Colonie accounting firm sues Giuliani to collect $10K for divorce work

ALBANY — A Latham accounting firm is suing Rudy Giuliani for $25,000 on allegations the former New York City mayor failed to pay for services the business rendered in connection with his most recent divorce. 

The 79-year-old Giuliani — a one-time mob-busting U.S. attorney in Manhattan and private attorney for former President Donald Trump now suspended from practicing law and under indictment in Georgia — retained the certified public accounting firm of BST & Co. on April 4, 2014. The firm appraised Giuliani’s business interests and other financial consulting duties to use in Giuliani’s divorce from his third wife, Judith, according to court papers filed in state Supreme Court in Albany.

The firm said it abided by the agreement and that Giuliani paid more than $10,871 of his debt in April 2023. But it alleged that Giuliani has stiffed the firm $10,000. The suit asked for an additional $15,000 in attorney fees from Giuliani, a Republican who served as New York City’s mayor between 1993 and 2001.

The lawsuit is the latest legal financial problem for Giuliani. In September, his former lawyer sued him alleging Giuliani only paid a fraction of nearly $1.6 million in legal fees he’d racked up from investigations into his efforts to keep Trump in the White House after the 2020 election. He faces other legal fees and the potential of a massive financial penalty in a Georgie defamation case. Giuliani recently listed his New York apartment for $6.5 million

In October 2021, BST’s managing member, Michael J. Raymond, informed Giuliani of the unpaid amount. He warned Giuliani that the firm would refer the matter it its attorney if the money was not paid in two weeks. On Dec. 9, 2021, after Giuliani still had not paid the money, Raymond issued the same warning, this time extending the deadline to Dec. 22, 2021.

“It is not our desire to undertake such a distasteful course of action and we have been extremely patient to this point, but your continued disregard of your obligation to this firm can no longer be tolerated,” Raymond wrote Giuliani. “We thank you in advance for your immediate attention to this matter.”

On Aug. 9, 2023, the Albany law firm of Tabner, Ryan & Keniry sent Giuliani a letter beginning with the words: “Dear Mr. Giuliani: This is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information will be used for that purpose.”

The law firm reminded Giuliani that he owed BST the unpaid $10,000 and asked for payment within 30 days. The lawsuit was then filed Monday by Eric N. Dratler, an attorney for Tabner, Ryan & Keniry.

An attorney for Giuliani could not be immediately reached.

Once heralded as “America’s Mayor,” for his handling of the 9/11 attacks, Giuliani was indicted in August in Georgia for his alleged actions in a wide-ranging conspiracy to overturn the results of Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in November 2020. Before that, Giuliani had been harshly criticized for his actions defending Trump’s debunked claims of election fraud following the 2020 presidential election.

In 2021, following the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the former president, state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Senate’s judiciary committee, asked the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court to consider removing Giuliani’s law license, which he had held since 1969, after Giuliani suggested a “trial by combat” to the crowd.

The court suspended his license in June 2021.