Hey Rudy, where’s the money?
That’s what a federal judge appeared to be wondering while warning he may have to drag Rudy Giuliani to court after the former New York City mayor claimed he was too broke to pay administrative fees in his recently tossed bankruptcy case.
Giuliani’s failure to pay the standard fees — even as he holds on to nearly $10 million of real estate — technically stalls the case’s dismissal from becoming official.
“An order dismissing the case has not been entered due to a dispute regarding the payment of administrative expenses incurred during the case,” Judge Sean H. Lane wrote in a July 25 letter, “namely, whether and how the Debtor will pay such expenses.”
The judge warned he might have to force the recently disbarred lawyer to come to Manhattan federal court to testify and prove how broke he is.
It’s unclear how much Giuliani — once dubbed “America’s Mayor” for this response to the 9/11 terror attacks — owes in fees.
An attorney unaffiliated with the case said that while such fees can sometimes rise to six figures, Giuliani’s debt is likely far lower since the legal matter only lasted a few months.
Giuliani’s bankruptcy case was dismissed July 12 after his “repeated failure” to be financially transparent, Lane wrote.
The same judge argued in June that a trustee should be appointed to oversee Giuliani’s finances since the former “tough on crime” federal prosecutor could not be trusted after his “dishonesty, incompetence and gross mismanagement of [his] affairs.”
Giuliani still contends that he lacks the funds to pay financial advisors who participated in the bankruptcy proceedings — but did not provide evidence to back up his deadbeat claim.
“Instead, the Debtor has simply refused to pay these expenses,” Lane wrote in the July 25 letter.
But Giuliani does have some money — roughly $10 million at least, the judge said.
While the true extent of Rudy’s assets remain hidden, Lane says that it is “undisputed” that Giuliani is still in possession of a small real estate fortune, including a $5.6 million Upper East Side apartment and a $3.5 million Florida condo.
That might explain why Lane is pursuing full payment from Giuliani, though judges in such cases can dismiss pro-forma fees if they prove to be truly unaffordable.
The letter said Giuliani may have to give further “testimony under oath,” despite the chance that “this path might mirror in some ways the unsuccessful efforts at financial transparency that have plagued the case to date.”
Lane said the court and Giuliani’s team might even need to reconsider the case’s dismissal and impose a trustee to oversee the disgraced mayor’s assets and to “promptly liquidate assets such as the New York apartment as appropriate.”
Giuliani’s lawyers in a separate $10 million sexual harassment and wage theft suit — one of several civil cases pending against him — seized on Lane’s letter.
That case, filed by Noelle Dunphy, was previously delayed pending the bankruptcy proceedings. The attorneys argued in a recent filing that since the bankruptcy dismissal hasn’t yet been made official, the suit should be paused once again.
“Lifting the bankruptcy stay is premature and improper,” they wrote.
A source with knowledge of the case says that the judge declined to reinstate the pause, but agreed to move a hearing scheduled for this week to sometime in the fall.
Giuliani’s lawyers didn’t return a request for comment Monday.
