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RHOBH star Erika Jayne suffers a major loss in court over the battle for her infamous diamond earrings! Find out all the details of the judge’s latest ruling.
Erika Jayne WILL NOT be seeing any money from the sale of her infamous $750,000 diamond earrings. The RHOBH star’s now-estranged husband, Tom Girardi, purchased the earrings for her in 2007 with funds allegedly belonging to clients of his now-defunct law firm, Girardi Keese.
While the 53-year-old turned the earrings over to a trustee in charge of Tom’s bankruptcy case, she later filed an appeal against the ruling ordering her to do so. A judge now has ruled that Erika Jayne’s 85-year-old estranged husband used commingled funds to purchase the earrings, making them the property of his bankruptcy estate.
“Today’s the big day,” attorney Ronald Richards wrote in a message shared on Twitter on September 24. “This hearing will determine if the Trustee has shown the funds used to purchase the diamond earrings were estate property and if so, then Erika cannot recover the earrings or any damages.”
In a second post, Richards revealed that Larry Gabriel was representing the trustee while Evan Borges was representing the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star.
“Judges starts off by saying the ‘famous earrings,’” he continued. Richards noted that the judge overruled evidentiary objections. The judge also refused to allow certain testimony from the trustee’s expert.
After reviewing the paperwork and evidence attached to the case, the judge assumed the earrings were the property of the estate but acknowledged the confusion surrounding the diamond earrings.
Richards pointed out that even if the judge ruled in Erika Jayne’s favor, it wouldn’t mean that she was the rightful owner of the earrings. Instead, the ruling would indicate that the diamond earrings sold at auction in December 2022 did not belong to the estate.
“He says there was commingling and Erika presented no evidence showing there was no commingling. He also pointed out the new evidence presented in the [trustee’s brief] further [supported] there was commingling … Fees were still owed so there was still commingling,” Richards explained.
Then, in another update, Richards seemed certain that the Bravo star would lose her appeal.
“Erika’s attorney is trying to take one stab at this: He says the problem with the evidence is that it is ‘ancient’ and ‘unreliable.’ He is saying nobody knows. However, the judge says Girardi was owed fees, and they were in the account, so there was commingling,” he shared.
Erika’s attorney argued that if $65 million came into Tom’s Girardi Keese law firm, they were entitled to $20 million. However, the judge stood firm in their ruling.
“The [$750,000] was commingled, period. Girardi’s fees were still left in the account,” Richards continued. “The judge said the issue is not whether it was a theft, the issue is whether the trust account was commingled, the court then says, ‘Don’t you lose?’ It was to cover up a theft. The earrings were not a court cost and the purchase was a fraud. It was not for court costs but for earrings. The only issue is whether the funds were commingled. Erika is going to lose this motion, period.”
After the ruling was announced, Richards shared a final update, confirming that the judge determined that the funds used to purchase the diamond earrings were commingled and thus they were property of the estate.
“Even Erika’s attorney concedes that is a reasonable inference,” Richards shared.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is expected to return for season 14 in late 2024 or early 2025.
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