Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy in NY, owes up to $500M after devastating $148M loss in election fraud case
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday in the wake of a $148 million civil court ruling and a mountain of unpaid legal bills.
Giuliani, 79, estimates he currently owes $153 million — an amount that will likely balloon due to several other pending lawsuits and when millions of dollars in pending legal bills are factored in, according to the Manhattan federal court filing.
Once hailed as “America’s Mayor,” Giuliani indicated on the court document that he had debts of between $100 million and $500 million, with assets of up to $10 million.
The $148 million settlement was the biggest financial blow to Giuliani, but he also owes the IRS more than $700,000 and more than $260,000 to New York State tax authorities, according to the bankruptcy filing, first reported by Bloomberg News.
“The filing should be a surprise to no one,” Giuliani lawyers Heath Berger and Gary Fischoff said in a statement on Thursday. “No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount.”
They said the filing “will afford Mayor Giuliani the opportunity and time to pursue an appeal under the supervision of the bankruptcy court to ensure all creditors are treated equally and fairly throughout the process.”
Following the Georgia defamation verdict on Friday, Giuliani claimed he didn’t “regret a damn thing,” and scoffed at “the absurdity of the number” awarded to the mother and daughter poll workers, Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, who sued him for defamation after he accused them of committing voter fraud during the 2020 election ballot count in Fulton County.
His lawyer, Joe Sibley, called the ruling “the civil equivalent of the death penalty” that would “be the end of Mr. Giuliani” if his appeals were to fail.
But Giuliani — one of former President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters — has been buried in legal bills that are likely to mount.
He is still under indictment on racketeering and conspiracy charges in Georgia and is being sued for defamation by two software voting systems companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic Corp., for claiming they were instrumental in rigging the 2020 election.
In September, the law firm that had represented him sued for $1.4 million in unpaid legal fees.
The cash-strapped former pol convinced Trump to host a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser at the former president’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, that same month to help pay off his debt.
Guiliani is also trying to unload his posh Upper East Side co-op for $6.5 million — but sparked so little interest that he was forced to slash $40,000 of the price.
The biggest blow was last week’s massive judgment in Georgia, which a federal judge on Wednesday ordered Giuliani to begin paying immediately.
Freeman and Moss said they were concerned Giuliani would “find a way to dissipate [his] assets” before being able to recover the cash owed to them.
Ron Kuby, a lawyer seeking $2 million on behalf of Daniel Gill — a Staten Island supermarket worker who was charged with assault after Giuliani claimed he violently attacked him — said the Chapter 11 filing likely won’t get Giuliani off the hook from paying the $148 million verdict because it’s the type of “intentional misconduct” that doesn’t qualify for bankruptcy protection.
Gill’s lawsuit was listed in the bankruptcy filing as one of several legal cases that have Giuliani on the hook, with those plus unpaid legal bills and income taxes totaling nearly $153 million.
The filing also lists five other pending suits that could cost Giuliani millions more, including ones filed by Hunter Biden and Dominion against the ex-mayor, as well as one from former employee Noelle Dunphy, who accused Giuliani of sexual harassment.
“It would be against public policy to allow people who commit intentional wrongs against others to wash away those debts,” Kuby, a veteran civil rights attorney, told The Post on Thursday.
“He may be able to stiff his lawyers, his ex-wives or other creditors foolish enough to extend credit to the man,” he added. “But he’s not going to get rid of the $148 million Georgia judgment, and he’s not going to get rid of the money he may owe to Daniel Gill.”
In addition to back taxes and the Georgia ruling, the ex-federal prosecutor owes his former counsel at the Law Offices of Aidala, Bertuna & Karmins $387,859.98 in legal fees and is being sued for $1.36 million by another law firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, the filing shows.
Giuliani did have enough money to pay the $1,738 fee due to the court for making the Chapter 11 filing on Thursday, records show.
Giuliani, who took over as Big Apple mayor in January 1994, earned the moniker “America’s Mayor” for his calming public presence in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2011, terror attacks that downed the Twin Towers.
He remained largely out of the public eye in recent years until emerging as a vocal advocate and one-time attorney for Trump.
