A private lender is suing two Westchester business executives for $3.1 million for allegedly making no payments on a $1 million loan for nearly 15 years.
Kenneth Skolnick, of Westbury, Nassau County, summoned Andrew Brettschneider, of Scarsdale, Alison Brettschneider, of White Plains, and their businesses on Sept. 12 to defend themselves in Westchester Supreme Court.
“Put simply, I lent them money … and have never received any payments from them,” Skolnick declares in an affidavit. “Their obligation to repay has not been excused and is absolute.”
Andrew Brettschneider is an officer and principal in ALB Holdings in Manhattan, according to the complaint. Alison Brettschneider is an officer and principal in 25 Park, a women’s clothing store that operated boutiques on the Upper East Side, the Hamptons and Connecticut.
Skolnick says he loaned the Brettschneiders and their businesses $1 million in February 2011.
The loan document does not say how the money was meant to be used. And the lawsuit does not say how Skolnick, who lived near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he loaned the money, knew the Brettschneiders. (A Linked-In profiles lists a Kenneth Skolnick from the same small town near Pittsburgh as a neck surgeon.)
The loan was structured to be paid in full in one year, with interest set at 6%. After a year, default interest accrued at 15% annually.
In 2016 and 2023, Skolnick granted extensions for paying back the loan, according to his affidavit. Still, he claims the borrowers made no payments.
With default interest growing at $150,000 a year, Skolnick calculates, the cost of the loan has ballooned by nearly $2.1 million. He also is demanding $10,000 for legal fees, for a total amount due of $3,107,500, plus $410.96 a day in interest until the loan is repaid.
Skolnick’s attorney, Joseph A. Marra, Yonkers, is asking the court to grant summary judgment.
Alison Brettschneider did not reply to an email asking for her response to the allegations. Attempts to find contact information for Andrew Brettschneider were unsuccessful.
