The Connecticut Superior Court has sided with both parties, at least in part, in the latest clash between Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw and Soros Fund Management, issuing a ruling that allows limited discovery tied to Warshaw’s past dealings with ABRY Partners while blocking broader subpoenas into his business history.
For Warshaw, the decision marks a procedural victory that limits the reach of Soros’s discovery efforts. For Soros Fund, which is the majority interest holder of Audacy Inc. and holds a considerable interest in Latino Media Network, the court ruling preserves a narrow but meaningful opportunity to explore whether Warshaw’s 2009 partnership with ABRY set a precedent for the disputed Audacy arrangement now at the center of the case.
On Friday, Judge Sheila Ann Ozalis granted Soros Fund’s request to take an out-of-state deposition of ABRY Partners, the Boston-based private equity firm briefly mentioned in Warshaw’s complaint. At the same time, Ozalis approved Warshaw’s protective order that struck the most expansive elements of Soros’s subpoena as overly intrusive and irrelevant.
The ruling allows Soros’s attorneys to question ABRY’s custodian of records and obtain documentation only about a single 2009 transaction in which Warshaw partnered with ABRY and MatlinPatterson to launch a distressed radio debt fund that reportedly doubled investors’ money within three months.
Requests for “all written agreements,” “all oral agreements,” and “all communications or services” between Warshaw and ABRY, language that could have opened years of unrelated material, were ordered removed before any subpoena is served.
Warshaw has worked with ABRY since the years of Connoisseur Communications Partners LP in the 1990s.
Because ABRY Partners is based in Massachusetts, Soros’s attorneys at Wiggin and Dana LLP and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP filed a motion on October 10 seeking a court commission to depose ABRY’s custodian of records and obtain relevant documents. Massachusetts has not adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act, which required a Connecticut court order for the deposition to proceed.
Soros’s team argued that ABRY possessed information relevant to Warshaw’s investment history, citing the 2009 partnership involving the distressed debt fund.
Warshaw’s attorneys, Finn Dixon & Herling LLP and Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick PLLC, objected, calling the subpoena “overbroad and unduly burdensome.” They maintained that ABRY was mentioned only twice in the complaint, both times as background, and that Soros’s request amounted to a fishing expedition designed to pry into unrelated business matters. Warshaw’s legal team sought a protective order limiting discovery strictly to the 2009 transaction.
The ruling prevents Soros’s attorneys from delving into Warshaw’s broader financial history while preserving their ability to examine whether his earlier business structure mirrors the one he claims to have had with Soros Fund.
The ABRY deposition will likely take place in Boston under the supervision of a court-appointed commissioner acting under Massachusetts law.
