This gorgeous mess simply retains getting uglier.
Nicolas Cage’s ex-girlfriend Christina Fulton is suing Erika Jayne and two former Girardi & Keese attorneys for alleged fraud and theft in a $ 700,000-plus lawsuit filed Friday.
In paperwork solely obtained by Web page Six, the actress claims Jayne’s estranged husbanddisgraced legal professional Tom Girardi, and his ex-colleagues Samantha Gold and John Kelley Courtney misappropriated her settlement funds to assist their private life.
Fulton, 55, was concerned in a automotive accident in January 2016 and sustained extreme accidents consequently. Quickly after, she sought authorized illustration from the then-prestigious Girardi & Keese regulation agency.
The case resulted in a confidential settlement settlement filed on March 18, 2019, with a settlement quantity of $ 924,300, per swimsuit.
Gold was Fulton’s main counsel, and Courtney was a senior legal professional on the case. Nevertheless, Girardi, now 83, was the proprietor and controlling member of their agency on the time.
In accordance with the lawsuit, Fulton realized on July 14, 2022, by way of “newly found monetary paperwork” the place her settlement funds truly went. The paperwork allegedly revealed that on April 8, 2019, Fulton’s settlement examine had been deposited right into a Girardi & Keese checking account with out her consent.
“This was an entire outright forgery as [Fulton] by no means endorsed this examine and definitely by no means agreed to have it deposited, ”the lawsuit claims.
“This negotiated examine was the truth is a forgery and a lie. The examine was by no means held in belief however spent. It’s past stunning and the pale that the agency would conceal the arrival of the examine and never acquire Ms. Fulton’s endorsement as required by regulation. ”
Fulton solely obtained a complete of $ 190,000 of her settlement between April 2019 and September 2020, based on the lawsuit, which her legal professionals declare was a part of Girardi’s sample “to dupe his shoppers into ready for cash by dribbling small funds.” She additionally obtained an advance of $ 5,000, leaving a $ 744,300 stability, which is the quantity she is looking for in damages.
Fulton’s attorneys declare there’s proof that the settlement funds had been disbursed to Girardi & Keese in three separate checks: $ 214,000 on April 26, 2019, $ 1 million on April 12, 2019, and $ 300,000 on April 10, 2019.
Jayne, 51, is called within the lawsuit as a result of Fulton found her funds had been allegedly “diverted to Erika” by way of the “Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills” star’s firm, EJ World, and later transferred to Fairly Mess Inc.
Fulton believes, per the lawsuit, that Jayne and Girardi would use funds “as their very own belongings” to “pay for his or her lavish life-style.”
“The funds had been handled as group property,” the paperwork allege, citing the $ 25 million deposited into EJ World – for which Jayne is being sued in Girardi & Keese’s separate chapter case.
“Erika used the cash to repay her bills,” the swimsuit claims. “For at the least 12 years, all of her bills had been paid by Girardi Keese as she was producing them. Nobody withdrew cash from the agency apart from Erika Girardi. ”
Ronald Richards, one of many attorneys representing Fulton, tells Web page Six that his consumer – who dated Cage, 58, for 3 years starting in 1988 and shares 31-year-old son Weston Coppola with the award-winning actor – like “many individuals in Hollywood trusted Tom and Erika of their authorized issues. ”
Richards provides that Jayne and Girardi had been a “public couple who preached wealth and success.”
Ronalds, who not too long ago introduced he’s seeking to purchase the Girardis’ former propertyadditional claims, “Erika profited off of those funds, which [were] used to supply content material for the ‘Housewives’ present to which she was paid for. She instantly obtained vendor funds from these funds and personally benefited from the misappropriation of our consumer’s settlement. ”
Jayne’s legal professional tells Web page Six he hasn’t seen the complete criticism but, however believes that two “elementary undisputed info” will emerge from “all of the lawsuits that attempt to make Erika answerable for the actions” of her estranged husband.
Evan C. Borges first notes that his consumer is a “non-lawyer” who had “no position” within the actions of Girardi or others coping with the disbarred lawyer’s shoppers or funds, and second she “thought she was married to an especially rich legal professional with a financially profitable regulation agency.”
“It’s a distraction tactic and specious for legal professionals representing former [Girardi & Keese] shoppers to make use of Erika’s life-style and persona on a ‘Housewives’ present as an excuse to sue her, ”Jayne’s legal professional provides.
“The main target needs to be on Tom Girardi and, the place supported by proof, the legal professionals, accountants, and financiers who enabled his misconduct and wrongdoing.”
The truth star presently faces a mountain of authorized woes that features a $ 5 million fraud lawsuita $ 50 million racketeering lawsuit and others.
She has maintained her innocence each off digital camera and on “RHOBH.”
.