PORTLAND (AP) – An attorney for Michael Liberty is denying claims against the Maine developer by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has filed a civil lawsuit accusing Liberty of misappropriating millions of dollars from a private venture capital fund.

“We deny the allegations and intend to vigorously defend them,” Liberty’s Manhattan-based attorney, Daniel Horwitz, told the Portland Press Herald. Horwitz noted that no criminal charges have been filed in the matter.

The SEC suit says Liberty, the developer behind many landmark Portland building projects, diverted money that should have been invested by the fund in Biddeford Textiles and Envisionet Computer Services Inc., two Maine companies that closed in the early 2000s.

The suit, which was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, involves the investment group Keystone Venture V, which counted public retirement funds in Pennsylvania and Connecticut among its partners.

“Almost from the inception of Keystone V in 1997, (fund managing director Kieran J. Dale) and Liberty were engaged in a fraudulent scheme to divert the fund’s money to Liberty and others associated with him under the guise of investments in portfolio companies,” the SEC wrote in its suit.

The suit says Liberty and Dale caused nearly $27 million of assets from the Keystone Venture V to be diverted either to Liberty, people associated with him or to companies “that Liberty owned, controlled, had an interest in, or recommended.”

The SEC suit charges that more than $9 million of the $27 million went directly to Liberty and his associates. About $4.5 million went to benefit Liberty and the same amount went to his associates, it says.

The remaining $18 million invested in companies related to Liberty “was apparently lost when the businesses … failed,” the complaint states.

Liberty is a well-known Maine real estate developer who also has business interests in other states.

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