The billionaire has long touted the technology's potentially catastrophic risks, often likening AI to destructive forces like nuclear weapons. Last year, Musk even backed a letter demanding a six-month pause on AI development.
Yet, in a Wednesday interview with WPP CEO Mark Read at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the Tesla CEO sounded much more chipper about the tech he's been outspoken about.
"It'll most likely be good, but we want to be careful about a potential downside," he said of AI development. "Technology will help you do anything that you want to do, and more of it."
While Musk reiterated that his position was similar to that of AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton — who has been vocal about AI safety — he also encouraged the audience to "look on the bright side."
Hinton has issued several warnings about AI's potential extinction-level threat, including the risk that it could eventually learn to manipulate humans.
While Musk warned there was still a 20% chance AI would lead to something terrible happening, he also quipped that the glass was still "80% full."
"In the positive scenario, the AI will be doing its best to make you happy. So that might work out pretty well," Musk said.
"I think the most likely outcome is one where the abundance of goods and services are available to anyone; there's no shortage of goods and services for anyone on Earth," he continued. "It wouldn't be universal basic income; it would be universal high income."
xAI has released Grok, an AI product to rival chatbots like Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT. Musk has previously criticized Google and OpenAI's offerings as "woke."
He's attempted to distinguish xAI's efforts, allowing Grok to respond to users with vulgar language, humor, and sarcasm. Musk has previously said the company aims for Grok to be "maximally truth-seeking" and "maximally curious."
Musk acknowledged some of these products' potential effects on the labor force during the Cannes Lion interview, suggesting that the rise of AI could make work optional for people.
He said this shift could provoke a "crisis of meaning" and spark societal existential concerns.
Nonetheless, Musk appears to be taking his own advice about looking on the bright side. He told an audience member: "This is the most interesting time in all of history. So, enjoy the ride."
In the 1970s, a real-estate developer proposed a futuristic tower with a giant stock-trading floor.
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Getty Images/Tony Shi Photography
A new book, "The Atlas of Never Built Architecture," explores the world as it could've been.
Authors Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin explore never-built designs from over 300 global architects.
Here's what Wall Street, Jakarta's skyline, and Ethiopia's Rift Valley could have looked like.
All buildings begin as ideas — but not all of them make it off the page.
Unfortunately, some architects' dreamy ideas are shelved due to a lack of funds, complex political maneuvering, or the death of a major financial supporter.
It was this lost library — a collection of buildings that offer glimpses into how some corners of the world could have looked — that inspired Los Angeles-based writers Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin to write the recently released book "Atlas of Never Built Architecture."
"As we unearthed each treasure, shaking off the dust clouds of memory and the inscrutability of faded ink, we were reminded that our reality is far less fixed than we think," Lubell and Goldin wrote in the introduction. "Every decision could have resulted in something different."
Lubell and Goldin assembled the sketches for and stories behind more than 300 lost skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, government buildings, cemeteries, and even a "floating theater boat that resembles a UFO," according to a press release. The proposed structures span over 100 years and 80 countries.
Below are five building designs once proposed for sites across the world, alongside a breakdown of what currently stands where they were set to rise.
Are we better off? You decide.
In 1975, an investment group called the Xanadu Corporation proposed a new hotel on the Las Vegas Strip modeled after Shangri-La, the mythical Himalayan paradise.
The proposed Xanadu hotel for the Las Vegas Strip.
Special Collections and Archives / University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The fantastical design for the proposed Xanadu hotel included a circular bar suspended in the air. It would have been supported by tucked-away columns to appear like it was floating.
Though the Xanadu hotel's original plan was approved by Las Vegas authorities, disputes over utilities and sewer lines kept it from being built.
The Excalibur hotel in Las Vegas.
Sergii Figurnyi
The site intended for Xanadu is now occupied by the Excalibur Hotel & Casino. The medieval-inspired property, which opened in 1990, was once the largest hotel in the world.
In 1961, real-estate developer William Zeckendorf acquired Manhattan's historic Singer Tower, planning to knock it down and build a new home for the New York Stock Exchange.
Illustration of Finance Place, 1963.
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
The proposed 45-story tower, called Finance Place, was described as a "beautifully tapered Mayan temple," with a massive trading floor dominating the bottom of the tower.
Designer Henry Cobb ingeniously drew a steel structure with floors suspended from the roof, allowing the trading floor to be entirely free of columns.
Zeckendorf claimed he had the support of the stock exchange, but the building never materialized.
An aerial view of One Liberty Plaza in Manhattan's Financial District.
Getty/Tony Shi Photography
Today, the square block is occupied by One Liberty Plaza, the black structure in the left foreground of the photo above.
Tenants of the 54-story building include law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, New York City's Economic Development Corporation — and Business Insider.
In the densely populated Indonesian capital of Jakarta, Indonesia, plans were unveiled in 2012 for an 88-story tower that made the most of vertical space.
Illustration of Peruri 88.
Courtesy of MVRDV
A complex of Tetris-like structures, Peruri 88 included spaces for offices, townhouses, a luxury hotel, movie theaters, a wedding chapel, and a mosque.
Plans for a mall included designs for escalators spanning 15 stories.
But funding never materialized for Jakarta's "city in the sky."
Present-day Jakarta, Indonesia.
Shutterstock/Toto Santiko Budi
Instead, the space is occupied by much smaller commercial buildings in the Kebayoran Baru neighborhood of South Jakarta.
The photo above is from the neighborhood proposed for Peruri 88.
Kenyan paleontologist Richard Leakey announced plans for a "Museum of Humankind" in 2019 to honor his discovery of the most complete skeleton of an early human.
Architect Daniel Libeskind's designs for the museum were inspired by hand axes, tools used by human predecessors over 1.8 million years ago.
Unfortunately, Leakey died in 2022 and the museum's proposed site in Kenya's Great Rift Valley was deemed no longer suitable.
Great Rift Valley, Kenya
Shutterstock/Roger de la Harpe
The design was pulled and no new plans have been announced.
In 2007, Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid was announced as the designer for the first opera house in the Persian Gulf.
Illustration of the Dubai Opera House, proposed by Zaha Hadid.
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Hadid's rendering for the futuristic complex in Dubai included the 2,500-seat opera house, a smaller 800-seat theater, an art gallery, and a performing arts school.
The swooping peaks were inspired by the shape of sand dunes.
The global financial crisis in 2009 thwarted plans for Hadid's Dubai Opera House complex. Hadid died suddenly in 2016.
The Dubai Opera House, designed by Janus Rostock, was completed the same year Zaha Hadid died.
Shutterstock/Efired
New designs were instead completed by Janus Rostock, who took inspiration for his version of the building from a dhow, a traditional Arabic sailing boat.
A screenshot from a video showing a wounded man strapped to an Israeli military jeep.
Palestine Red Crescent Society/X
The Israel Defense Forces strapped a wounded Palestinian man to a jeep during a raid.
The IDF said the incident violated protocol and that it was under investigation.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories said it was "human shielding in action."
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said some of its soldiers violated protocol by strapping a wounded Palestinian man to the front of a military jeep, Reuters reported.
A video shared on X by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) shows the man lying across the vehicle as it drives past two PRCS ambulances.
Reuters said it had verified the video.
The PRCS said that Israeli forces had "prevented Palestine Red Crescent crews from providing first aid to an injured person" in Jenin, a city in the occupied West Bank territory.
"They then placed the injured person on the front of a military jeep and detained him before later allowing our crews to transfer him to the hospital," the organization said.
The IDF confirmed the incident in a statement, saying that the man, a suspect in a raid, was injured during an exchange of fire.
"This morning [Saturday], during counter-terrorism operations to apprehend wanted suspects in the area of Wadi Burqin, terrorists opened fire at IDF troops, who responded with fire," the IDF statement said, per the BBC.
"During the exchange of fire, one of the suspects was injured and apprehended. In violation of orders and standard operating procedures, the suspect was taken by the forces while tied on top of a vehicle," it continued. "The conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values of the IDF. The incident will be investigated and dealt with accordingly."
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said the incident was "human shielding in action."
Business Insider contacted the IDF for comment.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, when the Hamas militant group's attacks killed around 1,200 people in Israel.
Israel's subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 37,000 people in the territory, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
It was a pretty standard coach bus, and the bathroom wasn't great, but it was calm and quiet.
I appreciated the charging outlets at each seat and the bus attendant who handed out snacks.
When most people think about the Hamptons, they picture the lap of luxury — and they're not wrong. The average weeklong trip for one person can cost over $1,500.
Although there are $200 luxury buses and $1,000 helicopters out to the tip of Long Island, transportation is the last thing I want to waste money on when planning a trip. Instead, I researched the cheapest ways to get to the summer hot spot from New York City and found seats on a Jitney coach bus for under $50.
Depending on traffic, the ride is only two to three hours long.
I booked a $41 one-way ticket on the Jitney from Midtown Manhattan to the Hamptons. To my surprise, the affordable coach bus was pretty great.
This may be the first time I've ever left on time while traveling from Midtown.
My bus stop was across from the E 59th Street Bloomingdale's.
Elizabeth Blasi
I arrived at the Midtown bus stop across from Bloomingdale's 10 minutes ahead of time and boarded at 8:38 a.m. for an 8:40 a.m. departure.
No one was collecting or scanning tickets, which sped up the boarding process. The bus left right on time, showcasing impressive efficiency.
There are multiple Jitney stops in Manhattan, so the bus was already half full when I got on. If you're traveling with someone and want to sit together, I recommend boarding at one of the earlier Uptown stops.
Make sure to double-check your drop-off location before boarding.
The Jitney has a few different routes in the Hamptons.
Elizabeth Blasi
The Jitney buses don't all go to the same place — the eastern shore of Long Island has numerous stops spread out from each other.
Before boarding in Manhattan, it's essential to double-check that you're getting on the correct bus for your final destination.
Since no one checked my ticket, I was a little confused. But I eventually figured out I was getting on the right bus.
There was nothing fancy about the seats, but they did their job.
The seats at least had footrests.
Elizabeth Blasi
The bus had four seats in each row with an aisle down the center.
The seats offered a standard amount of legroom, which sufficed, and there were footrests under the chairs.
You could also lean back, but I think that's the easiest way to ruin someone's day if there's a passenger behind you.
The bathroom left some things to be desired.
There wasn't a sink in the bathroom.
Elizabeth Blasi
There was an on-board bathroom, but I'd only use it in emergencies.
It was stocked with plenty of toilet paper but didn't have a sink. Hand sanitizer wasn't provided either, so make sure to pack your own.
The vibes on the bus were different than I was expecting.
The ride was mostly uneventful.
Elizabeth Blasi
Contrary to what I'd heard about the Jitney having a young, party vibe, my Friday morning bus ride on Memorial Day weekend had a mix of people and was relatively calm.
With the shades drawn and the AC on, the bus was a pleasant escape from the heat outside.
To keep things quiet, the bus staff also encouraged minimal phone use during the ride.
I didn't have the best internet connection during my ride.
The WiFi wasn't great, but I was happy to charge my phone and laptop.
Elizabeth Blasi
The WiFi was spotty — I noticed several passengers using their phones as hot spots. If I needed to get a full remote workday in, that's probably the only way I could've done it.
But it was a nice bonus that the bus had outlets to charge phones, laptops, and other electronics during the several-hour drive.
The unexpected hospitality was a nice touch.
I got a little snack on my way off the bus.
Elizabeth Blasi
The bus was staffed with a driver and an attendant, who was an excellent resource.
As I departed at the last stop, the attendant checked everyone's tickets. Riders could pay on the bus if needed, but I purchased my ticket ahead of time to save $8 off the total cost.
As we were leaving, the attendant also handed out cold water and a snack, which I thought was a nice touch.
The Jitney had all the basics to get me from point A to point B.
I'd take the Jitney Bus again.
Elizabeth Blasi
There's nothing super fancy about the Jitney, but it certainly does its job. It took me about three hours and 50 minutes to get to the East Hampton stop from Midtown, but that's pretty much what I expected for Memorial Day weekend.
One significant advantage of the Jitney is the multiple times and bus-stop locations every day. The bus runs every other hour, providing flexibility for travelers.
Although the Long Island Rail Road is also cheap at $20 or $30 a ride, I'd definitely suggest the bus over the crowded and often rowdy train.
Overall, for $41, the Jitney was a surprisingly pleasant and efficient way to travel from Manhattan to the Hamptons.
Welcome back to our Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories. Goldman Sachs' 2024 summer internship class had an acceptance rate of less than 1%. Two who made the cut shared their first impressions of Wall Street and tips for success.
But first: On the ground at Cannes Lions, aka summer camp for the ad industry.
If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider's app here.
The promenade at the Cannes Lions festival in 2023.
Tristan Fewings
This week's dispatch
The biggest names in marketing made for the south of France last week for the annual Cannes Lions festival. Lara O'Reilly and Julia Hood were among them.
What was the overall mood?
Lara O'Reilly: Jubilant. The sun was shining, the rosé was flowing, and companies were back to spending big on their enormous setups along the beach. No signs of the so-called "ad downturn" along La Croisette this year.
What were the topics du jour?
LO: Artificial intelligence. Or, more specifically, why the industry needs to stop talking about AI — and other under-the-hood tech — and instead refocus on the kind of creative ideas that make a cultural and business impact.
Julia Hood: Sports was the star of the show. Athletes on site included Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, the Kelce brothers, and many more. Sports is accelerating as a convener of people across the political spectrum — a safe way to bring people together.
What did the event reveal about the industry?
LO: For all the talk of automation, advertising remains a relationship business. Yes, this place is a hedonist's playground of partying, VIP yacht experiences, and questionable ROI, but (I'm told) deals do actually get done here.
What was the hottest ticket in town?
JH: Wednesday night was the time to party for a lot of the attendees. Highlights included The Chainsmokers at Yahoo Beach and Arcade Fire at Spotify Beach. On Thursday morning, Jason and Travis Kelce recorded their "New Heights" podcast at Stagwell's Sport Beach. Despite the rumors, Taylor Swift was not seen.
You may have heard about ALICEs, DINKs, and maybe even HENRYs. But what about DIPS? Have you thought about the FIRE movement?
Coverage of America's economy is filled with acronyms and descriptors for all demographics. It can be hard to keep up with all the terms — so we built a glossary to help you out.
Alpine Investors, a $17 billion private-equity firm, is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after workplaces for business school grads.
That's thanks to Alpine's CEO-In-Training program. The program places MBAs in leadership positions at companies within just a few weeks, and promises to turn them into CEOs in a few years. It's not easy, though: Just 1.6% of applicants got a spot this year.
Andy Sieg, Merrill Wealth Management's former president, took a gamble leaving its strong business for Citi's much smaller wealth division.
But according to industry insiders, including some of his colleagues, Sieg might have his eye on a bigger prize. If he's able to turn Citi's wealth unit around, he could become the bank's next CEO.
Jeff Bezos, founder & CEO of Amazon.com, poses with a book in an Amazon warehouse, Seattle, Washington, January 1st 1997.
Paul Souders/Getty Images
Read it at Amazon
Despite shuttering all of its brick-and-mortar bookstores in 2022, Amazon's bookselling business is booming.
The e-retail giant sold $16.9 billion worth of books in the first 10 months of 2022, an internal document obtained by BI shows. The figure demonstrates how Amazon's original business is thriving 30 years after its inception.
The Insider Today team: Matt Turner, deputy editor-in-chief, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.
Used EVs now cost less than their gas counterparts, with the gap ballooning since February.
Only 18% of consumers said they're likely to buy an EV, a multi-year low.
The demand pullback has "wreaked havoc" on production, a new report said.
Consumers are pumping the brakes on electric-vehicle demand as technological limitations erase the premium buyers used to be willing to pay.
For the first time, used EVs are less expensive than their traditional gas counterparts. Not only are prices lower, they're also plummeting at a much steeper clip, a recent report from iSeeCars said.
According to the study, the average used EV fell $265 below the typical gas car in February, marking the trend's start. As of May, that difference has ballooned to $2,657.
ISeeCars.com
"It's clear used car shoppers will no longer pay a premium for electric vehicles and, in fact, consider electric powertrains a detractor, making them less desirable — and less valuable — than traditional models," executive analyst Karl Brauer said in the report.
By another measure, the average price of an EV fell 29.5% between May 2023 and 2024, compared to a 6.1% slide for combustion engine cars.
An example provided by the study compared the BMW 3 Series with a Tesla Model 3: while the Tesla's price was $2,635 higher in June last year, it stood $4,806 below the BMW in May 2024.
But that's just part of the story for EVs, a market battered by an extra slew of niche headwinds.
In a June AAA survey, only 18% of consumers indicated that they would be likely to purchase an EV — a multi-year low. Leading hesitations included the higher costs, limited access to charging stations, and worries about how far an EV can drive without charging.
Instead, consumer interest leaned more towards hybrid models, which offer both a gas and electric motor. In fact, one-third of respondents indicated they would purchase this type of vehicle.
For industry players that wagered on a coming wave of EV consumption, faltering demand has not done any favors for production, Bank of America said this month.
"The unprecedented EV head-fake over the last three years has wreaked havoc on product planning. The prior acceleration in EV launches is doing a U-turn in favor of extending [internal combustion engine] programs and new hybrids," analysts wrote. "However, while there is a lot of talk about hybrids, there isn't much action."
Vanishing EV consumers have tugged on the sector in other ways. For instance, below-estimate deliveries have dented the performance of Tesla and Rivian stocks, and these companies have been among many to enact workforce cuts due to strained demand.
While the iSeeCars report does not, in fact, yet see where EV prices will bottom out, most analysts are not too concerned about a complete rejection of the market. If consumers don't lead an industry embrace, US emissions regulation will ensure continued production, just at a tempered pace, Bank of America said.
"Despite the apparent slowdown in the powertrain transition (EVs and Hybrids), there is still a wave, albeit smaller than before, of alternative powertrain launches from almost all automakers," the note said.
Examples includes Ford products, and GM's Cadillac as a "spearhead for EVs," it added.
The ingredient is "basically all over menus right now," Lizzy Freier, director of menu research and insights at restaurant analytics company Technomic, said during a panel at the National Restaurant Show in May.
The condiment's origins saw it being swirled on pepperoni pizza. But it's popular to pair with chicken, too: Sweetgreen has a hot honey chicken protein bowl, Cava sells harissa honey chicken, and KFC serves Sriracha honey nuggets.
You can mix it with desserts or alcohol. At Starbucks' upmarket Reserve locations, you can get hot honey in an affogato or espresso martini.
At the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Chicago, customers can pay $2 to add hot honey to a sandwich, slice of pizza, or avocado toast. You can also get it in cocktails.
Grace Dean/Business Insider
Mike's Hot Honey was inspired by a college student's travels around Brazil
Hot honey isn't a brand-new flavor, but it's only recently that it's become super popular.
Brooklyn pizzeria Roberta's started selling its famous Bee Sting pizza topped with spicy soppressata salami and honey back in 2009, according to The New York Times.
But it was Mike's Hot Honey that really brought the ingredient to the masses.
Mike's Hot Honey is the original and best-known brand.
Grace Dean/Business Insider
It all dates back to the year 2003, when Mike Kurtz was a college student studying Portuguese in Brazil.
"On a weekend trip to a national park, I hiked into a little valley with some friends and there I found a tiny pizzeria that had jars of honey with whole chili peppers steeping in it for drizzling on pizza," Kurtz told Business Insider in an interview at the National Restaurant Show. "I just was blown away by the flavor and I kept on thinking about it."
So Kurtz started experimenting with chili-infused honey in his college apartment, where he created Mike's Hot Honey in 2004.
"And for six years it was just a hobby," Kurtz said. "I was making it for myself, for friends and family."
Fast forward to 2010, and Kurtz introduced his concoction to Paul Giannone of Paulie Gee's while working as an apprentice at the Brooklyn pizzeria.
"He tried it, he loved it on the pizza," Kurtz told BI. Paulie Gee's began drizzling the honey on its pepperoni pizzas.
"People started asking me where they could buy bottles and I started selling it off the bar there in November 2010," Kurtz said.
Over the years, he started working with other restaurants and specialty retailers. Whole Foods was the first large grocery store to start selling the honey in 2014.
Now, Mike's Hot Honey is available in between 30,000 and 40,000 retail stores and more than 3,000 restaurants, Kurtz said. The business's revenue is roughly 60% retail and 40% food service, he said.
Hot honey has seemingly endless applications
Hot honey is "kind of like a peanut butter and jelly thing," Matt Wessel, owner of the Milwaukee Pretzel Company, which sells a hot honey mustard, told BI over the phone. "It's just one of those things that when you pair them together, it makes a lot of sense … It's a really palatable food pairing."
Hot honey feeds into the "swicy" trend for sweet and spicy food. And its versatility means it can be used in seemingly endless combinations, encouraging chefs to get creative in the kitchen.
"Because honey is so versatile as a sweetener, but also as a topping … it's a great base to add the heat to," Wessel said. "It can be used in so many different applications." Across restaurants, grocery store shelves, and home kitchens, hot honey is being added to tacos, chicken waffles, potato chips, and ice cream.
Maison Pickle started serving a hot honey chicken French toast in 2019.
Emilia Aghamirzai/Maison Pickle
"Hot honey has become the new American flavor," said Jacob Hadjigeorgis, owner of Maison Pickle, a bar and restaurant in Manhattan that started serving a hot honey chicken French toast in 2019. He told BI over email that it was the US's answer to other cuisines' sweet and spicy sauces.
At Zalat Pizza, a Dallas-based pizza chain, there's been a recent rise in sales of its pizza with salami, bacon-onion jam, and hot honey, first added to its menu in 2022, CEO Khanh Nguyen told BI via email.
Customers can also pay $2 to add a swirl of hot honey to Zalat's other pizzas, which Nguyen said was especially popular with its pepperoni and mixed meat pizzas.
Zalat Pizza's Sweet Revenge features salami, bacon-onion jam, and hot honey.
Zalat Pizza
UK canned and bottled cocktail company Tom Savano Cocktails has been experimenting with hot honey in the drinks department. It launched a hot honey margarita earlier this month — it also sells a spicy mezcal margarita with Scotch Bonnet chilies and agave.
Sweet cocktails are always in demand, and spicy flavors are very popular at the moment. "So you throw anything spicy and sweet together and that was always going to be a home run," founder James Kerslake told BI over the phone. The company developed two versions of the cocktail for consumer testing, and ended up deciding on the spicier version, even though Kerslake acknowledged it may polarize people with a low-spice tolerance.
Cooking magazines and TikTokers alike have been scrambling to find new ways to incorporate hot honey into dishes. But as for Kurtz, the man behind the best-known hot honey brand, his favorite ways to serve it are drizzled on a pepperoni pizza, used as a glaze for salmon, and paired with goats' cheese.
Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani talks to reporters as he leaves after his defamation trial, where a jury awarded $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers.
Anna Moneymaker/ Getty Images
Rudy Giuliani has delayed disclosing all of his finances even after declaring bankruptcy.
Before he went bankrupt, lawyers accused him of hiding his finances in other civil lawsuits.
A judge may soon appoint a trustee who would take over his entire financial life.
When Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy late last year, it gave him some room to breathe.
Declaring bankruptcy hit the pause button on all of those civil lawsuits. They all flowed into a federal bankruptcy court, where creditors could negotiate for whatever funds the aging former New York City mayor had left.
That relief may be about to run out. Sean H. Lane, the bankruptcy judge has expressed exasperation that Giuliani still hasn't managed to hire an accountant or bookkeeper to work for him. Lawyers for creditors seeking money from Giuliani have accused him of mismanaging his own finances, asking the judge to appoint a trustee to take over his assets.
"Throughout the bankruptcy case, the Debtor has made, at best, half-baked financial disclosures and prioritized delay over progress in his chapter 11 case," lawyers for creditors wrote in a recent court filing. "He files delinquent, inaccurate and incomplete monthly operating reports. He delayed for months the filing of an application to retain a broker to sell his New York City apartment. He continues to resist selling his Florida condominium, instead preferring to spend tens of thousands of dollars on maintenance fees."
A decision from Lane to appoint a trustee could come at any time.
Right now, the bankruptcy process allows the judge, a Justice Department trustee, and creditors to monitor Giuliani's finances closely.
But if the judge were to agree with the creditors and appoint a Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee, Giuliani would lose control of his own financial life.
A bankruptcy trustee would control all of Giuliani's assets and would be able to sell his two homes unimpeded. His Upper East Side apartment is listed at $5.7 million and creditors value the Florida condo at $3.5 million.
The trustee would also be able to peer into Giuliani's phone and email records and may even waive attorney-client privilege between him and any of his lawyers, potentially exposing him to more criminal and civil cases.
"The trustee might conceivably try to waive the attorney-client privilege to see his interactions with his lawyers," Eric Snyder, the bankruptcy chair of Wilk Auslander LLP, told Business Insider. "To the extent that there's any concerns about fraud, that would make him very nervous as well."
Creditors have expressed frustration because, after months, they say they still don't have a full picture of Giuliani's finances.
They've accused him of "incompetence, at best, and fraud, at worst."
In recent weeks, court filings show, they were surprised to discover he struck a promotion deal with a coffee company and that a firm he owns has been receiving thousands of dollars a month from a 9/11 charity.
Giuliani's creditors have formed a supergroup to try to dig into his finances. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia election workers to whom he owes $148 million in a defamation judgment; Noelle Dunphy, his sexual abuse accuser; and Dominion, the election technology company he falsely accused of rigging the election, all joined forces to scrape as much money as they can in the bankruptcy court.
Their lawyers, at the pricey firm Akin Gump, say Giuliani is being deceptive. He is funneling money to his business entities, they say, where the funds then go to his girlfriend and other supporters, as opposed to creditors who are owed.
A history of lying
There remains an enormous amount of mistrust from the creditors.
Despite losing a lawsuit and getting hit with a $148 million defamation judgment that forced him into bankruptcy in the first place, Giuliani continues to lie about Freeman and Moss. The two Georgia election workers have been the subjects of conspiracy theories that they manipulated ballots in the 2020 election, which now-President Joe Biden won.
Making things worse is that Giuliani has a history of hiding his finances. During the discovery phases for Freeman and Moss's defamation lawsuit, and in another defamation case from Smartmatic, Giuliani pleaded poverty. He claimed he didn't have the money to pay TrustPoint, his electronic discovery vendor, to search his own documents — an excuse that his legal opponents found difficult to believe.
"So far, Giuliani's financial position tends to be whatever is most convenient for Giuliani," Smartmatic's lawyers wrote in a scathing filing at the time. "Whenever he is ordered to do something, he lacks the money to pay for it. But, when told he must submit a declaration showing he lacks funds, somehow the previously unavailable money appears. It's a miracle."
Rudy Giuliani at a press conference during the last presential election, where he pushed false claims that Dominion and Smartmatic manipulated the results.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photos
As it turned out, some of Giuliani's legal expenses may have been funded by political donors supporting Donald Trump. After Trump's Saving America PAC disbursed hundreds of thousands to Trustpoint, Giuliani's lawyers told courts that a "third party" had helped pay some of the bills.
Giuliani's bankruptcy disputes reached a tipping point in recent weeks when he struck a deal to sell Rudy's Coffee.
The creditors said they learned about the deal from social media — a month after it was signed — rather than learning about the new income stream directly from Giuliani or his lawyers.
On top of that, creditors have expressed frustration that the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a charity that supports 9/11 first responders, has sponsored Giuliani's social media videos by giving money to his communications company, rather than to Giuliani himself.
Both of those deals are structured so that money goes to Giuliani's businesses rather than to Giuliani himself, which allows the funds to flow to his girlfriend and undeserving employees rather than creditors, the lawyers say.
"At a minimum, if you enter into an agreement that brings money into the estate, and it's property of his estate — which it is — then the creditor should have been made aware of it," Snyder told Business Insider.
In a court document earlier this month, she wrote she was filing a "motion" to have the creditors' lawyers "stop lying in their filings to the court."
She claimed payments to her often came in the form of reimbursements from Giuliani's retirement account, which he used as seed money for his media ventures and which is protected from the bankruptcy process. And she said she "personally coordinated" the Rudy's Coffee deal.
"Giuliani Communications, LLC is very proud of this quality coffee," she wrote. "In the future, the minute I do a business deal I will send to Mayor Rudy Giuliani's counsel."
Ryan couldn't be reached for comment.
Giuliani at a Republican presidential primary event for Trump in 2024.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Giuliani has also recently lost another major stream of income that could have gone to his creditors. In May, his show was canceled on WABC, a New York radio station owned by conservative billionaire John Catsimatidis, because he continued to lie about the 2020 election being stolen from Trump.
While in the bankruptcy process, Giuliani must file monthly financial statements. The numbers in them don't add up, the creditors' lawyers say. Account balances are inconsistent from month to month, and some statements from financial institutions appear to show the wrong dates.
A spokesperson for Giuliani directed Business Insider to his YouTube videos, where the former mayor rarely directly addresses the bankruptcy proceedings. In a recent episode of "America's Mayor Live," he said he is being targeted by President Biden.
"They want to destroy me, they want to bankrupt me, they want to take away everything I have, and they want to put me in jail for the rest of my life," Giuliani said the a recent video.
In his court filings, Giuliani has sought to lay the blame elsewhere. His longtime accountant declined to continue working for him, and his part-time bookkeeper is sick, his lawyers wrote in a recent filing. He hasn't yet been able to find new financial professionals to help him, they said. They also noted because Giuliani has had his law license suspended for lying about the 2020 election, he can't get work as a lawyer himself.
"Maybe the Committee also has a suggestion of who would employ an 80 year old disbarred attorney," they wrote in a recent filing.
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 11: Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to the press as he leaves the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Courthouse on December 11, 2023 in Washington, DC. Jury selection and opening arguments started today in his defamation jury trial brought by Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Shane Moss, who successfully sued Giuliani in civil court.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The bankruptcy judge may not be convinced by Giuliani's explanations.
"There are lots of accountants out there," Snyder said. "He's a sophisticated businessman, so his inability to find accountants isn't going to work."
According to Snyder, the judge isn't supposed to consider Giuliani's history of lying about election workers or law license troubles while he considers whether Giuliani is too untrustworthy to remain in possession of his own finances. But the bankruptcy process itself has given the judge plenty to work with, Snyder said.
"He hasn't filed reports, he started a business without disclosing it, and he's paying the debts of third parties with the estate funds," he said. "Those three things are pretty big things."
While the bankruptcy has subsumed the civil lawsuits against Giuliani, he still has criminal indictments to contend with.
He is a codefendant, alongside Trump and over a dozen other allies, in Fulton County's criminal racketeering case over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. That litigation was halted earlier in June as an appeals court weighs whether the top prosecutor can remain on the case.
Giuliani was also indicted in Arizona over his attempts to overturn the election in the state. In that case, he was forced to post a $10,000 bond — further depriving creditors of money they say should go to them.
Now that I'm only a year away from 30 with a little more fun money, however, I've gotten picky about where I sit.
Many times, to the shock of friends and family who assume I'd prefer the window for the view (I used to), my preference these days is actually the aisle seat, especially on long-haul journeys.
For example, earlier this year, I paid about $100 to snag aisle seats on Finnair flights between New York and Helsinki. I also shelled out $50 to reserve an aisle seat on Air India in January and a cheaper $20 for a transatlantic flight on Norse Atlantic Airways coming up in August.
Still, it's worth it to me to splurge in most cases.
I want the freedom to move about the cabin whenever
The reason I'll pay extra for the aisle seat is two-fold. One, I don't like not having immediate access to things.
I'll admit I'm a little bit of a control freak, for better or for worse. So, being unable to get up and stretch my legs or use the bathroom whenever I want — when there isn't turbulence, of course — is not my idea of a stress-free journey.
Personally, none of this bothers me. I can sleep as long as I have a headrest, and I'm a heavy sleeper who doesn't wake up to noise or a sudden jolt.
There are times when I wish I had a window seat, like when my Air India flight was flying over the Himalayas, and I couldn't see out from the center section. Fortunately, a fellow traveler let me lean over for a photo. Win-win.
I'll almost only switch seats if it's an aisle for an aisle
I was assigned an exit row window seat for a review flight on British Airways in March and kept it because there was plenty of room to get up at will.
Taylor Rains/Business Insider
But that typically isn't the case. I recently flew Ryanair, and a couple wanted to sit together, asking me to switch my aisle for a middle seat — no thanks.
But I'm not a total monster. If it's a medical reason, then I'll switch, or an actual child scared to sit away from their parents.
For instance, I had a situation in which a woman who didn't select seats in advance was separated from her young son. It was an aisle for an aisle, but I ended up in the very back of the plane.
Another time, a plane swap changed the seating of an entire family, and I switched out my aisle for the dad's window. I wasn't thrilled in either case, but I figured it could send some good karma my way.
Now, she's bringing that power to the European leg of her worldwide tour, during which she will perform in at least 18 cities.
Local businesses are seeing Swift's impact weeks ahead of her concerts. Swift doesn't perform in Italy until mid-July, but hotels are already booked and busy.
"Our analysis and data shows that hotel prices in Milan are on average 45% higher for the nights of Taylor Swift's shows in the city in July 2024, compared to the weeks before and after the show," Ben Julius, the founder of a tourism company called Tourist Italy, told Business Insider.
Julius added that the concertgoers only stay for an average of two nights, but the mass demand is "creating a wider tourism trickle-down effect" as the rising costs of travel and lodging push other tourists to find other places to stay.
Taylor Swift performs at Wembley Stadium in London.
Jo Hale/Getty Images
European economists monitoring inflation rates in the service sector are examining Swift's tour to see what impact it will have on Europe's economy.
Officials at the European Central Bank cut interest rates this month after inflation slowed, but there are concerns that Swift's arrival in different cities could cause a new uptick.
Because when Swift comes to town, she rallies tens of thousands of fans who will spend money on a bevy of services like restaurants, lodging, and local attractions. Some Swifties will travel hours — and across countries — to attend a concert, which puts a demand on airfare and other transportation options.
Central bankers told The New York Times that even small changes to data could affect their decision to continue cutting rates.
"All those tiny quirks are going to matter a lot," TD Securities strategist Lucas Krishan told the outlet.
Krishan added that the service inflation rate could rise in August when Swift returns to London. Her tour dates — August 15 to August 20 — overlap with the day Europe's statistics agency records price data.
Taylor Swift in Paris, France.
Kevin Mazur/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
If the data shows too much increase, the Bank of England could theoretically pause plans to lower rates in September.
Economist George Moran told the Times, however, that he thinks it's unlikely Swift will impact decision-making at the Bank of England.
"Taylor Swift is unlikely to be affecting central bank policy. She's unlikely to be affecting government policy," Moran, who works for Nomura, said. "And I don't think it's a sustainable option for growth in a country to rely on having superstar concerts."
He told the Times the impact would likely be "more local than macro."
"Taylor Swift is obviously a massive phenomenon, and the areas that she's visiting is causing a big buzz in the hospitality sector," he said.
Representatives for Swift did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.