Pharo Gaia Fund Ltd. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
- Analisa Torres
- 1:19-cv-03123
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Pharo Gaia Fund v. Venezuela, Judge Torres granted plaintiffs’ request to redact confidential source information from a protective order.
The plaintiffs, Pharo Gaia Fund, Ltd. and Pharo Macro Fund, Ltd., and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; the ruling also protects the confidentiality of sources whose identities could appear in the proposed protective order.
What happened
Pharo Gaia Fund Ltd. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela involved plaintiffs’ post-judgment efforts to obtain information under subpoenas. Venezuela had produced highly confidential information under an existing protective order.
The plaintiffs asked to file parts of a proposed protective order under seal. They sought to redact the name of another party and other limited information that could identify the sources of subpoenaed information. Venezuela agreed to the request.
Judge Analisa Torres granted the request on May 4, 2022. The order allowed the requested narrow redactions while keeping the rest of the protective order available to the public.
The detailed version
- Pharo Gaia Fund Ltd. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela · No. 1:19-cv-03123
- Analisa Torres
- May 4, 2022
Background
The plaintiffs, Pharo Gaia Fund, Ltd. and Pharo Macro Fund, Ltd., were pursuing post-judgment discovery. Venezuela had produced highly confidential information under an earlier protective order in the case. The plaintiffs obtained information about another party through that production and used it in preparing a proposed protective order related to their discovery efforts.
Sealing Request
The plaintiffs asked permission to file portions of the proposed protective order under seal. Specifically, they sought to redact the other party’s name and limited information that could identify the sources of information to be produced under post-judgment subpoenas. The plaintiffs argued that the public-access presumption could be overcome to protect confidential information and that the proposed redactions were narrowly tailored. Venezuela consented to the application.
Ruling
Judge Analisa Torres granted the request. The ruling permitted the requested redactions in the publicly filed version of the protective order. The order did not seal the entire document; it allowed redaction of the limited information that could identify confidential sources while preserving public access to the remaining material.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.