Manchin aide Puccio recently cut a longstanding tie to troubled hotel investor

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Longtime Manchin aide Larry Puccio this year broke a financial tie that had gone back years with the main investor in several troubled business projects around the state.

Bill Abruzzino’s name was officially removed from A & P LLC on May 25, according to reports on file with the Secretary of State’s office. Abruzzino and Puccio had been listed as managers in the corporation in filings since 2006.

MORE: Abruzzino removal as officer

Abruzzino signed a 2013 loan for Mountain Blue Hotel Group, the defendant in a lawsuit of almost $15 million filed this month in federal court in Clarksburg over the defaulting Hilton Garden Inn in Morgantown.

That lawsuit also lists Senator Joe Manchin and Puccio as investors in AA Property — which the lawsuit, in turn, lists as an investor in Mountain Blue.

The original loan document also lists AA with a 12 percent interest in Mountain Blue — and Manchin and Puccio with a 50-50 investment in AA. Their names were also on a 2013 facility letter for the Hilton project that’s now the subject of the lawsuit.

MORE: AA Property, Manchin and Puccio are listed on pages 58 and 59 of this loan document

Puccio and staffers for Manchin recently acknowledged that they are investors in AA. But Puccio, in two different telephone interviews, and Manchin’s congressional staff have contended that they are not investors in the hotels.

Larry Puccio

“I’ve made it clear as I could that we have no ownership, and I think if you’re patient you’ll see I was right and no ownership,” Puccio said in a brief telephone conversation Monday afternoon. “I’m not going to keep doing this. I’m out, bud.”

In different stories about Abruzzino’s troubled investments this year, Puccio has acknowledged business dealings in the past. But Puccio has said those financial ties no longer exist.

On Monday evening he was asked specifically about the original loan agreement listing his name and Manchin’s. He was asked if the original loan was false or if the original investment was somehow withdrawn — or if the link was severed some other way.

Puccio wouldn’t elaborate.

“No relationship, no affiliation, no stock, nothing with Abruzzino or with the hotels,” Puccio said Monday before ending the conversation.

The filing with the Secretary of State’s office shows that at least one longstanding relationship was officially cut.

The document — an application to appoint or change officers — lists Abruzzino’s name to be removed on multiple lines with the word “remove.”

It says Abruzzino should be replaced by another entity — AA Properties Inc. The document is signed by Puccio.

Puccio and Abruzzino were still both listed as members on an updated annual filing with the Secretary of State’s office on March 17, 2016, as they had been for all the previous years over the prior decade.

Abruzzino is not only in trouble for the money Mountain Blue owes for a Morgantown hotel project, but also for similar projects.

City of Clarksburg officials on May 1 this year filed a lawsuit alleging the companies that own the Hilton Garden Inn there owe $41,000 in unpaid business and occupation taxes. The city asked that the hotel be sold to pay off the debt.

In that case, the investor is called Mountain West. The chief executive officer is William A. Abruzzino.

Mountain West Hospitality LLC is listed with an effective date of Feb. 27, 2012, and a principal office address of 205 Marion Square, Fairmont, the same address that A & P LLC has been listed over the years.

Earlier year, the owner of Elkview Crossings Mall filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in West Virginia’s northern district. William Abruzzino of Tara Retail Group was listed as the manager and as the authorized representative in the bankruptcy.

Tara Retail Group, which has been listed at 205 Marion Square and also with an address in Georgia, filed its intent to dissolve with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office on June 15, 2017.

The 205 Marion Square address is also listed for Puccio & York Realty, where Larry Puccio is listed as the manager, according to the business licensing listing at the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office.

Contacted this past January about the Crossings Mall situation and Abruzzino’s role, Puccio said then that he had no current ties with Abruzzino. Crossings Mall was closed for about a year after summer 2016 flooding washed out a bridge leading to the property and no one stepped up to replace it.

“Abruzzino and I aren’t close for me to ask what’s going on with that. If I used to own a percentage of it, I’d know a lot more about it,” Puccio said then.

When the story about the $15 million lawsuit over the Hilton in Morgantown first broke, both Puccio and Manchin’s staff initially said they were not only not tied to the hotel project but also not to AA Property.

Both then adjusted their position to acknowledge investment in AA.

Joe Manchin

In Manchin’s 2016 financial disclosure with the Senate, the senator is listed with $15,001 to $50,000 in investment in AA. The document lists $11,454.52 in income from the AA investment. The financial disclosure is listed with an August 8 amendment.

“Senator Manchin has part ownership in AA Property, but AA Property has no ownership or affiliation with the hotels,” Manchin spokesman Jonathan Kott stated in an email last Wednesday.

Puccio, in a telephone interview last week, agreed that AA is not involved with the hotel investment: “Most certainly, take it to the bank, AA is not a stockholder and has no affiliation nor ownership with the hotel company, nor does Manchin or Puccio.”

Puccio, in that conversation, said he originally thought AA had dissolved.

“I thought AA had been dissolved. AA had not been dissolved.”

The lawsuit against Mountain Blue Hotel Group of Fairmont was filed August 8 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.

The lawsuit, filed by trustee U.S. National Bank Association, alleges a commercial breach of contract over a loan for Hilton Garden Inn at Sun Crest Town Center in Morgantown. The lawsuit states default actions have occurred, endangering the property.

MORE: Read the lawsuit against Mountain Blue Hotel Group.

Among the investors in Mountain Blue Hotel Group, the lawsuit specifies, is AA Properties. Here’s how the lawsuit states that matter:

“Upon information and belief, AA Property, LLC is a West Virginia limited liability company whose members are Larry Puccio and Joe Manchin III. Upon information and belief, Larry Puccio and Joe Manchin III are each domiciled in West Virginia.”

Puccio said his lawyers have interpreted that he, Manchin and AA are not actually being sued — that Mountain Blue is the defendant and that he, Manchin and AA have been listed falsely as investors in the hotel property.

“They were naming just who they thought owned stock. They didn’t sue us. There’s nothing to file other than saying they gave inactive information,” Puccio said.

The lawsuit in U.S. District court names several investors in Mountain Blue Hotel Group, including William A. Abruzzino, Rebecca A. Abruzzino, Martha Hughes, Martha Hughes, as Trustee of the William A. Abruzzino and Rebecca A. Abruzzino Generation Skipping Trust, Judy Nunnally, Jaron Smalley, AA Property, LLC, Peachtree Village Partners, LLC, Rebecca A. Abruzzino, as trustee of the Robert A. Abruzzino Irrevocable Trust, and Mark A. Abruzzino.

William Abruzzino scrawled his signature on both the promissory note and the deed for the Mountain Blue investment in the Morgantown hotel — as well as the original loan document.

In the hotel case, the plaintiff alleges that on Sept. 17, 2013, UBS Real Estate Securities Inc. made a loan of  $15,470,000 for Hilton Garden Inn Morgantown at Sun Crest Town Center.

But shortly after that, events leading to default began to occur as the hotel was unable to continue payments on its Hilton franchise fee and faced local tax liens, according to the lawsuit.







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