Rudy Giuliani Creditors Plan Treasure Hunt Through His Finances

Rudolph Giuliani’s creditors are promising a deep dive into the former New York City mayor’s finances to investigate any possible transfers he made in the months leading to his bankruptcy.

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December to halt debt collections as he tries to modify or appeal a $148 million defamation judgment stemming from his discredited campaign to keep former President Donald Trump in the White House.

Questions remain over any transfers Giuliani may have made 90 days before his bankruptcy, said Philip C. Dublin of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, representing a committee of Giuliani’s unsecured creditors. He made the comments at a bankruptcy court status hearing Wednesday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Disclosures about any transfers have yet to be filed, he said.

But there’s “no pot of gold at the end of the day” for creditors to find among Giuliani’s assets, his attorney, Heath Berger of Berger Fischoff Shumer Wexler & Goodman LLP, objected at the hearing.

Creditors also have questions about potentially “significant” overstatements and understatements of the value of Giuliani’s assets, Dublin said. The committee plans to ask the court to hire a forensic accounting firm to help it probe Giuliani’s finances, he said. In addition, Giuliani’s debts may not be able to be forgiven through bankruptcy at all, he said.

“Whether there’s a pot of gold here remains to be seen,” Dublin said.

Giuliani, who led efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, filed Chapter 11 after Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia allowed Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, to immediately go after his assets. A jury previously ordered Giuliani to pay them $148 million after he falsely accused them of election fraud. Giuliani has called the DC judgment “unreasonable on its face,” and said it doesn’t reflect the true damages suffered by the workers.

Potential Red Flags

There are also “red flags” when it comes to the financing of one of Giuliani’s third-party litigation defense funds, whose president is Giuliani’s son Andrew Giuliani, Freeman and Moss’s attorney, Rachel C. Strickland of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, told the court.

A collective $70,000 payment to the funds raised concerns as to who made the payments and where the money came from, Strickland said.

“The issue of the source of funds is going to be very ripe,” Strickland said.

In recent financial disclosures, Giuliani has said he has about $10.6 million in assets against almost $153 million in liabilities. His attorney says Giuliani plans to ask for court permission to sell his Manhattan condominium valued at about $5.6 million. His financial disclosures show that the former mayor has been living mostly off of retirement benefits in recent years.

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, hearing 1/31/24.