By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge criticized Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday for spending money on his Florida condo and traveling to the Republican National Convention while avoiding paying bankruptcy fees.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane ruled last week that Giuliani should be thrown out of bankruptcy for failing to make required financial disclosures, but the ruling did not take effect immediately.
Giuliani, donald trumpDavid’s former lawyer still owes bankruptcy expenses of about $350,000 to creditors who were forced to hire investigative accountants to fill gaps in their financial reports.
Lane said during a hearing Wednesday in White Plains, New York, that he was “at a loss” what to do next given Giuliani’s continued lack of cooperation with the bankruptcy court.
Lane suggested he could keep Giuliani in bankruptcy while the court investigates ways to make him pay creditors’ fees, or force the former mayor to fly back to New York to testify about his available cash.
“There are a lot of things that your client doesn’t want to happen that could happen,” Lane told Giuliani’s lawyers.
Lane ordered Giuliani to come up with a plan to pay the lender’s fees within 24 hours.
Giuliani, 80, filed for bankruptcy protection in December after a Washington, D.C., court ordered him to pay $148 million to two Georgia election officials whom he falsely accused of rigging votes in the 2020 presidential election , won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Bankruptcy prevented former Georgia election officials Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman from collecting that judgment. It also froze other cases against Giuliani arising from his work for Trump, the former Republican president, seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Rachel Strickland, an attorney for Moss and Freeman, said Wednesday that Giuliani was up to “mischief, once again” and continued to spend 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 fees for his condominium in Florida and on expenses in Milwaukee, where the former New York mayor is attending the Convention National Republican, Strickland said.
When Giuliani’s bankruptcy is dismissed, creditors will be able to resume lawsuits against him, and this also frees Giuliani to appeal the $148 million defamation judgment.
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Cynthia Osterman)
