It’s payback time for Rudy Giuliani; Creditors want his luxury Palm Beach condo, hidden assets

By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org

It’s payback time for Rudy Giuliani. And look who’s poised to sic the financial bloodhounds on him:

Wandrea’ ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, as chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors appointed in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of America’s ex-mayor and Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer and #1 chump.

You’ll recall Georgia election workers Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, as the victims of Giuliani’s reckless and repeated false accusations of ballot fraud in the 2020 presidential election that they said forced them to quit their jobs. The world got to know them when they testified hauntingly about the harassment and threats they endured before the Jan. 6 Commission in May 2022.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. last August found Giuliani liable for spreading lies about Moss and Freeman. (That same month Giuliani was indicted in Georgia along with Trump and 17 others for allegedly working to overturn the 2020 presidential election vote there.) A jury awarded the pair $148.2 million in compensatory and punitive damages on Dec. 15.

Six days later, the former New York City mayor filed for bankruptcy protection in Manhattan. He estimated his assets as worth between $1 million and $10 million, his liabilities between $100 million and $500 million. Asked the type of debts he owes, Giuliani wrote one word: lawsuits.

Giuliani’s submitted a four-page list of creditors. In addition to Moss and Freeman and the committee of unsecured creditors they include Dominion Voting Systems Corp., Smartmatic International, Robert Hunter Biden, the IRS, Palm Beach County tax collector and a whole bunch of lawyers.

CREDITORS: FORCE SALE OF GIULIANI’S LUXURY PALM BEACH CONDO

Last August the IRS filed a federal tax lien on Giuliani’s Palm Beach apartment for unpaid taxes for 2021 totaling $549,000. Giuliani’s bankruptcy form includes a second IRS claim of $202,000 for unpaid taxes in 2022.  Further, Giuliani disclosed he owed about $265,000 to New York state’s Department of Taxation and Finance for unpaid taxes in 2021-2022.

The multinational law firm Akin Gump represents the unsecured creditors committee. On Thursday, Akin Gump lawyer Philip Dublin assisted Moss in formally asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane to authorize the committee to hire Global Data Risk LLC as a “specialized forensic financial advisor” to help hunt down Giuliani’s apparently hidden assets.

The week before, on March 15, the unsecured creditors asked the court to force the sale of Giuliani’s non-homesteaded three-bedroom, two-bath luxury condo at 315 South Lake Drive in Palm Beach. Giuliani resides in an apartment on East 66^th Street in New York City.

The county property appraiser assesses Apt. 5-D as worth about $3 million. Estimates by Zillow and Redfin estimate the potential sale price at between $4.5 million and $6.5 million. Giuliani and his then-wife, Judith, paid $1.4 million in cash for it in 2010.

The creditors also asked the court to require Giuliani to buy property insurance to protect the condo’s value until it is sold. They informed the court that when Giuliani was asked if he had property insurance on the condo, he replied, like many Florida homeowners these days, “no[t] that I can find.”

GIULIANI’S SPENDING

Yet the creditors are skeptical. Citing Giuliani’s January monthly operating report to the court, they told the judge, “The Debtor can make credit card payments totaling $26,212.87 in one month—for expenses including at least 60 Amazon transactions; charges for entertainment such as Netflix, Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, Paramount+ and Apple services and products; numerous Uber rides; payments on account of Maria Ryan’s credit card statement; and travel and lodging expenses for his employees and associates — but cannot find sufficient funds to purchase homeowners insurance to preserve the value of estate property for the benefit of his creditors. The Debtor’s knowledge of this issue paired with his decision not to ameliorate it, calls into question whether the Debtor is discharging his fiduciary duties to his creditors.”

Maria Ryan is a former New Hampshire hospital executive who co-hosts with Giuliani a WABC radio show in New York called, laughingly, “Uncovering the Truth.” She is also reportedly his girlfriend.

Global Data Risk, started in 2022, is an intriguing company. Its top officers are Erik Laykin and John Bass.

According to court papers, Laykin is a veteran investigator who served as forensic and financial advisor to the bankruptcy examiner following the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers amid the subprime mortgage crisis. Bass is a former senior executive and Middle East specialist with the CIA with “deep relationships in Turkey.”

Ukraine will be a focus in the search for any hidden Giuliani assets. Court papers say the team targeting Giuliani includes: another ex- CIA executive and chief of station who “maintains strong relationships in and has a deep understanding of Ukraine; a former Secret Service agent “who served as chief of staff during the Trump administration and has experience in transnational financial crimes and money laundering investigations”; a forensic accountant and court-appointed receiver with significant experience in complex litigation and asset tracing, and a former New York City FBI supervisor and attorney “with experience in fraud and corruption investigations, including cases in Ukraine.”

GIULIANI ON GOING TO HEAVEN

Giuliani spent a lot of time in Ukraine leading the effort to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. (That probe found that Trump’s campaign wanted and welcomed foreign interference.) Two key Trump allies, former national security advisor Michael Flynn and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort were among more than 30 people who were indicted. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to investigators, and Manafort was convicted of bank and tax fraud and other crimes at trial. Trump pardoned both men shortly before he left office in January 2021.

Giuliani worked with businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Soviet-born emigrees to America, seeking “dirt” on President Biden’s son, Hunter, in Ukraine. Hunter Biden had served on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Hunter Biden sued Giuliani and another attorney in federal court in California last September. Biden accused the pair of wrongfully hacking and sharing personal data about him obtained from the owner of a Delaware computer repair shop as part of a scheme to discredit his father.

You might think things can’t worse for Giuliani. But on his New York radio show and podcast aired on St. Patrick’s Day, a fuming Giuliani said he anticipates he’ll soon be stripped of his licenses to practice law because of his support for Trump. (In fact, Giuliani’s law licenses are currently suspended in Washington and New York.)

“You know who won in 2020. I know who won in 2020. And I know the damn ballots get burned. And I know how high it goes,” Giuliani told his audience.

“The Bar Association is going to crucify me no matter what. I will be disbarred in New York. I will be disbarred in Washington. It will have nothing to do with anything I did wrong. And I consider that something that will help me in heaven for sticking to my principles and not being a weakling like all these weaklings who were afraid to represent Trump.”