Besieged by creditors and with his income drying up, Rudy Giuliani laid out an austerity program of sorts in January for a federal bankruptcy court.
He would stick to a $43,000-a-month budget, he said in court filings, roughly in line with the income he drew from his retirement accounts and Social Security. That amount would cover, among other expenses, $5,000 in alimony payments to his ex-wife Judith Giuliani, $1,050 for food and housekeeping supplies and $425 for “personal care products and services.” He was also obliged to cover $13,500 in monthly nursing-home expenses for his former mother-in-law; she died in March.
Suggesting that he was mindful of the $153 million he owes to creditors, including two Georgia election workers he defamed in the aftermath of the 2020 election, he budgeted nothing for entertainment, clubs and subscriptions.
It did not take him long to blow his budget. In another bankruptcy filing, he said he actually spent nearly $120,000 in January. The accounting of his spending that he provided to the court was spotty and incomplete. He later provided more information to the creditors’ lawyers, listing 60 transactions on Amazon, multiple entertainment subscriptions, various Apple services and products, Uber rides and payment of some of his business partner’s personal credit card bill.
It is not clear whether he has pared back his spending to within his budget in the months since January, because he has failed to submit required disclosures to the bankruptcy court. But his spending, and his inability or unwillingness to give the bankruptcy court a fuller look at his financial status, have left his creditors suspicious and angry.
“These superfluous court filings are simply part of a larger effort to bully and intimidate the mayor through lawfare and a public smear campaign,” Giuliani’s spokesperson, Ted Goodman, said.
Once the mayor of New York City and later the personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December after a federal judge ordered him to pay $148 million to the two Georgia election workers for falsely accusing them of rigging the outcome in President Joe Biden’s favor. (Giuliani plans to appeal that judgment.)
His filing listed $11 million in assets, including his Upper East Side apartment, which he put on the market last year for $6.5 million, took off the market this winter and plans to re-list, and his condo in Palm Beach, Florida, which he valued at $3.5 million.
Months into the bankruptcy proceedings, Giuliani’s financial disclosures have been incomplete, inaccurate and in some cases completely absent. His creditors have asked for more details and clarifications, hired a forensic accounting firm and made a broad request for information to see if he is hiding money and assets.
The creditors’ lawyers recently issued a slew of subpoenas for documents, communications and information to Giuliani, people who work or have worked for him and even his son.
Every additional penny that can be found in Giuliani’s pocket means a larger payout for his creditors, even if it is far less than what he actually owes them.
That is why they also want him to collect $2 million that Giuliani claims he is owed in legal fees from Trump for the work he did leading the effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
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