Judge: PGA Tour may depose LIV Golf financier Yasir Al-Rumayyan

A federal magistrate judge has ordered Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to turn over documents and ruled that its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, must sit for depositions by the PGA Tour's lawyers in the tour's ongoing legal battle with LIV Golf.

In the 58-page ruling, which was released by the U.S. District Court for Northern California on Thursday night, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen rejected arguments from PIF's lawyers that the fund and Al-Rumayyan were shielded from the tour's subpoenas on the grounds of sovereign immunity because they were agents of a foreign government.

The court rejected PIF's and Al-Rumayyan's claims of sovereign immunity and lack of jurisdiction and ruled that their conduct fell within the commercial exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act. The court also rejected their personal jurisdiction defenses because they allegedly «directed their activities at the United States.»

«It is plain that PIF is not a mere investor in LIV; it is the moving force behind the founding, funding, oversight and operation of LIV,» van Keulen wrote in the ruling. «PIF's actions are indisputably the type of activities by which a private party engages in trade and traffic or commerce. Accordingly, the court concludes that PIF has engaged in commercial activity.»

Lawyers for PIF and Al-Rumayyan have indicated that they will ask a federal judge to review van Keulen's ruling. U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 24.

PIF and Al-Rumayyan had argued that they were merely investors in LIV Golf, which is being fronted by two-time Open Championship winner Greg Norman, and weren't involved in the day-to-day operations or recruitment of players. PIF has invested more