Rudy Giuliani needs a little coffee money—and so does the Miami-based roastery that’s scooping out the once-beloved mayor’s new line of signature java blends.
A very caffeinated-sounding Giuliani provoked online mockery on May 19 when he appeared on a computer-generated background to hawk Rudy Coffee, the latest in a steady drip-drip of odd products the suspended ex-Trump lawyer has promoted as his brewing legal and financial woes threaten to boil over. But it turns out that the famously unfiltered Republican isn’t the only party in the new venture going through bankruptcy proceedings and hoping to get back into the black.
It wasn’t long after Giuliani dropped the strange promo on Twitter, inviting viewers to visit the new coffee line’s website, that The Daily Beast research team sprang into action and identified Rudy Coffee as a partnership with Burke Brands and its Don Pablo coffee.
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And the news soon percolated into the courtroom, as five days following the video posting, attorneys for the mayor’s creditors subpoenaed Burke Brands and demanded they spill the beans about the deal. Four days after that, the same lawyers filed a ream of documents that included the inked agreement between the ex-mayor and the roastery, which explicitly stated “Giuliani will be entitled to 80% of net profit of each sale of Rudy Coffee.” The money will pour into a Missouri-based bank account for Giuliani Communications LLC, according to the accord.
Further, the April 23 contract estimates that every 32-ounce bag of coffee will mean $5.039 in green, while a four-pound bag will grind out $10.285 in profit, and the biggest 76 ounce sack will net $14.284.
Meanwhile, The Daily Beast found that two days before Giuliani posted his surreal jamocha spiel, Burke Brands entered a new filing in its own bankruptcy case. The coffee maker first filed for Chapter 11 in December 2022, almost one year to the day before Giuliani, claiming between one and $10 million in assets and the same range in outstanding liabilities.
The court approved a plan in December of last year that would see it pay one group of creditors $100,000 both this year and next, and then $200,000 in 2026, thus resolving the debt. But on May 17, Burke Brands requested to change this arrangement, paying on a month-by-month basis until January 2025, and pledging to fully discharge the debt in January 2026. The firm’s attorney gave no reason for this requested change, but the judge set a hearing for June 20.
An attorney for Burke Brands maintained that the rough alignment between his motion to modify the debt discharge plan and the Rudy Coffee launch—and both his client and its new partner being in Chapter 11 bankruptcy—was “completely coincidental.”
“It had completely to do with the fact that we had scheduled all our general and unsecured creditor payments for the beginning of the year, and we wanted to have them spread out,” lawyer Aaron Wernick told The Daily Beast. “It’s easier on cash flow to have monthly payments rather than big chunks.”
Meanwhile, Giuliani recently took his viewers on a video tour of what he described as Rudy Coffee’s roasting grounds, eager to prove what he’s selling is no average joe.
Giuliani’s press team didn’t answer repeated questions about how the kaffeklatsch came together. But a spokesman asserted that bags of the are already “flying off the shelves.” Asked about Burke Brands’ bankruptcy, the represented suggested that association with the abortive 2000 Senate candidate and failed 2008 presidential contender might perk up the company’s prospects.
“Maybe some of the mayor’s past success will rub off on them,” adviser Ted Goodman said.
