Rudy Giuliani, former personal attorney to former US President Donald Trump, arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman US District Court in Washington, DC, on December 15, 2023.
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Creditors want to force Rudy Giuliani to sell his $3.5 million Florida condo to help pay off his significant debts, according to a court document filed Friday.
The former New York City mayor filed for bankruptcy protection in December, citing a myriad of unpaid debts, including a $148 million payment to two Georgia poll workers who he falsely claimed tampered with 2020 election votes while he was a lawyer. For former President Donald Trump. Trump card.
In response to the request on Friday, Giuliani's lawyer said the request to sell the Florida condo was “extremely premature.”
“The case is still in its infancy,” said Heath Berger, a partner at Berger, Fischoff, Shumer, Wexler & Goodman, LLP, who is representing Giuliani in the bankruptcy filing.
Giuliani has argued that he does not have the funds to repay his debts. “According to the debtor's counsel, there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” the court filing said Friday.
Berger told CNBC that Giuliani's primary income comes from Social Security payments and money from his individual retirement account.
But the court document noted various expenses Giuliani now pays to maintain his lifestyle.
For example, Giuliani spends tens of thousands of dollars a month maintaining his apartment in Florida. In January, according to the document, he also took more than $26,200 in credit card payments on 60 Amazon transactions, with charges for Netflix, Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, Paramount+, Uber rides and more.
“Unfortunately, like everyone else, this is a debit card for him,” Berger said. “We don't think there's anything out of the ordinary, outside of the normal cost of living.”
Creditors see his real estate assets as fair game to recover what is owed. They said his “pre-war co-op” apartment on New York City's Upper East Side was exempt because it was his principal residence.
However, the document said that Giuliani spends “approximately 20 to 30% of his time in Florida,” and thus the creditors demanded that the $3.5 million apartment must be sold.
“It is merely a matter of when, not if, the debtor will have to sell the Florida condo in order to distribute its proceeds to creditors,” the filing said.
Berger said Giuliani is in the process of selling the Manhattan apartment and is looking to move into his Florida residence full-time.
“Property in Manhattan is more expensive to maintain. Its value is higher, so there will be a bigger distribution to creditors from selling that property,” Berger told CNBC.
Berger added that payments related to his divorce “will expire… within the next year or so.”
The creditors also demanded that Giuliani secure homeowners' insurance for his residences in Florida and New York City since they are his most valuable assets and “if anything happened to either of them, such a loss would be a significant impediment to creditors' recovery.”
Giuliani claimed he could not afford insurance, the court document said.
The former Trump adviser has faced a slew of legal troubles for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results, all of which helped land him in bankruptcy court. His December bankruptcy filing estimated he had between $1 million and $10 million in assets and about $152 million to pay off, including what he owed the IRS and law firms.
