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7 months ago
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Erika Jayne is meeting her estranged husband Tom Girardi‘s fraud victims for the first time. In the trailer for ABC News Studios and L.A. Times Studio’s new documentary, The Housewife and The Hustler 2: The Reckoning, Erika, 52, has a sit-down conversation with several women who were allegedly defrauded by Tom, 84, in his financial scandals.
“I’m at sort of a loss for what to say,” Erika says to the table of women, as one of them responds, “Did you see the documentary?” That woman is referring to the 2021 doc The Housewife and the Hustler, which explored Erika and Tom’s legal troubles.
One of the alleged victims asks Erika why it took her “so long” to meet with them. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star replies, “I was never asked to do this. Nobody was really interested in my side of the story.”
The Housewife and The Hustler 2: The Reckoning releases on February 12 on Hulu. The documentary will continue the “shocking investigation into ex-powerhouse attorney Tom Girardi and the fall of his legal empire,” according to a press release obtained by PEOPLE.
Tom’s legal troubles began in Dec. 2020, just one month after Erika filed for divorce from him. A class action lawsuit was filed against him by Edelson PC for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars from his clients, mostly the grieving family members of victims of the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash, which killed all 189 passengers and crew members on board. The company claimed millions of dollars were transferred to Tom’s law firm, Girardi Keese, but the victims saw nothing. In Jan. 2021, Tom’s health reportedly declined, and his brother Robert asked to be named his conservator. The conservatorship was finalized in July 2021, according to Page Six. Erika was originally named in the fraud and embezzlement lawsuit against Tom and his company but was dismissed on Jan. 29, 2022.
On February 1, 2023, Tom was indicted for defrauding his clients of $18 million. Tom, his son-in-law, attorney David Lira, and the former chief financial officer for his firm, Christopher Kamon, were charged with eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of contempt of court in Chicago, according to The Los Angeles Times. In Los Angeles, Tom was charged with wire fraud. On January 2, 2024, a Los Angeles federal judge found Tom competent to stand trial after he was reportedly diagnosed with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Tom has reportedly moved into a senior living facility amidst his legal troubles and health issues.
Erika and Tom’s financial troubles were aired out during seasons 11 and 12 of RHOBH. While Tom has to go to trial for his alleged crimes, Erika has not been officially charged in the scandals and has enjoyed several legal wins. Before RHOBH season 13 premiered in October, Erika told US Weekly that her divorce from Tom is still in process. I still have legal things that are tying up, and they will take time because that’s the legal process,” she said. “But I want to move on. Every time someone asks me about Tom Girardi or something like this, you realize you’re cutting open a healing wound and you’re stabbing around in it, and that hurts.”
