Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 15, 2023.
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Creditors want to force Rudy Giuliani to sell his $3.5 million Florida condo to help pay his significant debts, according to a court document filed on Friday.
The former New York City mayor filed for bankruptcy protection in December, citing myriad unpaid debts including a $148 million payment to two Georgia election poll workers who he falsely claimed had tampered with the 2020 election ballots while he was serving as a lawyer for former President Donald Trump.
In response to Friday’s filing, Giuliani’s counsel said the request to sell the Florida condo is “extremely premature.”
“The case is still in its infancy,” said Heath Berger, partner at Berger, Fischoff, Shumer, Wexler & Goodman, LLP, who is representing Giuliani in his bankruptcy litigation.
Giuliani has argued that he does not have the funds to pay his debts, the Friday court filing said: “According to the Debtor’s counsel, ‘there’s no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.'”
Giuliani’s primary income comes from Social Security payments and money from his Individual Retirement Account, Berger told CNBC.
But the court document cited various expenses Giuliani pays now to maintain his lifestyle.
For example, Giuliani spends tens of thousands of dollars a month to maintain his Florida condo. In January, according to the document, he also racked up more than $26,200 in credit card payments on 60 Amazon transactions, with charges for Netflix, Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, Paramount+, Uber rides and more.
“Unfortunately, like everybody else, that’s like a debit card for him,” Berger said. “We don’t believe that there’s anything out of the ordinary, outside of normal living expenses.”
Creditors see his real estate assets as fair game to recoup what is owed. They said his “pre-war co-op” apartment on New York City’s Upper East Side is exempt since it is his primary residence.
However, the document said, Giuliani spends “approximately 20-30% of his time in Florida” and therefore creditors claimed the $3.5 million condo must be sold.
“It is merely a matter of when, not if, the Debtor will have to sell the Florida Condo in order to distribute the proceeds thereof to creditors,” the filing said.
But Giuliani is in the process of selling the Manhattan apartment and is looking to relocate to his Florida residence full-time, Berger said.
“The Manhattan property is more expensive to maintain. It’s worth more so there’ll be a greater distribution to creditors from the sale of that property,” Berger told CNBC.
Berger added that payments related to his divorce “will be coming to a conclusion … within the next year or so.”
Creditors also demanded that Giuliani secure homeowners insurance for his Florida and New York City residences since they are his two most valuable assets and “if anything were to happen to either of them, such loss would be a significant impediment to creditor recoveries.”
Giuliani has claimed he cannot afford the insurance, the court document said.
The former Trump adviser has faced a slew of legal woes for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results, all of which have helped land him in bankruptcy court. His bankruptcy filing from December estimated that he has between $1 million and $10 million worth of assets and nearly $152 million to pay off, including what is owed to the IRS and law firms.
