Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani departs the U.S. District Courthouse after he was ordered to pay $148 million in his defamation case in Washington, U.S., December 15, 2023.
Bonnie Cash | Reuters
One of the largest donations to Rudy Giuliani’s legal defense fund is at the center of a new lawsuit that argues the $100,000 contribution rightfully belongs to victims of an alleged online fraud scheme.
The donation by Matthew Martorano in September accounted for nearly 13% of all the money that Giuliani, the former attorney for Donald Trump and New York City mayor, raised in the fund.
The fund was intended to help Giuliani pay for lawyers in the Georgia election interference case — where Trump is a co-defendant — and in a civil defamation case that Giuliani lost, brought by two Georgia election workers.
But the plaintiff in the new civil suit — filed after CNBC reported on Martorano’s donation earlier this year —claims that $100,000 flowed from Martorano’s participation in an alleged online skincare product scam. They are seeking “to unwind” the donation to Giuliani.
There is no public evidence that Giuliani and Martorano know each other. CNBC has asked a spokesman for Giuliani if they did.
Still, the claim adds another layer of legal wrangling to the fight over Giuliani’s remaining assets. The former mayor filed for bankruptcy protection in December, after a judge ordered him to pay the election workers $146 million.
Giuliani “should give all the money back” that he received from Martorano, said Kevin Kneupper, the attorney who filed the lawsuit alleging fraudulent transfer in Fulton County against Martorano, his wife, and corporate entities on behalf of his client, LeAnne Tan.
Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman, in an email to CNBC, said “This is a lawsuit unrelated to us.” He had no immediate additional comment.
CNBC requested comment from lawyers for Martorano, his wife, and the other defendants in both the Georgia lawsuit and a federal civil racketeering and fraud…
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