Former New York City mayor and Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy Thursday, according to a court filing.
Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy less than a week after a jury ordered him to pay $146 million in damages to Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who sued him for defamation. He estimates that his liabilities are between about $100 million and $500 million. The damages award was originally set at $148 million, but the federal judge presiding over the case later reduced it to $145,969,000.
“This maneuver is not surprising and will not succeed in discharging Mr. Giuliani’s debt to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss,” Michael Gottleib, an attorney for the two women, said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ordered Giuliani to compensate the pair of election workers immediatelyand expressed concern that he may have been dishonest about his finances and that he may not comply with the sentence.
Giuliani had falsely claimed in the wake of the 2020 presidential election that election workers were involved in a fraudulent vote-processing scheme. His lawyer recently signaled that his pockets were not deep enough to pay out what Moss and Freeman had sought in compensation.
Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman told CBS News that the bankruptcy filing “should come as a surprise to no one.”
“No person could reasonably have believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a large penalty amount,” he said in a statement. “Chapter 11 will allow Mayor Giuliani the opportunity and time to pursue an appeal, while providing transparency of his finances under the supervision of the bankruptcy court, to ensure that all creditors are treated equally and fairly throughout the process.”
Giuliani net worth
Simultaneously Giuliani’s net worth was estimated to be over $50 million, but his fortune has plummeted. In the bankruptcy filing, he estimates his assets at $1 million to $10 million. Giuliani owes the IRS about $724,000 in income taxes for 2022 and 2021 and is on the hook for an additional $265,000 in New York state income taxes, according to legal documents.
Giuliani also lists “unknown” debts to Dominion Voting Systems, which sued him in 2021 over allegations he falsely stated the voting technology company was involved in rigging the 2020 presidential election, and to Smartmatic USA, another voting systems company that also filed suit against him in a similar case accusing him of defamation.
The bankruptcy filing also shows that Giuliani owes an unspecified amount to Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son. Hunter Biden filed suit in September against Giuliani and another attorney, accusing them of improperly accessing and sharing his personal information after obtaining it from the owner of a computer repair shop in Delaware, according to Associated Press.
To generate cash, he has sold $911 worth of 9/11 shirts and sandals sold by Donald Trump ally Mike Lindell. He also started selling video messages on Cameo for $325 per video. pop, even though his page on the site says Giuliani is no longer available.
The financial damages sought by Freeman and Moss would be the “civil equivalent of the death penalty,” Giuliani’s attorney Joe Sibley, told the jury last week ahead of the ruling ordering him to pay $146 million.
