According to documents obtained by Us Weekly, Mastan’s motion was filed on Monday, June 14. His petition came after a documentary about Erika and her estranged husband, Tom Girardi, was released on Hulu titled The Housewife and the Hustler.
The ABC News Originals documentary detailed ongoing allegations against Tom and his law firm, Girardi Keese.
Mastan’s new motion will force Erika to get a new attorney. The update also shows that there may be underlying drama going on with the bankruptcy proceedings.
In the documentary, it was revealed that the “How Many F—ks?” singer — who has not been charged with anything — potentially knew more than she let on about her husband’s financial situation.
Erika was listed on one of Tom’s LLCs as his “secretary,” which Law360’s features reporter Brandon Lowrey noted raises “questions” about “what she knew” and whether she benefited from the situation.
“Tom and Erika, they’re stuck together in these bankruptcy proceedings,” Lowrey said in the doc, according to Us Weekly. “A lot of these debts, that they owe in bankruptcy proceedings, [they] owe together, possibly. It’s going to be hard for her to say she didn’t know that anything was going on.”
Last week, the bankruptcy case judge gave the OK for the bankruptcy trustee to hire another attorney to investigate whether Erika received fraudulent transfers from Tom’s firm. Thus, Mastan’s decision to leave the case comes at a complicated time.
The Bravo reality star has not spoken publicly about The Housewife and the Hustler or her now-former lawyer’s decision to leave her case.
The 82-yar-old was placed under a temporary conservatorship in February when his brother assumed control of his daily activities and personal care. One of Tom’s attorneys claimed in court in December 2020 that he was hospitalized for a “serious illness,” raising questions about his mental competency. Court documents revealed in March that Tom was diagnosed with late-onset Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Erika and Tom made headlines in November 2020 when the Bravo reality star filed for divorce after 20 years of marriage. The following month, the estranged couple was sued for fraud and embezzlement.
In addition to accusing them of swindling $2 million in settlement funds intended for families of victims of a 2018 plane crash, class action firm Edelson PC claimed in federal court documents that the divorce was “simply a sham attempt to fraudulently protect Tom’s and Erika’s money from those that seek to collect on debts owed by Tom and his law firm.”
Tom faced a second lawsuit later that month, alleging that his company breached a written agreement and conversation with Wells Fargo Vendor Financial Services. The bank sought immediate payment on the $882,715 outstanding bill.
Photo Credit: Bravo Media/NBCUniversal
