“Gossip Girl” star Kelly Rutherford is vowing to keep on fighting for her two kids — and claims ex-husband Daniel Giersch was recently banned from the United States for alleged visa fraud and failure to pay taxes, Page Six can exclusively reveal.
The beautiful blond actress lost a heartbreaking courtroom fight Tuesday when a Los Angeles judge ruled that her kids would live overseas full time with Giersch, a German businessman.
Rutherford, who plays Blake Lively’s mom on “Gossip Girl,” wanted to block Giersch from taking Hermes, 5, and Helena, 3, to France when it’s his time for custody. Instead, LA Superior Court Judge Teresa Beaudet ruled the kids will live and go to school in France because Giersch can’t return to the US.
Beaudet ordered Giersch to enroll the kids in an English-language school in France that teaches American history. Rutherford, who filed for divorce from Giersch in 2008, plans to leave for France tomorrow.
But sources say the kids were due to start school in New York next week. The devastated Rutherford plans to appeal the court ruling at a hearing today.
A friend of the actress told us, “ There’s no logical explanation for rewarding the ex-husband, who’s not even allowed to step foot in the US.”
According to court papers filed by Rutherford’s attorneys, Giersch’s visa was revoked after investigating attorney Edith L. Curry claimed, “Neither Mr. Giersch nor any of his US-registered shell companies ever filed the requisite US tax returns and also engaged in visa fraud.”
The papers claim that Giersch used a convicted and disbarred lawyer to sponsor his visa and that while Giersch sold more than $5.5 million worth of real estate, he never paid taxes to the IRS.
Giersch’s lawyer, Fahi Takesh Hallin, told us, “[Curry] has made a lot of allegations in the document, which the family court has struck off. It is out of the realm of the family court and is an immigration issue.”