Caption

Close

Pioneer Bank of Colonie says it never provided  "secretive financing" to the historic Saratoga Polo Grounds in Greenfield behind the back of an investment group out of Montana that was trying to develop the 42-acre site.

Pioneer Bank was named last month as a defendant in a lawsuit brought against the owners of the polo grounds by a development group led by Carl Berry, the CEO of Star Resort Group out of Bozeman, Mont. The suit was filed in state Supreme Court in Saratoga County.

Berry, who built his career on timeshare properties, claims he had a deal in place with Michael Bucco and James Rossi to build 75 homes on the site.

Berry claims that he was pushed out of the project last fall by Bucco and Rossi in favor of a Capital Region group headed by Port of Coeymans owner Carver Laraway and local homebuilder Luke Michaels.

Berry claims that the group "secretly arranged for financing" from Pioneer Bank to fund the project.

The defendants "surreptitiously obtained financing for the polo property" from Pioneer Bank, Berry alleged, in the form of a $1.1 million loan that was consolidated with a previous loan from First National Bank of Scotia for a total of $3.2 million.

However, in an answer to Berry's lawsuit that was filed on March 31, Pioneer Bank said the loan was not obtained in secret and details were filed with the Saratoga County Clerk. Pioneer Bank's official name is Pioneer Savings Bank.

Pioneer said it "denies so much of the allegations ... that describes the financing obtained with defendant Pioneer Savings Bank as 'secretive financing."

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.