Business ProfileforPrime Commercial Lending LLC

On 08/29/2024 this business's accreditation in the BBB was revoked by the BBB's Board of Directors due to failure by the business to adhere to the BBB requirement that Accredited Businesses meet and abide by the following standards:

1. Establish and maintain a positive track record in the marketplace.

1C. Be free from government action that demonstrates a significant failure to support BBB ethical principles. BBB evaluates the action and makes a determination on adherence to this standard based on the nature of the violation and the extent of harm it caused or is alleged to have caused, whether it was caused or condoned by management, and actions taken to resolve underlying issues that led to the government action.

Prime Capital Ventures Owner Arrested for Fraud

The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the governments allegations, which have not yet been proven.

May 31, 2024 ALBANY, NEW YORK – Kris Roglieri, age 44, of Queensbury, New York, was arrested today on a criminal complaint charging him with wire fraud.

Roglieri operated Prime Capital Ventures LLC (“Prime Capital”) and Prime Commercial Lending LLC (“Prime Commercial”), among other companies, that were based in Albany.

The criminal complaint alleges that Prime Capital held itself out as a commercial lending business. As part of contractual arrangements with its borrower clients situated across the country, Prime Capital obtained upfront interest payments from prospective borrowers while it sought to secure loans for those borrowers; these upfront interest payments were characterized by Prime Capital as the “Interest Credit Account Payment,” or “ICA” payment for short. ICA payments did not represent fees to Prime Capital. Instead, each borrower’s upfront ICA payment would be debited over time as the loan was funded and accrued more interest. An ICA payment would also be refundable if Prime Capital failed to secure a loan for the borrower client.

The complaint alleges that Roglieri defrauded a Minnesota company in December 2023, by committing to fund, through Prime Capital, a $100 million commercial project, even though, at the time, Prime Capital had failed to fund numerous loans promised to earlier clients; failed to return tens of millions of dollars in ICA payments to earlier clients once those loans did not materialize; and had been sued multiple times by clients alleging fraud and seeking the return of ICA payments.

On or about December 22, 2023, Roglieri, on behalf of Prime Commercial, signed a Deposit Agreement by which he agreed to keep the Minnesota company’s ICA payment in a “separate and distinct” bank account, and to hold it as a “trust fund.”

On December 22, the Minnesota company wire transferred a $5 million ICA payment to a Prime Capital account controlled by Roglieri. The complaint alleges that Roglieri then transferred and spent these funds, including by transferring $950,000 in order to meet a financial obligation to another Prime Capital client; paying $84,000 for his purchase of a Rolex day-date 36 mm yellow gold diamond bezel watch; and paying $101,000 to a private jet services company, for round-trip, private air travel between Albany International Airport and Anguilla, for a family vacation that Roglieri took from about December 29, 2023 to January 5, 2024. 

If convicted of the charge set forth in the complaint, Roglieri faces up to 20 years in prison, a maximum $250,000 fine, and up to 3 years of supervised release. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.