By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge criticized Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday for spending money on his Florida condominium and traveling to the Republican National Convention while avoiding paying bankruptcy costs.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane ruled last week that Giuliani should be removed from bankruptcy for failing to make required financial disclosures, but the decision did not take effect immediately.
Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, still owes bankruptcy costs of about $350,000 to creditors who were forced to hire investigative accountants to fill gaps in his financial reports.
Lane said Wednesday during a court hearing in White Plains, New York, that he “didn’t know what to do next given Giuliani’s continued lack of cooperation with the bankruptcy court.
Lane suggested he could force Giuliani into bankruptcy while the court explores ways to make him pay creditors’ fees or force the former mayor to fly back to New York to testify about his available funds.
“There are a lot of things your client doesn’t want to happen that could happen,” Lane told Giuliani’s attorneys.
Lane instructed Giuliani to present a plan to pay creditor fees within 24 hours.
Giuliani, 80, sought bankruptcy protection in December after a Washington DC court ordered him to pay $148 million to two election workers in Georgia whom he falsely accused of manipulating votes in the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
The bankruptcy prevented former Georgia election workers Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman from collecting this judgment. It also froze other lawsuits against Giuliani stemming from his work for Trump, the former Republican president, who sought to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
Rachel Strickland, an attorney for Moss and Freeman, said Wednesday that Giuliani was “pulling tricks again” and had continued to spend money without authorization from the only bank account he had recently discussed with his creditors.
As of last week, Giuliani has spent about half of the $60,000 in the account — $25,000 on maintenance costs for his Florida apartment and on expenses in Milwaukee, where the former New York mayor is attending the Republican National Convention, Strickland said.
If Giuliani’s bankruptcy is dismissed, creditors will be able to resume lawsuits against him, and it also gives Giuliani the freedom to appeal the $148 million defamation judgment.
