Erika Jayne‘s legal bills are reportedly being paid for by a “longtime” associate of Thomas Girardi.
According to a new report, a pleading in a case in which Thomas’ former law firm, Girardi Keese, Erika, and Erika’s company, EJ Global, LLC, are being sued for “unpaid fees,” has revealed that James Wilkes II, also known as Jim Wilkes, has sent nearly $500,000 to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member since her November 2020 split from the once-famed attorney.
“Erika filed a summary judgment motion to get herself out of the case, and in response, the law firm noted that Erika was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars for her legal fees from an attorney named James Lewis Wilkes, II, via Wilkes’ law firm,” The Bravo Docket on Instagram revealed on September 20, crediting their information to Law360 and revealing Ronald Richards is representing the plaintiff in the case.
The outlet also noted that Erika did not dispute her receiving of the funds.
The Bravo Docket went on to share a timeline of events in Erika’s ongoing legal drama.
In September 2020, they revealed, Erika was served documents regarding the Joseph Ruigomez case, in which the burn victim was allegedly stiffed an $11 million settlement Thomas and his law firm secured for him from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).
The following month, Erika opened a Wells Fargo account in Tampa, Florida, with Jim, who was described as one of Thomas’ longtime business associates. And 19 days before she filed for divorce, $150,000 was wired to the account.
Following Erika’s divorce filing, Thomas’ assets were frozen, and he was forced into bankruptcy in December 2020 — the same month Erika reportedly received another $100,000. And in 2021, as Thomas was placed under a conservatorship, Erika got a $150,000 payment.
“Wilkes told Law360 that he is providing legal representation to Erika Girardi. He said that he saw Tom Girardi primarily as a personal friend and only rarely did business with him,” The Bravo Docket shared, going on to include posts from Jim’s Instagram page, one of which said that he’d been blocked by Ronald, who he slammed as a coward, and others that featured him posing alongside Thomas.
In other Erika Jayne news, Ronald recently participated in an interview with bloggers The Real Andy of Beverly Hills and MarTEAnis With Eddy, via Bravo Snark Side on Instagram, during which he explained why he felt the RHOBH cast member was refusing to settle the many lawsuits currently pending against her.
“Erika’s gonna win a couple motions and a couple calls of action but it really doesn’t matter because if she ever lost something, she would just file bankruptcy. But the good news is in these cases, we’ve discovered who’s funding her, we’ve discovered all these things,” Ronald revealed.
He then noted that while certain information has been sealed, he’s trying to bring details of the story out, and he said that Erika is “gonna fight everything unless someone orders her to do anything.”
“She’s not paying her legal bills so what does she care?” he wondered. “For whatever reason, something, buddy, person, girl, guy, can’t tell you who it is, likes to pay all her bills… So she has no motivation to settle. If you have someone paying your bills, why would you want to sell anything, right?”
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