Erika Jayne’s lawyer has spoken out in her defense over claims that The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star refused to hand over a pair of $750,000 diamond earrings gifted to her by Tom Girardi.
The pricey jewelry — purchased back in 2007 and said to now be worth $1.4 million — was given to Erika while she and Tom were still happily married.
Claims have since surfaced that the earrings were bought from M&M Jewelers using client funds, and the trustee in Tom Girardi’s bankruptcy case wants them returned.
Tom allegedly concealed the fact he paid for them using a client trust account by falsely describing them as a “cost”, and listing the payee as simply “M&M”.
However, while going through Tom’s financial records and bank statements, the trustee is said to have noticed the discrepancy.
Erika was asked to turn over the earrings but reportedly initially refused to comply with the request.
Erika Jayne’s attorney says RHOBH star is innocent
Evan Borges, an attorney hired by The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, claims his client is not guilty of anything in relation to the earrings, and knew nothing about how they were paid for.
Page Six obtained a court filing in which he stated, “Erika is completely innocent.”
The document continued, “Not even the trustee alleges that Erika knew the source of funds that her wealthy husband used to buy her a gift of earrings 15 years ago (which replaced a prior set of earrings bought years prior to that).”
However, in a “showing of good faith” Erika has now reportedly agreed to not sell or transfer the earrings pending an investigation and to allow the jewelry to be held in a third-party escrow until a “final order is entered”.
Motion was filed against Erika Jayne to return the $750k diamond earrings
Monsters & Critics reported that a motion was filed against The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star after she reportedly refused to hand over the diamond earrings.
Radar was first to obtain documents that stated, “Erika has no legal or equitable right to the Diamond Earrings and the same are legally and equitably valuable assets of the GK Bankruptcy Estate that the Trustee can and should sell.”
The motion requested that the court force the XXpen$ive singer to turn over the earrings within five days and stop her selling or transferring them to anyone until then.
Now that Erika’s lawyer has responded to the motion, both teams will have to await a final order from the court to see who gets to retain possession of the pricey items.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is currently on hiatus on Bravo.