Controversy over Peter Picknelly's Palmer casino dealings - WFXG FOX54 Augusta - Your News One Hour Earlier

Controversy over Peter Picknelly's Palmer casino dealings

Springfield businessman Peter Picknelly may be in the middle of a controversy surrounding two casino developers.

Northeast Realty, the owners of the Mohegan Sun Palmer property, say that in 2008, Picknelly became an investor in their project.

Picknelly's attorneys say that he transferred his involvement to a business associate. Now it is stirring controversy on both sides.

"Peter has nothing to do with Palmer," said Picknelly's attorney, Paul Maleck.

Maleck says that a 2008 agreement made with Northeast Realty as an investor is no longer valid after Picknelly reportedly "cut ties" with the group and pulled out of the project not long after joining forces with Penn National Gaming in Springfield.

"Peter had every right to exit, terminate all of his interests, he had signed a revenue sharing agreement where he was going to possibly partake in the revenues," Maleck said.

According to CBS 3 media partner Masslive and The Republican, Picknelly invested $500,000 into the Palmer project nearly five years ago.

On Nov. 1, 2012, Picknelly signed documents transferring his interests to close business associate Malcolm Getz.

But it's the timeline of events that's bothering Northeast Realty.

Reps for the group say that claims made by Picknelly that he cut ties well before his Penn National partnership are false.

"From their own documents that they provided to us, it shows that it was Nov. 1 after they had announced them as their joint venture partner on Oct.11," said Steve Spelman, attorney for Northeast Realty.

Spelman says that the document is useless and that Picknelly is still on board in Palmer as an investor.

"It is Northeast's position that Mr. Picknelly is a full joint venture partner with Palmer, he has been so under his revenue sharing agreement since Jan. 11, 2008, and his attempt to transfer it to Mr. Malcolm Getz has no force in effect," Spelman said.

Lawyers for Northeast Realty say that they are prepared to take Picknelly to court if he does not acknowledge his partnership in the project.

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