Disgraced former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani owes millions of dollars, but he says that bankruptcy creditors ordering him to sell his Palm Beach, Florida, condo is “premature,” according to new court records.
Mr. Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December after a jury sentenced him to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers whom he had defamed. Last month, he filed an appeal of the jury’s judgment.
On March 15, the Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents persons and businesses to whom Mr. Giuliani owes money or may soon owe money, filed a motion in bankruptcy court seeking that the former mayor sell his Florida condominium.
In response, the former mayor’s attorneys filed a request on Thursday, arguing that Mr. Giuliani would be “irreparably harmed” if the Florida condo is sold and the defamation payout verdict is overturned on appeal.
The committee is “assuming that most if not all” of that ruling “will survive on appeal,” his attorneys said, which they argue is “premature and without legal authority.”
According to the lawyers, Mr. Giuliani shares his time between his Florida and New York City estates. Both Mr. Giuliani and the committee hold the belief that selling the Manhattan apartment is necessary. The document indicates that the former mayor intends to use the Palm Beach condo as his primary residence after its sale.
Mr. Giuliani estimated his Palm Beach home at $3.5 million in prior court records. That makes it his second most valuable reported asset, behind his Manhattan apartment, which is worth considerably more. Initially advertised for $6.5 million, the three-bedroom Upper East Side condo is now off the market due to a valuation reduction of over a million in bankruptcy court files.
Lawyers for the committee have claimed that the Florida condo is “a significant drain on estate resources.” Mr. Giuliani paid two maintenance fees totaling $15,995 in January alone, according to a document dated March 15.
In contrast, the ex-mayor’s lawyers claim he pays approximately $8,400 each month in upkeep and real estate taxes.
Mr. Giuliani’s attorneys noted that, while the committee feels he is acting with “reckless abandon” by insisting on keeping the Florida property, the former mayor is actually “using sound business judgment by understanding that he cannot afford or legally maintain two properties.”
If Mr. Giuliani is compelled to sell his Florida house, he will “be forced to incur expenses for alternative housing,” according to his attorneys. “Surely the Committee does not intend [Mr. Giuliani] to join the ranks of the homeless?”
Furthermore, according to the document, Mr. Giuliani operates his podcast enterprises from both of his homes, each of which has a “studio.” He will “need a place to operate the podcast from if he is to earn money therefrom,” the lawyers wrote.
The podcast earnings “would only serve to benefit creditors,” according to the petition.
The battle to figure out how the man formerly known as “America’s Mayor” might repay the millions he owes has led creditors to contemplate a variety of options, including “discussing” the potential of forcing him to sue his former client Donald Trump.
Mr. Giuliani previously claimed he was owed that amount for his ill-fated attempt to reverse 2020 election results; however, Mr. Giuliani has insisted that he is owed by the Republican National Committee or the Trump campaign, not the former president.
“Mayor Giuliani will not be suing President Trump,” Mr. Giuliani’s political adviser told The Independent at the time.
Even when creditors consider how to collect the debt they owe, a family tragedy may provide an unexpected supply of available funds. According to the obituary, Mr. Giuliani’s former mother-in-law passed away last week.
On a January 26 bankruptcy court filing, Mr. Giuliani stated that he pays his ex-wife Judith Giuliani $5,000 in alimony payments each month, which he described at a February hearing as going “to [Judith] but for her mother.”
Judith and Mr. Giuliani wed for sixteen years.
According to the document, he also pays $13,500 each month in “court-ordered payments to his mother-in-law.” Both of these monthly payments have totaled $222,000 each year. It is unknown how this amount would affect creditors, who are owed tens of millions of dollars, in the future.
