Giuliani Creditors Draft Ex-CIA, FBI Officials to Probe Finances

Rudolph Giuliani’s creditors have begun working with a team that includes former law enforcement officials to probe the former New York city mayor’s finances.

Giuliani’s creditors have since February been coordinating with Global Data Risk LLC to examine his transactions, assets, and income, according to a Wednesday motion asking the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York for formal approval to hire the firm. The move comes as his creditors, including two Georgia poll workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him, have questioned the valuation of Giuliani’s assets as well as transfers he may have made in the months leading up to his bankruptcy.

Global Data Risk’s team on the Giuliani case will include former members of the CIA, FBI and Secret Service, according to the filing. It will be managed by Erik Laykin, who served as forensic and financial adviser to the examiner in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the filing said.

A lawyer said at a January bankruptcy court hearing that the committee representing Giuliani’s creditors would seek to hire a forensic accounting firm to help it probe his finances. Global Data Risk will conduct “tracing analyses” of Giuliani’s assets and incomes, the Wednesday filing said.

The investigation “will probably yield no additional assets for the estate,” Adam Fischoff of Berger Fischoff Shumer Wexler & Goodman LLP, who is representing Giuliani, said Thursday.

Creditors seeking a big payday won’t find a “pot of gold” in Giuliani’s finances, one of his lawyers said at the January hearing.

Global Data Risk will provide its services at a discounted rate “in recognition of the unique and important circumstances of this chapter 11 case,” according to the filing. The firm generally charges up to $775 an hour, but in the Giuliani case it will bill $275 an hour, the filing said.

As is typical in bankruptcy, creditors are asking the firm’s fees and expenses to be considered an administrative expense of Giuliani’s estate. Effectively, Giuliani will be paying for the examination of his own finances.

Fischoff said he hopes the investigation won’t incur “enormous expenses.”

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December after being hit with the $148 million judgment for falsely accusing two Georgia poll workers of committing fraud.

The creditors’ committee consists of one of Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, one of the Georgia election workers Giuliani defamed; Noelle Dunphy, a former associate suing him; and US Dominion Inc., a voting software company that is also suing him.

Dunphy in her lawsuit said she has access to Giuliani’s personal emails, including some related to “presidential candidates” in Ukraine and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The creditors’ motion to hire Global Data Risk specifically mentions the firm’s expertise in those countries.

The creditors earlier this month asked the bankruptcy court for an order to force Giuliani’s cooperation with efforts to fully understand his financial affairs.

The unsecured creditors committee is represented by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Giuliani is represented by Berger Fischoff Shumer Wexler & Goodman LLP.

The case is Rudolph W. Giuliani, Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 23-12055-shl, 3/20/24.