ESDC current and former board members in the news: Cephas leaves bank, Holland in Harlem controversy

Empire State Development Corporation board member Derrick Cephas has resigned, Crain's New York Business reports, in Amalgamated Bank's CEO resigns:

Amalgamated Bank Chief Executive Derrick Cephas has resigned, after falling out of favor with bank Chairman Bruce Raynor, sources said.

Mr. Raynor, who is president of garment workers union Workers United, had grown frustrated with the union-owned bank's results in recent years, a banking source said. The CEO's resignation also follows a period during which the bank was in the middle of a protracted dispute between the garment workers and hotel workers unions. As per a divorce agreement reached last summer, Mr. Raynor's union held on to the bank.

While Amalgamated went to a net loss of $1.2 million from net income of $7 million in 2009, the bank seems seems well-capitalized, Crain's said.

A fierce dispute for a former board member

Meanwhile, a much stranger tale involves former ESDC board member Joseph Holland, as detailed in a long Amsterdam News article headlined HARLEM RUMBLE (reg. req.).

It involves a project, Uptown Grand, with broker Thomas Lopez-Pierre, which has gone very wrong.

In copious detail, Lopez-Pierre calls Holland "the Black Bernard Madoff." Holland and relatives have had Lopez-Pierre arrested for stalking and aggravated harassment.