Giuliani reports earning $16 million in 16 months

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani reported $16.1 million in earned income over the last 16 months, most of it in speaking fees, according to financial documents filed yesterday.

Democratic hopeful John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, reported $29.5 million in assets in their own filings, including millions in a hedge fund Edwards worked for part time. Edwards' biggest single source of earned income was his $479,512 salary from Fortress Investment Group for consulting work last year.

Giuliani's report is the first detailed glimpse of his vast holding and income since his tenure as mayor of New York concluded at the end of 2001. Since then, Giuliani parlayed his image as an in-charge mayor during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks into lucrative speaking fees and business enterprises.

Giuliani reported $13 million to $45 million in assets, including his share in Giuliani & Co., a partnership that provides consulting services. He also listed income from dividends and interest on many of those investments of at least $411,332 and as much as $3.3 million.

The disclosure forms do not provide a precise accounting of the candidates' assets and investment income, requiring filers only to list those amounts in ranges. However, the Edwards campaign supplemented its reports with more detail, including the value of the couple's total assets.

Giuliani's biggest single source of income between January 2006 and February 2007 was from speaking engagements that took him around the world. He grossed $11.4 million in speeches, an amount that includes fees retained by the Washington Speakers Bureau. He typically charged $100,000 for a speaking engagement, and as much as $200,000 on occasion.

After speaking at an event in Louisiana for the PGA Tour, Giuliani donated $80,000 to New Orleans charities working on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Giuliani reported income of $4.1 million from Giuliani & Co., and $1.2 million from Bracewell & Giuliani, a law firm that also provides lobbying services for its clients. Giuliani also received $146,092 in royalties for Leadership, a book about his experiences during and after 9/11.

Edwards, the former North Carolina senator who has made fighting poverty a signature element of his campaign, said his work for a fund that generally caters to the wealthiest of investors was designed to educate him about the way financial markets operate.

Edwards received about $395,000 for speeches - including one for $44,000 - and was paid $40,000 for work at the University of North Carolina Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. His family donated more than $350,000 to charity, including the International Rescue Committee and Habitat for Humanity.

Edwards' largest holding was $5 million to $25 million in a money market fund, Columbia Cash Reserves.

The candidate and his wife had between $1 million and $5 million in the Fortress Investment Fund III, a private equity fund that invests in businesses in the United States and Western Europe. He had lesser amounts in other funds.

Edwards also received $333,334 in royalties for his book Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives. The money was donated to charity.

The former senator owned several properties in his native state, including buildings in Raleigh that were worth $500,000 to $1 million apiece. He also owned land in Raleigh valued at $50,001 and $1 million.

Edwards held the position of senior adviser to the Fortress Investment Group and was director of the University of North Carolina antipoverty center in Chapel Hill. He also was active in charitable foundations in the name of his son Wade, who died at age 16 in an auto accident.

Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) saw a surge of interest in his writings as he drew closer to a presidential bid, earning more than half a million dollars in 2006 in royalties for one book and an advance for another, his financial disclosure report showed.

Obama received $572,490 for Dreams of My Father, his memoir, and The Audacity of Hope, an account of his political journey.

The report shows he and his wife, Michelle, have assets of at least $455,000 in mutual funds, bank accounts, and a pension from the Illinois Senate, where he served from 1997 to 2004. Assets in the disclosure reports are catalogued in broad ranges.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Obama and his wife transferred about $180,000 in assets they held in the Vanguard Wellington Fund to Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund this year after discovering that a small amount of the Vanguard Wellington Fund is invested in an oilfield services company that is active in Sudan.

Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback, an outspoken critic of the violence in Sudan, also divested his stock portfolio of companies that do business with the African nation.