Giuilani Says Unpaid Bills Mounted As Legal Career Sputtered

Rudy Giuliani laid out his downward financial spiral in acute personal detail over three hours on Wednesday, answering questions from a government bankruptcy watchdog about his approximately $10.6 million of assets, offset by unpaid bills for everything from golf club memberships to condo fees and credit cards. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporters as he leaves the federal courthouse in Washington on Dec. 11. On Wednesday, Giuliani answered the U.S. Trustee's questions about some $10.6 million in assets he claimed in a Chapter 11 case he filed after a jury found he owed $148 million to two former election workers. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) The former mayor of New York City, who struggled at times to recall details including the timeline of his legal career, shed light on a multitude of catch-up payments he is making — for taxes, dry cleaning and his ex-wife's 90-year old mother's care, for instance — and the spate of lawsuits he is facing, including the $148 million judgment that drove him to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December. The Republican firebrand and ally of former President Donald Trump claimed to have no life insurance and no insurance for his Manhattan co-op apartment, which he said is now listed at $5.9 million, in answering questions from Andrea Schwartz for the Office of the U.S. Trustee. Schwartz was running a so-called "Section 341 meeting of creditors" in Giuliani's case, a routine step in the early stages of bankruptcies where the debtor must personally face the U.S. Trustee and creditors to lay bare any assets that could be pursued for the benefit of the estate. "She asked all the right questions and I gave her all the information that I have. I have nothing to hide," Giuliani said as he exited the courthouse Wednesday. Schwartz combed through the details of Giuliani's financial filings for information about how his once lucrative law practice began to fail after he started representing Trump pro bono. Flanked by his bankruptcy counsel, wearing a dark suit and sitting at a table across from Schwartz, Giuliani explained his move from Bracewell & Giuliani LLP to Greenberg Traurig LLP, which he had to leave in 2018 because clients complained about his representation of Trump — with whom he eventually worked "kind of ... 24 hours a day." After the 2020 election, Trump tapped Giuliani to lead a team of lawyers pursuing claims of election fraud. He was supposed to get a salary but didn't, and is now owed an estimated $2 million, which his estate could pursue in bankruptcy. But he took "a major financial hit" when he lost his law license in New York and the District of Columbia in 2021 after speaking at a rally before the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, he said. Since then, he has built up Giuliani Communications, a subsidiary of Giuliani Partners. He earns about $15,000 a month on average from his WABC radio show, which airs every weekday, and a livestream called "America's Mayor Live." The company also employs a handful of other people who are guests, cohosts, producers and security. Giuliani's assets include a $1.2 million retirement account; $30,000 worth of watches, a diamond ring and three Yankees world series rings; a roughly $6 million Manhattan co-op apartment; a $3.5 million Palm Beach condo; and a 1980 Mercedes Benz previously owned, he said, by actress Lauren Bacall. He pays $800 a month for a storage unit in the Bronx holding awards, books, artwork, furniture and files. "I don't think there's anything very valuable," Giuliani said. He has not had his 1951 Joe DiMaggio Yankees' jersey valued. And he spends more than $500 a month on dry cleaning because he wears a different suit every day, he said. Giuliani owns Uber shares, though he could not remember how many or where they are and had forgotten about them until his wife found them during their divorce. He said he received them for early work he did for the ride-sharing company. At other times, Giuliani and Schwartz traded brief banter about church and their personal lives. Counsel for a few creditors was present in the room, but none asked questions. Giuliani "earned everything he has in life through honest hard work," said spokesman Ted Goodman in a statement Wednesday. "The American people are waking up to the abhorrent weaponization of our justice system for partisan political gain, and the fact that we are here today is just another example of this great injustice." Ronald Kuby, who represents creditor Daniel Gill — the Staten Island ShopRite worker who sued Giuliani after he accused him of assault when he slapped him on the back — had a different take. Kuby did not ask any questions during the meeting Wednesday but said afterward that Giuliani was "pathetic" and "doddering" and "utterly unaware of his own finances." Giuliani is represented by Heath S. Berger and Gary C. Fischoff of Berger Fischoff Shumer Wexler & Goodman LLP. The case is In re: Rudolph W. Giuliani, case number 1:23-bk-12055, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.