Paperwork submitted in Rudy Giuliani’s filing for bankruptcy protection reveal the daunting extent of debts faced by the former New York mayor turned Trump lawyer. It is a mountain added to this week by a $148m award to two former Georgia election workers.
Giuliani, 79, claimed Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss were involved in electoral fraud as part of Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in 2020.
His claims were debunked and the women sued for defamation. Their award was determined last week, a decision Giuliani called “absurd”. This week a judge said the women could collect immediately. Freeman and Moss also sued Giuliani again, to stop him repeating his claims.
The $148m award was included in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing made by Giuliani in the southern district of New York on Thursday.
Other sums over $1m were also listed.
They include claims from Daniel Gill, a New York man who last year slapped Giuliani on the back and asked, “What’s up, scumbag?” and was subsequently charged with assault, who has sued for $2m this year.
Davidoff, Hutcher & Citron, a law firm, claims $1.36m. That suit, over unpaid fees, was lodged by Robert Costello, Giuliani’s longtime lawyer, in September.
Other claims were listed as “unknown”. Among them is a claim from Noelle Dunphy – a former associate who sued Giuliani in May for $10m, alleging “abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft and other misconduct”. Another claim is from Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, who sued in September, alleging “total annihilation” of his digital privacy through attempts to tie his legal and personal problems to his father, through claims about a hard drive and laptop computer.
Claims from the voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, in lawsuits over false allegations of electoral fraud, are also listed as “unknown”.
Other claimants listed in the five-page filing are: Eric Coomer, a Dominion employee (for an unknown sum); BST & Co, New York accountants ($10,000); the Internal Revenue Service (income tax claims at $521,345 and $202,887); Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, a law firm Giuliani hired in 2021 after the FBI raided his apartment ($387,859.98); Momentum Telecom ($30,000); and the New York state department of taxation and finance ($204,346 and $61,340).
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In other paperwork, Giuliani said he had as many as 49 creditors and owed between $100m and $500m. His assets were estimated at between $1m and $10m.
Giuliani’s spokesperson and adviser, Ted Goodman, said: “The filing should be a surprise to no one. No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount” as awarded in the Georgia defamation case.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Goodman added, “will afford Mayor Giuliani the opportunity and time to pursue an appeal, while providing transparency for his finances under the supervision of the bankruptcy court, to ensure all creditors are treated equally and fairly throughout the process”.
David Axelrod, a former aide to Barack Obama turned political commentator, tweeted: “Giuliani files for bankruptcy protection but there is no escape from MORAL bankruptcy, which will be his lasting legacy.”
Source: Elections - theguardian.com
