Rudy Giuliani forced to pay nearly $300k to firm that probed his finances in tossed bankruptcy case

Cash-strapped former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani must still pay roughly $300,000 to a firm hired to investigate his finances, a bankruptcy judge ordered Tuesday, despite Giuliani’s request to reduce that amount by nearly $80,000.

More than a month after his Chapter 11 bankruptcy case was officially dismissed, a dispute between Giuliani and Global Data Risk (GDR), a firm hired by Giuliani’s creditors to investigate his finances, has still plagued the case. The dismissal order requires the former mayor to pay the firm’s expenses — but he objected to the amount the firm says it is owed.

Judge Sean Lane on Tuesday agreed that a “slight reduction” was appropriate, so he ordered a 7.5 percent cut from the original amount, saving the former mayor about $25,000.

In a September 11 filing, Giuliani’s lawyers had asked the court to slash the amount that the former mayor owed by $77,275.00, a 24 percent reduction.

GDR had asked the former mayor to reimburse the firm more than $330,000 for the nearly 1,200 hours of work performed from February 9 through July 11 in the bankruptcy case. That amount of research was “necessary because of the Debtor’s obstructionist tactics and repeated failure to comply with the Court’s orders,” GDR argued.

Giuliani’s lawyers, however, claimed the firm only worked 281 hours and accused them of “engaging in duplicative billing,” citing entries that show multiple members of the firm attended the same meeting or performed the same task.

“I’m not a big fan of objecting to people’s fees,” Giuliani’s lawyer began on Tuesday. “Based upon the hours worked, it seems excessive.”

The judge didn’t entirely buy the argument. Over the seven-month-long case, there was an “alarming and inappropriate lack of