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By Suzanne Blake
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A Polish billionaire has asked a California judge for help as his family allegedly plots to take over his $2.5 billion empire.
The feud began between billionaire Zygmunt Solorz and his three children in August 2024, and Solorz has now filed a legal petition in California to obtain documents from his daughter, Aleksandra, who currently lives in Los Angeles.
Why It Matters
Family feuds over money rarely reach this level of affluence or court order, but petitions of this manner could be necessary in order to obtain documents to help serve as evidence and win a larger case in Liechtenstein.
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Solorz sued Aleksandra and his two sons Piotr and Tobias, who live in Poland and Dubai, in Poland over the succession plans for the two private foundations that oversee his businesses.
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What To Know
Solorz, 69, previously told Forbes he hopes the legal proceedings will clarify ownership and governance "in a way that ensures stability for the companies I have spent my entire life building."
"Being deceived by my own children was very painful and personal," Solorz said.
Newsweek reached out to his lawyers for comment via email.
The petition used is available as a Section 1782 discovery to bring to light all applicable evidence to the case, his lawyer said previously. However, the children see it as a way for Solorz to stall a case they say he is losing.
"This is merely an attempt to divert attention from the outcome of the main litigation in Liechtenstein, where this matter is primarily adjudicated and where the court of first instance confirmed [the] absence of any alleged fraud and validity of the succession plan," Maciej Ślusarek, a lawyer representing Aleksandra, told Forbes.
Newsweek reached out to Ślusarek for comment via email.
The legal battle officially started in early August 2024 before a planned family vacation to Italy on Solorz’s yacht.
During that time, Solorz signed declarations to hand control of the two Liechtenstein-based foundations to his children immediately. However, Solorz said he realized he had been tricked by his family and sought to revoke his declarations soon after.
The children have claimed their father is sick and dealing with long term mental effects from the coronavirus, and is being controlled by his fourth wife, Justyna Kulka. He married Kulka five months before the legal feud ensued.
In Solorz’s view, the children allegedly organized a coup to take over his businesses and he hopes to take back ownership.
The family owns a majority of Cyfrowy Polsat, Poland’s largest pay-TV operator as well as ZE PAK, Poland’s largest private energy firm.
Solorz’s empire is self-made, as he fled communist Poland in his 20s to Germany and then founded Poland's first privately owned TV network in 1992.
His investments alongside that have amounted to a $2.5 billion empire.
Solorz was said to have originally planned to pass on his two Liechtenstein foundations, which oversee his empire, to his children and charity after he died.
Previously, a Liechtenstein court upheld the children’s claims and dismissed Solorz’s lawsuit to invalidate his declarations, but Solorz appealed before being removed from the boards of Cyfrowy Polsat and ZE PAK.
"Everything that has happened in recent years is, in plain terms, not what I wanted," Solorz said. "I am confident that courts will eventually acknowledge this."
What People Are Saying
Ropes and Gray, lawyers for Zygmunt Solorz, in a statement to Newsweek: "This 1782 petition is an important tool within the U.S. legal process, designed to ensure that all relevant information is made available in connection with pending foreign proceedings. We hope this process will help bring to light all pertinent evidence."
Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek: "This is estate planning warfare, plain and simple. When you see billionaire kids filing in CA courts to grab control from a living parent, it's almost always about one thing. They think dad's losing his grip, and they're terrified he'll blow the fortune before they inherit it."
"It reflects a harsh reality I saw repeatedly with high net worth clients. Wealth doesn't guarantee family unity, it tests it. The bigger the pot, the higher the stakes. And the more people convince themselves that ‘protecting the company’ really means ‘protecting my future inheritance.’"
Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek: "In recent years, we've seen major films and television series that try to dramatize the succession plans of major family-owned businesses, but, as the old saying goes, truth can be stranger than fiction…While situations like this have happened in the past, they are increasingly rare: most family-owned businesses have elaborate succession plans that are detailed and phased years in advance. The lack of that here points to disputes both personal and professional."
What Happens Next
A ruling on the case in Liechtenstein could happen as soon as weeks or months from now.
If Solorz wins, his family could pursue their own appeal. If they win, he could bring a complaint up with the constitutional court.
"As a father, it is unfortunate when private family matters become public but this matter is much larger than a family squabble," Solorz told Forbes.
The children previously said in a statement to Forbes Poland: "We are also continuing to take steps to resolve the dispute amicably and ensure our father's personal safety by restoring personal contact with him and ensuring his health has not deteriorated. In our opinion, we are doing nothing other than what children should do in our father's situation."
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