Left: Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporters outside apartment building in Aug. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig). Right: Shaye Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother Ruby Freeman during a Jan. 6 Committee hearing in June 2022 (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File).
Defamed 2020 election workers seeking to enforce the $148 million dollar judgment they won against Rudy Giuliani in late 2023 successfully persuaded a federal judge on Thursday that the former NYC mayor’s attempt to protect the bank account of his “alter ego” company Giuliani Communications, LLC was “frivolous and must be quashed.”
The upshot of the ruling from U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, a 2019 Donald Trump appointee, is that funds in a bank account at Parkside Financial Bank & Trust are effectively restrained — that is, frozen — as Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss continue their efforts to collect Giuliani’s assets through turnover.
As Law&Crime reported weeks ago, Freeman and Moss asked the judge to quash Giuliani’s claimed “exemption” over the Parkside account, calling that tactic “frivolous” and asking the judge to keep a restraining notice in place until he decides on their asset “turnover motion.”
The bank account at issue, the plaintiffs said, is the designated destination under an agreement with Burke Brands for wiring Giuliani “80% of net profit of each sale of Rudy Coffee” on a monthly basis.
Rudy Giuliani sales pitch for “Rudy Coffee,” as posted on his X account in May (@RudyGiuliani).
Freeman and Moss argued that Giuliani frivolously cited a law meant to protect “natural persons” — a human person, not a corporate person — from draconian restraints, just so he could “shield” Giuliani Communications’ funds from potentially going towards paying off the massive judgment. That, the plaintiffs added, was a continuation of “evasion and obstruction” tactics that have been ongoing since they first sued Giuliani for defamation.
On Thursday, Judge Liman agreed that Giuliani’s claimed exemption was “frivolous” and “swiftly” dispatched his arguments.
The judge began by noting that Giuliani has “failed to pay any portion” of the $148 million judgment and, thus far, “has not responded” to a subpoena and restraining notice that Freeman and Moss had served on him by “certified mail.”
More Law&Crime coverage: Andrew Giuliani rushes to stop defamed 2020 election workers from collecting New York Yankees superfan dad’s World Series rings, submits photo proof
Under the notice, the judge said, the funds in the Parkside account cannot be disturbed “except upon direction of the sheriff or pursuant to court order, until the judgment was vacated or satisfied.”
While Giuliani asserted that he was entitled to an exemption because there’s only a judgment against him personally, not against Giuliani Communications, the judge determined the “exemption claim is frivolous and must be quashed” — given Giuliani’s “own admission and the irrefutable evidence” that the bank account “does not belong to a natural person.”
Notably, the judge did not rule that the funds in the Parkside account have to be turned over to Freeman and Moss, as that’s an issue for another day. Instead, he kept an existing freeze on the account in place.
“Accordingly, the Court need not determine at this stage whether those funds are subject to turnover to satisfy the judgment, through the doctrine of alter ego or otherwise. It is sufficient to conclude that Defendant is not entitled to the benefits of C.P.L.R. 5222-a with respect to the Parkside account and thus has no basis for his exemption claim,” the judge wrote. “There is a vehicle by which Defendant or Giuliani Communications could have sought a modification of the restraining notice on the grounds that the notice restrains property in which Defendant has no interest, but neither Defendant nor Giuliani Communications has availed itself of that mechanism.”
Law&Crime sought comment from a Giuliani spokesman.
While Freeman and Moss’ enforcement action against Giuliani continues, their defamation lawsuit against right-wing site the Gateway Pundit appears to be coming to an end. A notice of settlement this week indicated that the case will be dismissed near the end of May 2025 provided that the currently unknown “terms” of the agreement are fulfilled.
Read the judge’s memo and order quashing Giuliani’s exemption claim here.
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