Erika Jayne Fires Back at 18 Million Dollar Credit Card Fraud Claim

When you’re famous, almost anything can end up in court — and for Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, that includes a years-old credit card dispute that’s now ballooned into an $18 million lawsuit.

Fashion designer Chris Psaila, who runs the brand Marco Marco, filed suit in late 2023 claiming that Erika (whose real name is Erika Girardi) falsely reported him to law enforcement for allegedly running up roughly $800,000 in fraudulent charges on her credit card back in 2015 and 2016. His complaint alleges she conspired with the Secret Service to bring him down — a pretty serious accusation. But Erika’s legal team isn’t backing down. In court filings obtained recently, she’s denying any wrongdoing and asking the court to toss the entire lawsuit.

Here’s where the story gets interesting: Erika says she never intentionally lied to investigators. Instead, her version is straightforward — she had legitimate concerns about certain charges and couldn’t get proper receipts from Chris to verify the purchases made on her card. When those red flags popped up, she contacted law enforcement to report what she thought might be fraud. That’s not a conspiracy; that’s what most people would do in that situation.

Chris claims the whole ordeal caused him serious emotional distress and damaged both his business and his reputation. That’s why he’s seeking $18 million in damages. But Erika’s attorney, Evan Borges, has made a compelling counterpoint: federal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office were the ones who decided to charge Chris with crimes. Not Erika. Not some secret backroom deal. The notion that she somehow controlled the federal government — or even a Fortune 100 company like American Express — is, as Borges put it, fantasy.

This case highlights something real about celebrity lawsuits: sometimes the narrative gets bigger than the actual facts. A credit card dispute between two people with professional connections shouldn’t require the Secret Service to make sense. But once it hits the courts and the headlines, everyone’s fighting with lawyers instead of just getting their stories straight. The question now is whether a judge will see this the same way Erika’s team does — that there’s simply no case here at all.