Teresa Giudice is suing her former bankruptcy attorney and blaming him for her prison sentence. The Real Housewives of New Jersey star has filed suit against Attorney James Kridel for legal malpractice, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty, and he’s speaking out about the nonsense case.
Attorney James Kridel hit back against the crazy claims, saying what we’re all thinking – blame, blame, deflect, deflect, just another day in the life of Teresa Giudice. Kridel says TERESA is the only person responsible for her current predicament. “She went to jail because she committed crimes, which were not participated in by me. She had about 2.5 hours of testimony before she went to jail where she took full responsibility for the crimes. However, I suppose things have changed in her mind. ”
Attorney Kridel even reveals that Teresa initially was going to get out of having to serve time, but she messed it up all on her own. “I have read the transcript and the judge made it very clear that she had originally decided not to send her to jail, but because she had falsified her assets before the sentencing she decided to send her to jail. She was chastised by the judge well after I represented her.”
He reiterates that HE didn’t commit her crimes and Teresa is responsible for her own actions. “There were failures to file income taxes, which occurred many years before we knew her. Her falsifying W2’s for mortgages – that has nothing to do with her bankruptcy.”
On Teresa failing to file tax returns: “Clearly we were not involved in that. She well knew that, unless she was in a coma for 10 years. That triggered people to examine, if she didn’t have a tax return how did she get mortgages? This came out of the blue. We had wished her well.”
RELATED: TERESA’S BANKRUPTCY CASE CLOSED, OWE MILLIONS ONCE AGAIN
He also shared with People, “She seems to go from attorney to attorney. I see some of the comments she makes from prison. If they refer to us, they’re ridiculous. All we did was try to help her. In a bankruptcy you have to sign a petition. And you say that everything in it is true and accurate. She signed it. Then you go to the meeting with the Chapter 7 trustee. They ask, are the statements here true and accurate? Yes they are. After that she appeared at a deposition in bankruptcy court. Same questions asked. All of those sworn statements by her are now untrue? She was here on a regular basis. I am sorry this is what she thinks. She admitted under oath that she took full responsibility for these crimes. I guess now she wants to say that she didn’t commit them, somebody else did.”
Malpractice attorney Carlos Cuevas filed the papers (53 pages worth) on Teresa’s behalf this week. He claims that Teresa’s good name and reputation have been ruined and it’s Kridel’s fault for failing to disclose certain things in the bankruptcy paperwork. He says that back in 2014, Kridel even stated that it was possible for Teresa to have been clueless on the financial dealings of Joe. Kridel had told People back then, “Everyone seems to blame her that she knew or should have known. I don’t find that to be true in real life, though. People come in and sign tax returns quite often, and the spouse who is not in charge of the finances has no information. They just do what the accountant tells them.”
The complaint claims that Kridel failed to successfully perform procedures properly and the situation deteriorated and that he didn’t tell Teresa just how bad things were getting.
The suit claims that the bankruptcy attorney failed to tell Teresa that he had made errors and omissions and failed to tell her she needed to get a criminal lawyer when things went downhill. “The very lawyer retained to prepare accurate bankruptcy documents literally led his client into the cross-hairs of federal prosecutors, and a prison cell. This is a consequence of Defendant Kridel’s several material errors and the concealment of his malpractice.”
“Defendant Kridel continuously filed documents that were materially inaccurate, but he permitted Plaintiff Giudice to sign declarations under penalty of perjury that the documents were accurate.” The suit claims that simple things like Teresa’s employment and income were omitted from forms, as well as not disclosing ownership and leases on vehicles, rental income from property owned and more.
I hope this malpractice attorney is working pro-bono because we all know she cannot afford more legal bills. It’s Bravo’s fault, it’s every single attorney’s fault, it’s the Judge’s fault. It never ends!
What do you think? Is there a chance that this attorney made mistakes that landed her in prison? It all sounds pretty incredible. Even if he forgot a few things in the filings, she still committed crimes. It’s as if she’s throwing a tantrum over that thought that if Attorney Kridel hadn’t screwed up a few documents that she would’ve flown under the radar and wouldn’t have been caught!
*Note – this is the same attorney she was suing back in December (link in first paragraph above). It was initially filed in NY and now she has refiled in New Jersey, this time with reportedly unspecified amounts (the first time around was $5 million).
TELL US – WILL TERESA EVER TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HER LEGAL MESS? WAS SHE REALLY CLUELESS?
Photo Credit: Bravo TV
