Bankruptcy judge warns Rudy Giuliani he has ‘reasons to be extremely concerned’ in ominous hearing
A federal judge Monday said he has reason to be “extremely concerned” with Rudy Giuliani’s alleged lack of compliance in his bankruptcy case.
Judge Sean Lane has been asked to appoint a trustee to oversee the former New York City mayor’s finances by a group of creditors who argue Giuliani can’t be trusted because of “dishonesty, incompetence and gross mismanagement of [his] affairs.”
The “record in this case suggests that I should be extremely concerned” Lane said in White Plains federal bankruptcy court upon hearing arguments that Giuliani has been failing to comply with orders in the Chapter 11 matter, according to a report by Law & Crime.
Lane said it was “highly problematic,” but didn’t immediately decide whether to appoint someone to take over Giuliani’s business affairs.
The next hearing in the case was set for for July 10.
Giuliani, 80, filed for bankruptcy in December to deal with his debts amounting to over $150 million.
It came after he was hit with a massive $148 million judgement for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss by claiming they carried out fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Freeman’s lawyer Rachel Strickland told Lane Monday that Giuliani is “shrewd” and “not a dottering 80-year-old,” Law & Crime reported.
He’s been “funneling money” through his company Giuliani Communications, Strickland said, adding there were “huge red flags” raised by Giuliani filing operating reports that were incorrect and missing information — which he chalked up to being unable to find a new accountant after his prior bookkeeper quit.
Strickland also said that while Giuliani agreed to stop publicly defaming Moss and Freeman, his June 3 post on X saying he had evidence “of voter fraud” was a clear reference to her client.
Despite his “knowledge of a legal obligation to be silent … he just won’t follow the law,” Strickland said, arguing for a trustee to be appointed.
But Giuliani’s lawyer, Gary Fischoff, fired back that there was “nothing unusual” about how Giuliani was running things through his communications company.
“Then you have to provide information,” the judge countered. “It can’t be on a trust me basis.”
Fischoff admitted to the judge that his client — who earned himself the nickname “America’s Mayor” for his response to the 9/11 terror attacks — hadn’t turned over information about the money being used to run Giuliani Communications.
The longtime lawyer — who has since been disbarred — has been trying to improve “his reporting,” Fishoff said, noting Giuliani has been “slow to adapt.”
Lane pushed back that he could appoint a trustee simply based on “gross mismanagement,” adding there didn’t necessarily have to be “bad intent.”
The judge also said he was “disturbed about the status of the case” and warned of Giuliani’s “troubling attitude” toward the legal system.
He called it a “troubling fact” that Giuliani hadn’t yet found a new accountant, noting it was “exceedingly rare for … that kind of problem to exist in a case.”
Fishoff told Lane that he may end up putting Giuliani on the witness stand in this case.
Lawyers for the creditors later in the hearing raised concerns that Giuliani was seeking to hire law firm Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins — which notably repped Harvey Weinstein in his sexual assault case — in ongoing criminal and civil cases against him, all without laying out the details of the firm’s retainment.
