Rudy Giuliani says forcing him to sell Florida condo could make him ‘join the ranks of the homeless’

Disgraced former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani owes millions of dollars — but he claims that bankruptcy creditors forcing him to sell his condo in Palm Beach, Florida is “premature”, new court filings show.

Mr Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December after a jury ordered him to pay $148m to two Georgia election workers that he defamed. Last month, he filed for an appeal on the jury’s decision.

On 15 March, the Committee of Unsecured Creditors – which represents individuals and entities to whom Mr Giuliani owes money or soon could — filed a motion in bankruptcy court requesting the court to force the former mayor to sell his Florida condo.

In response, the former mayor’s lawyers filed a motion on Thursday claiming that Mr Giuliani would be “irreparably harmed” if the Florida condo is sold and then the defamation payment ruling is overturned on appeal.

The committee is “assuming that most if not all” of that judgment “will survive on appeal,” his lawyers wrote, which they argue is “premature and without legal authority.”

Mr Giuliani splits his time between his Florida and New York City properties, the lawyers wrote. Both Mr Giuliani and the committee agree that the Manhattan apartment “should be sold.” Once it’s sold, the former mayor intends to make the Palm Beach condo his primary home, the filing says.

(EPA)

Mr Giuliani valued his home in Palm Beach at $3.5m in previous court filings. That makes it is his second most valuable reported assets, with his Manhattan apartment worth even more. The three-bedroom Upper East Side apartment was previously listed for $6.5m but has since been taken off the market, with its value in bankruptcy court filings slashed by nearly a million.

Lawyers for the committee previously argued that the Florida condo is “a significant drain on estate resources.” In January alone, Mr Giuliani made two maintenance fee payments of $15,995, the 15 March filing said.

By contrast, the ex-mayor’s lawyers claim that he pays roughly $8,400 per month on maintenance and real estate taxes.

Mr Giuliani’s attorneys added that while the committee believes he is acting in “reckless abandon” by insisting on holding onto the Florida condo, the former mayor is actually “using sound business judgment by understanding that he cannot afford or legally maintain two properties.”

If Mr Giuliani is forced to sell his Florida home, then he will “be forced to incur expenses for alternative housing,” his lawyers argued. “Surely the Committee does not intend [Mr Giuliani] to join the ranks of the homeless?”

On top of this, the filing states that Mr Giuliani uses both of his residences to operate his podcast businesses, citing that each home has a “studio.” He will “need a place to operate the Podcast from if he is to earn money therefrom,” the lawyers wrote.

The money he earns from the podcast “would only serve to benefit creditors,” the filing says.

The battle to figure out how the man formerly known as “America’s Mayor” can pay back the millions he owes has led to creditors considering all sorts of possibilities, including “discussing” the possibility of forcing him to sue his former client Donald Trump.

Mr Giuliani previously claimed he is owed that sum for his spurious effort to overturn 2020 election results; however, Mr Giuliani has been insistent that he is owed not by the former president, but by the Republican National Committee or the Trump campaign.

“Mayor Giuliani will not be suing President Trump,” Mr Giuliani’s political advisor toldThe Independent at the time.

(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

But even as creditors mull over how best to get the debt they’re owed, family tragedy may provide an unexpected source of available cash. Last week, Mr Giuliani’s former mother-in-law died, according to an obituary.

Under monthly expenses on a 26 January bankruptcy court filing, Mr Giuliani listed that he pays his ex-wife Judith Giuliani $5,000 in alimony payments every month, which he described at a February hearing as going “to [Judith] but for her mother.”

Mr Giuliani and Judith were married for 16 years.

The filing states that he also pays $13,500 per month for “court ordered payments to mother-in-law.” Both of these monthly payments have been amounting to $222,000 per year. It’s unclear how that amount will affect the creditors, who are owed tens of million of dollars, in the future.

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