A judge formally closed Rudolph Giuliani’s bankruptcy proceedings on Friday after he and his creditors resolved a dispute over how to pay his administrative fees.
The formal order lifts bankruptcy protection that has allowed the administration of assets for months and resumes an attempt by two Georgia election officials to recover $148 million in defamation damages from the New York mayor.
Three weeks ago, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane decided to dismiss the bankruptcy proceedings, citing a lack of financial transparency from Mr. Giuliani that was at the root of months of growing tension, but a dispute over expenses has since prevented Judge Lane from issuing a formal order.
Judge Lane reached the end of his patience with the standoff over how Giuliani should provide roughly $400,000 to a court-approved firm that creditors had hired to investigate his assets. In heated hearings and written arguments, the judge had threatened to compel Giuliani, the former personal lawyer to former President Trump, to testify under oath to answer questions about his available assets.
in A concise letter In a bankruptcy petition filed in court on Wednesday morning, Giuliani and his creditors suddenly announced the agreement, which Lane signed on Friday, to formally dismiss the lawsuit and immediately lift Giuliani’s bankruptcy protection.
That will allow two Georgia election officials, Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, to begin seizing Giuliani’s assets to collect the $148 million judgment, though they will likely recover much less than that. Giuliani disclosed assets of $10.6 million to the bankruptcy court.
The two won a jury trial in December over Giuliani’s baseless claims that the two committed massive election fraud in 2020. Giuliani quickly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, freezing the judgment and other pending lawsuits against him.
under Terms and conditions, Mr. Giuliani must put $100,000 into escrow, which his lawyers said was already transferred on Tuesday, and the rest will come from the sale of his New York apartment or Florida mansion, which together make up the bulk of his assets.
Global Data Risk, whose expenses Mr Giuliani must cover, can force a sale within six months if he fails to act.
The agreement came after Giuliani’s creditors complained to a bankruptcy judge that he had not provided enough information about his assets to agree on how to pay the expenses.
Lane has repeatedly urged the parties to meet again to resolve the issue, but acknowledged last week that “no resolution is in sight.”
Giuliani’s creditors committee was made up of Moss, one of his campaign staffers, Dominion Voting Systems, the electronic voting machine company that sued Giuliani after the 2020 election, and Noel Dunphy, a former Giuliani employee who filed a lawsuit alleging sexual assault, harassment and unpaid wages.
The dismissal of the bankruptcy filing also unfreezes the lawsuits against the former mayor and federal prosecutors, but the cases have yet to go to trial, meaning campaign staffers may end up with nothing to recover after all their efforts.
