the grim outlook indicated by the IRS’ investigation into Erika funds.
While additionally suggesting that extra indictments might be coming, the legal professional shared what he believes may finally tie Erika to Thomas’ crimes in opposition to his former purchasers.
“There are two sets of indictments that have happened,” Jay defined on an episode of Reality Life With Kate Casey, stating that the main target is on the Lion Air settlement fraud in Chicago whereas prosecutors in Los Angeles are specializing in the “criminal enterprise” often known as Girardi Keese.
At the time of Thomas’ indictments final month, his regulation agency’s former chief monetary officer (CFO), Christopher Kamon, was additionally indicted, as was his son-in-law, David Lira, who beforehand labored on the agency.
“I think he’s in big trouble,” Jay suspected, including {that a} third set of prosecutors are additionally concerned.
“We’re expecting that there are going to be a lot of other indictments, lawyers, and other people associated with the Girardi crime family,” he mentioned.
According to Jay, the indictments took longer than a typical civil case as a result of they had been a felony matter.
“You really have to have all the evidence when you file, you have to be able to prove your case… I think they want to make sure that they had a really tight case,” he shared.
Jay additionally suspects prosecutors could have been hoping that these concerned within the instances would activate each other.
“I suspect that a lot of the people that they’ve been targeting … Question is whether they would start flipping on others in the crime syndicate. And that process takes some time as well,” he continued, giving a nod to Keith Griffin, a former Girardi Keese legal professional, who has not but been indicted.
“If there is one person who’s going to rat everybody out, it is Keith Griffin,” he revealed.
While Jay is blissful to see individuals lastly being “criminally prosecuted,” he acknowledges that loads of work will should be finished to seek out out whether or not or not Thomas is competent sufficient to face trial. As RHOBH followers effectively know, Thomas was recognized with Alzheimer’s in early 2021 and has been beneath a conservatorship ever since.
“We think that he is faking it. If you saw, like, the pictures that were taken of him going into court, you know, he looked like a 140-year-old man. What I heard from others who saw him when the cameras weren’t rolling, he was very spry and had some pep in his step,” Jay alleged. “I haven’t seen his medical information. But you already know, my view is he’s a liar.
“There’s no question that he was competent as he was carrying out the Ponzi scheme,” he went on.
As for Erika’s IRS drama, which options million in late again taxes, Jay mentioned it’s “very bad news for Erika Jayne” that their felony division is investigating.
“I think that her criminal exposure really comes from the IRS,” he reasoned. “So she signed these joint tax returns. And you know, one thing, which is not intuitive to most people, is that if you actually steal money, you’ve got to report that as income. And if you don’t, you get into trouble, even criminally, with the IRS.”
“That’s where I think she actually could have a ton of liability. Tom was stealing 10s of millions of dollars. I’m sure he wasn’t reporting as income, she signed off on that,” he famous.
While Jay admitted that he is not sure of how a lot Erika knew in regard to Thomas’ misdeeds, he mentioned he believes he’ll be capable to show she benefited from his crimes, describing the RHOBH forged member because the frontwoman of Thomas’ scheme.
“Even when he signed up the Lion Air clients, a part of the presentation was Tom’s married to Erika Jayne, and she’s this rich celebrity and that shows how successful he [was],” he revealed. “These are people in Indonesia, and what you’re saying is, this is an incredibly successful attorney. And they’re very powerful and influential. And I think it did have some effect.”
Also, through the podcast, Jay mentioned that in relation to Erika’s function on RHOBH, he doesn’t really feel it has labored in her favor.
“The number of things that she said on the show had been so bad for her. And we’re definitely going to use that, as we’re prosecuting our civil claims. And we’re going to be able to show that she was lying to the public,” he declared. “She has a truth problem. She lies all the time. And she lied about some key things, including about the financial condition of Girardi Keese and her family, when she knew that they were out of money.”
Jay then famous that Erika’s feedback about her instances, together with her suggestion of being “vindicated” and instances in opposition to her being dismissed, had been “so random.”
“I can’t tell if she’s lying about them, or if she truly just isn’t getting good advice from her attorney,” he defined. “[The cases] weren’t dismissed. They’re refiled just in a different jurisdiction.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 is at present in manufacturing.
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