The former Los Angeles office chief of the U.S. Secret Service was named in a lawsuit from a Hollywood costume designer who claimed the agent was bribed as part of a conspiracy to pursue bogus credit card fraud charges of nearly $800,000.
Filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Erika Girardi, also known as Erika Jayne of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” was said to be behind the alleged conspiracy against the design business of Christopher Psaila. Girardi’s uncharged estranged husband, disbarred attorney Tom Girardi, was to said be a co-conspirator behind the alleged bribe of his friend, then-LA Secret Service head Robert Savage.
“All Defendants agreed and conspired to maliciously prosecute Chris Psaila for alleged wire fraud and identity theft claiming Chris Psaila defrauded Erika Girardi by charging her AMEX card with false charges for goods and services under his business Marcosquared LLC, formerly Marco Marco LLC,” the court filing obtained by Reuters read in part.
According to the suit, Psaila claimed that legitimate charges were billed to Girardi in 2015 and 2016, but Savage had been bribed to criminally investigate the businessman in exchange for representation in a lawsuit against Volkswagen, and then ultimately was paid a sum of $7,500 for damages in that suit.
The connections between Savage and the Girardis were not disclosed through Psaila’s prosecution, nor was the “history of falsely billing for advance Presidential location scouting trips planning” that led to the agent’s “eventual involuntary separation from the Secret Service.”
“Erika Girardi falsely claimed that all of a sudden, after doing legitimate business since 2014, that Chris Psaila, on his own, decided to defraud her in the sum of approximately $800,000 to $900,000 in unauthorized credit card charges from 2015 to 2016,” the Tuesday filing contended. “In reality, Chris Psaila provided Erika Girardi every piece of clothing and services charged under her credit card from the beginning to the end of their business relationship.”
American Express, also named in the suit, was said to have refunded Girardi $787,117.88 “Without any fair or reasonable investigation” by the credit card company, yet they have continued to do business with him and his company, “without penalty, suspension, or termination of their merchant privileges.”
In a statement to Reuters from American Express, the company said “regular processes and procedures” were followed.
As a result of the 2017 indictment on false credit card and wire fraud charges that were dismissed in 2021, Psaila alleged that he “suffered extreme emotional distress, financial harm to his business, Marco Marco, and extreme emotional, psychological, and physical injuries as a result of the four and one-half years battle against these illicit charges.”
The filing further alleged that he and his partner were unable to adopt a child because of the criminal charges and that Psaila was unable to support his father while the man suffered from pancreatic cancer up until the time of his death in 2020.
To compensate for the alleged damages set forth, “future loss of earnings and loss of earning capacity,” “interest thereon” and legal fees, the plaintiff established a demand for “not less than $18,200,000 following a jury trial.”
Savage told Reuters that claims related to his work for the Secret Service would be a matter for the agency’s legal team and the Justice Department. A spokesperson for the agency had declined to comment.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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