Rudy Giuliani is one step closer to paying the piper after a federal judge tossed his bankruptcy case on Friday.
The move should make it easier for Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss to collect on their $148 million defamation judgment against him.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane of Manhattan said that Giuliani’s “uncooperative conduct” and “red flag” failure to hire an accountant contributed to the dismissal of his Chapter 11 case.
The end of Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, which he first filed seven months ago, removes a big obstacle for his creditors, including Freeman and Moss, who won a massive civil lawsuit against him in December for falsely implicating them in Trump’s 2020 Big Lie.
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy days after the defamation judgment was issued. The rest was classic Rudy: He spent the next several months delaying and infuriating everyone involved. He did that largely by failing to meet basic requirements imposed on a debtor in bankruptcy, including not hiring an accountant, missing deadlines, filing inconsistent and incomplete financial records, and shielding much of his finances from the court.
At times, the manner in which Giuliani concealed his money from the bankruptcy was itself revealing. Attorneys for the creditors grew irritated after realizing that Giuliani was using his businesses to cover many of his own expenses and some of those belonging to others close to him.
In another episode, Giuliani announced on social media that he had launched a new, income-generating business venture: Rudy Coffee. The problem was that Giuliani failed to disclose the new source of income in the bankruptcy case, further aggravating those around him.
As the bankruptcy case dragged on, creditors asked the judge to either dismiss the case or to appoint a trustee that would commandeer Giuliani’s assets. At a hearing this week, Giuliani said that if such a trustee were put into place, he would promptly stop engaging in any activity that might generate income, leaving less money for his creditors.
The Wednesday hearing also saw Giuliani interrupt the proceedings at one point, exclaiming at an attorney who was listing his efforts to obstruct the bankruptcy that her comments were “defamatory.”
In the end, Judge Lane found that Giuliani was fundamentally uncooperative, writing that the search for transparency into his finances was an “elusive goal.”
The ruling now opens the door for Freeman and Moss to seek to enforce the defamation judgment on Giuliani directly. That could take the form of legal action seeking to seize his Manhattan apartment, or to garnish whatever income he continues to generate.
But most of all it represents another stage of Giuliani’s downfall from his peak as America’s mayor to now-disbarred attorney on the run from creditors with no bankruptcy protection to keep them at bay any longer.
Read the ruling here:
Let’s play The Price Is Right…
…Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss come on down!
Appoint a trustee and/or lock his @ss up at this point.
His threat to not make any more money if there’s a trustee should be seen the same as all his missed obligations and deadlines to date – he’s not a trustrworthy individual and is gaming the system. America’s
MayorEmbarrassment, indeed…Giuliani is obviously hiding something that would probably deal a blow to Trumpy, he has failed to turn over docs in other cases as well. Need to find out what he is hiding. Shay and Moss should move to take ALL his property immediately.
I’ll take this bit of good news at the end of an otherwise infuriating week, depressing, even. May they catch him before he leaves the country, gets pardoned, or is declared to be above the law.
Another person attached to Trump who has given his all to the man.
I wonder if he ends up with a small closet, remodeled at Mar-a-lago in gratitude. A cot, hot plate and maybe a decent light bulb. What more does he need? Maybe when Trump wants to fluff up his clientele, he pulls him out in front of the crowd. Makes him dance a bit and puts him back next to the mops and buckets.