Inside Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy spending: $100 on pizza, $4 polyester ties, and ‘deep bronze’ tanning lotion

• Randy Giuliani is dropping coin on polyester ties and pizza, bankruptcy records show.
• Unfortunately for his creditors, he's spending more money than in previous months.
• Some of the financial disclosures that Giuliani prepared himself don't add up.

Now we know what it looks like when Rudy Giuliani tightens his belt.

The former New York City mayor disclosed excruciating details of his financial life with a series of bankruptcy court filings this week, detailing a month of his income and spending.

Unfortunately for Giuliani's creditors looking to satisfy his $153 million in debt, he spent more in May — the month covered in the disclosures — than in previous months.

The most eye-popping expenses include pricy restaurant bills while he evaded being served a criminal indictment for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona. They also include quite a few Amazon purchases, including cheap ties and "deep bronze" tanning lotion.

Giuliani earned $61,717 in income in May and spent about $33,000. The spending is thousands of dollars higher than in previous months, which creditors have already complained is irresponsibly excessive.

For the first time, Giuliani disclosed the financial details of Giuliani Communications, the company he owns that produces his video livestreams on social media.

It, too, is operating in the red — especially since his radio show was canceled last month.

In response to questions about her work for Giuliani Communications, Maria Ryan, the company's president, discussed theories about coronavirus vaccines and said she was "very disappointed" in Business Insider.

Giuliani has an Amazon habit

Giuliani's largest expense is the $12,000 monthly maintenance fee for his New York City co-op, which Giuliani is trying to sell. The 80-year-old with no dependents also seems to spend hundreds of dollars each month on groceries.

Several of the exhibits included in Tuesday's cache of filings detail Giuliani's spending on Amazon. To compile them, Giuliani appeared to take photos of his laptop showing each Amazon order and then added them to a black-and-white PDF before submitting them to court.

They show expenses you would expect from a social media vlogger, including a tripod and USB cables.

They also include personal items, including coffee (Giuliani appears to be fond of illy), socks, and a lot of neckties.

On May 7, Giuliani spent $22.98 on a 6-pack of "Men's Necktie Classic Silk Tie Woven Jacquard Neck Ties," which comprised a filibuster-proof majority of the nine ties he ordered from Amazon that month.

"The ties aren't silk, but I expected that to be a lie, so it was kind of baked in to the price," one Amazon reviewer wrote.

Photos on the Amazon listing do not show a fabric composition tag. A tag in a photo for another tie from the same brand on eBay says it's made from 100% polyester. Listings for other ties from the same brand on AliExpress and Shein show they are made from 100% polyester.

That comes to a very good deal of less than $4 per tie. But it's not clear why Giuliani, who has worked at the highest levels of politics and law — he was a personal attorney to Donald Trump during his presidency and served as the US Attorney in Manhattan — needed new ties.

Giuliani also spent about $13 on a 6-ounce bottle of "Jergens Natural Glow Instant Sun Sunless Tanning Moisturizer + Bronzer, Self Tanner, Deep Bronze, for Natural-Looking Tan."

Hopefully, he was satisfied. Giuliani has had problems with cosmetics in the past.

Giuliani's financial statements also show multiple Amazon purchases in the $3-10 range, appearing to show he purchased movies or TV episodes for streaming. The documents filed to court don't disclose what he watched.

While Giuliani was evading service for a criminal indictment from Arizona on election interference charges — he was eventually served on May 17 and posted a $10,000 bond — he racked up pricey restaurant bills in Palm Beach, where he owns a condominium apartment. For dinner on May 9, he dropped $167 at a restaurant called Bricktop's. The next day, $113 for a meal at City Pizza. And the day after that, another $119 at the Italian joint Bice.

Mysteriously, Giuliani — who, again, has no dependents — appears to have two different bills each marked as a "Telephone expense." His AT&T bill is $228, and he pays Verizon $256 per month.

Some numbers don't add up

Much to the consternation of creditors, retirement funds such as Individual Retirement Accounts are generally protected from bankruptcy proceedings. But creditors accuse Giuliani of using money from it irresponsibly.

For the first time, Giuliani disclosed that his IRA at Citi — which forms the bulk of his net worth — had a balance of about $2.5 million in 2022.

But the numbers in a table he provided in a Tuesday filing showing its disbursements don't seem to add up.

According to the filing, Giuliani withdrew $1.8 million from the account between 2022 and 2023.

That should have left him with a balance of about $700,000 at the start of 2024, when he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But Citi bank documents filed to court show a balance of over $1 million.

It's not clear what caused the discrepancy. Neither Giuliani's spokesperson nor his bankruptcy lawyers immediately responded to a request for comment.

In previous filings, lawyers for Giuliani said he withdrew heavily from his retirement account over the past several years to build up Giuliani Communications, the company that produces his video blogs, where he discusses politics.

Giuliani's vlogging company is operating in the red

Balance of Nature, a vitamin supplements company, was Giuliani Communications' biggest sponsor in May, paying the company $11,500.

Giuliani Communications also made $1,200 from MyPillow, the bedding company owned by Mike Lindell, another election conspiracy theorist who has been the subject of numerous defamation lawsuits.

Newsmax, which hosts one of Giuliani's shows, paid $8,300 that month. And he made another $2,200 from X, formerly known as Twitter, where he livestreams.

Giuliani's biggest payment came from WABC, the New York radio station owned by Republican billionaire and grocery store mogul John Catsimatidis, which paid him $15,000 per month.

That income is now gone. The station dropped Giuliani in that month after he continued to push false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

On a monthly basis, Giuliani Communications spends more money than it makes — even before the WABC cancellation.

Giuliani pays himself $45,000 each month, exceeding the company's combined income (Giuliani Communications had about $200,000 left on its balance sheet in May).

He also pays $10,000 per month to Maria Ryan, Giuliani's reported girlfriend who also serves as the company's president and recently brokered a deal with a coffee company to sell "Rudy's Coffee."

In an email to Business Insider responding to a question about her salary, Ryan, who previously worked in healthcare administration, said she took a reduced salary to work for Giuliani and said "there are people who still do not know the truth about the origins of Covid 19."

"I took a large pay cut to join Giuliani Communications," she wrote. "I did it because as an American 🇺🇸 I saw the censorship during the pandemic."

"I am very disappointed in you. There are no real journalists left," she added later in her email. "You are attacking me why? Because I am President of Giuliani communications."

"Please leave me alone. I am a grandmother of five and they are traumatized by you," she continued.

The filings come at a perilous time for Giuliani. The federal bankruptcy judge overseeing his case is considering whether to appoint a bankruptcy trustee, who would be able to control his financial life without encumbrance.

Nearly all of Giuliani's debt comes from a $148 million jury judgment against him in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers, who he falsely claimed manipulated ballots.

The bankruptcy process has halted them from enforcing the judgment and seizing his assets outright. Giuliani's lawyers have asked the bankruptcy judge to hit the pause button on the Chapter 11 process while he pursues appeals in the defamation litigation.

"Unbelievably, Mr. Giuliani continues to spend state, party, and judicial resources in pursuit of an appeal that would be fully briefed by now had he himself not chosen to seek chapter 11 reorganization instead," lawyers for the Georgia workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss, wrote in a letter filed to court Wednesday. "This is one more demonstration among many that Mr. Giuliani cannot be trusted to manage his own bankruptcy."

Giuliani's lawyers have said he's struggling to pay for an accountant to put together the monthly bankruptcy reports, which has led to hiccups in past filings.

Earlier filings were compiled by Joseph Ricci, an accountant whose firm was paid $4,000 by Giuliani Communications in May. Ricci has since declined to work on the banruptcy, Giuliani's lawyers have said.

The most recent reports name Giuliani himself as the party "responsible" for compiling them.

One of Giuliani's monthly expenses includes Merry Maids, a home cleaning service. Giuliani paid $195, which is pretty good for a 2,200-square-foot 3-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Confusingly, Giuliani was billed twice for the service on the same day, on May 3, which shows why it's always a good idea to double-check your bills.