The legal battle that already made public the private dynamics of the family of Peter Angelos has shifted into terrain they also likely would want to keep secret: their finances.
Lawyers for the wife and elder son of Angelos, the Orioles owner and legal titan incapacitated by illness, have asked a judge to limit the amount of financial information that bankers must reveal about
Also among the latest filings in the case, an attorney for younger son Louis Angelos raised Tuesday the specter of the law firm’s bank freezing its accounts “in the next few days” due the unresolved dispute, which could force it to stop operating. But on Wednesday, an attorney for his mother, Georgia Angelos, wrote the judge in the case to say Wells Fargo “will maintain the status quo” of the accounts pending a previously scheduled Oct. 27 hearing.
As part of ’ suit against his and his over , he has subpoenaed extensive information. Among the materials he seeks are documents related to a possible sale of part or all of the family’s interest in the team and communications with Major League Baseball officials, such as Commissioner Rob Manfred. John Angelos is the Orioles chairman and CEO.
In a volley of filings Tuesday and last week in Baltimore County Circuit Court, attorneys argued over how much personal and business information the bankers, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, must provide.
“Just as Lou is not entitled unfettered access to all of Georgia’s financial information simply because he filed a lawsuit, he is also not entitled to all Orioles-related financial information,” attorneys for Georgia Angelos wrote in a motion last week.
That issue will also be discussed Oct. 27 before Circuit Judge Keith R. Truffer.
When Truffer held the first hearing in the case Sept. 28, he asked the parties to tone down the acrimony in their filings and consider mediation.
The sides, though, remain at loggerheads over the extent of information that Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo should provide and other issues. Among them: how Peter Angelos’ law firm should continue to operate.
Georgia Angelos had asked the court appoint someone to run the firm, which Louis Angelos has managed since his father became incapacitated, because it was under threat of Wells Fargo freezing its accounts. Louis Angelos had transferred the law firm to his name, which Georgia Angelos’ attorneys characterized as selling it to himself.
“As the Court may recall, it encouraged the parties to reach an interim agreement regarding the continued operations of The Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos, P.C., that would ensure its continued operation,” Louis Angelos’ attorney, Jeffrey E. Nusinov, wrote to Truffer in a letter dated Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, the parties are at an impasse,” Nusinov said. “In the absence of an agreement, there is a risk that Wells Fargo will freeze the law firm’s accounts within the next few days forcing the law firm to cease all operations.
“The repercussions that would flow from this are very serious,” he continued.
Nusinov went on to request a mediator be appointed to work with the two sides.
For the past several years, Peter Angelos, 93, has been in failing health. He is no longer in control of the team, the law firm that won billions of dollars in awards and settlements for those harmed by asbestos and tobacco, or his real estate portfolio.
After Louis Angelos, 53, filed his lawsuit in June, claiming that his brother was seeking to consolidate his control over the family fortune, Georgia Angelos, 80, filed a case against him in August. She accused her younger son of “financial elder abuse,” saying he sold his father’s law firm to himself.
Court filings have revealed a bitter feud, and provided confirmation of rumors that had long circulated about whether the team could be sold. Georgia Angelos, according to court documents, has been working on a possible sale of the team and a dissolution of the law firm.
But sources have told The Baltimore Sun that John Angelos, 55, wants the family to keep a majority ownership of the team. Meanwhile, Louis Angelos, who has been managing the law firm since his father became unable to work, has fought to keep it operating.
In the most recent filings, attorneys for John Angelos and Georgia Angelos characterized the subpoenas for bank information as overly broad. Louis Angelos is seeking information from both personal and business accounts, including transactions involving the Orioles and the team’s broadcast network, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. The subpoenas also seek documents from as far back as January 2017, before Peter Angelos’ health began to decline that fall, prompting him to begin making financial arrangements for his assets.
Nusinov said in a letter to Truffer that Louis Angelos needed to cast a wide net because he “has been denied all information pertaining to the sale process” of the team. Also, his client needs the early 2017 documents, Nusinov’s letter said, for a “before” and “after” comparison of how Peter Angelos’ assets “have been treated since he became incapable of managing his own affairs.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Jeff Barker contributed to this article.
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