Rudy Giuliani receives estate in bankruptcy proceedings

A financial investigation firm has agreed at the last minute to a reduction in Rudy Giuliani’s $324,843 bill for a bankruptcy investigation.

Global Data Risk filed an emergency motion Thursday seeking bankruptcy court approval for the deal it made with Giuliani’s bankruptcy trustee.

However, the former New York mayor disagreed with the deal and claimed he was overpaid by more than $150,000.

Global data risk [GDR] was hired by Giuliani’s bankruptcy creditors to investigate his finances and ensure that he was not hiding any assets or income.

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December last year after a jury awarded $148 million to two Georgia election workers who won a defamation lawsuit against him. As Donald Trump’s lawyer in 2020, Giuliani falsely accused mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss of adding ballots for Joe Biden, who won the state.

Judge Sean Lane agreed that Giuliani could withdraw his bankruptcy filing, but ruled that GDR must first be paid for its financial investigation.

Newsweek asked GDR and Giuliani’s spokesperson for comment via email on Friday.

On Thursday, GDR Lane announced that it had reached an agreement on Guiliani’s fee with the US Trustee, the government agency that oversees bankruptcy cases.

The GDR did not disclose the terms of the agreement.

The agreement came just before GDR was due to file its response to Giuliani’s accusation that he had overpaid.

“Prior to the deadline to object to the motion, the U.S. Trustee for the Southern District of New York (the “U.S. Trustee”) contacted GDR with some informal comments and questions regarding the motion,” GDR’s lawyers wrote in Thursday’s filing.

“To resolve these comments and answer questions prior to the final fee hearing, GDR engaged in productive and confidential discussions with the U.S. Trustee. On September 19, 2024, GDR and the U.S. Trustee reached a resolution in which GDR voluntarily agreed to reduce the amount of fees and expenses for which it seeks final approval from this Court,” they added.

They also pointed out that Giuliani’s formal objection to the GDR fee was now the only obstacle to resolving the dispute.

“Now that GDR has addressed the U.S. Trustee’s concerns with the motion, the opposition is the only objection to the motion,” Thursday’s filing said.

In a September 11 filing, Giuliani’s attorney formally contested GDR’s fees, accusing the firm of overcharging him by $151,000. Giuliani’s legal team claimed that Global Data Risk, “routinely [ …] double billing.”

The GDR team asked for permission to submit a belated response to Giuliani to “respond to the remaining contentious points raised in the [Giuliani] Opposition.”