Gov. Susana Martinez's economic development secretary, Jon Barela, is among several people being sued over loans that were never repaid to a Santa Fe bank, state court records show.

But Barela said Wednesday the company in which he is an investor was a victim of an out-of-state company trying to reduce the amount of debt held by a local bank after its takeover.

Barela is an investor in W Investments LLC, which borrowed up to $3 million from Charter Bank Santa Fe in 2007 to acquire and develop land for townhomes in northeast Albuquerque.

Charter Bank Santa Fe is suing W Investments and its partners and investors for not repaying the loans.

Barela said during a telephone interview that the original deal with Charter Bank Santa Fe called for loans to be made in three stages — acquisition, development and construction.

W Investments had received the loans for the first two phases but not for the construction stage when the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, which oversees savings and loan institutions, shut down the old family controlled Charter Bank in January 2010, Barela said. Days later, the bank reopened with a new owner, Plano, Texas-based Beal Financial Corp.

Sometime in the first half of 2010, Beal demanded W Investments repay the loans made for acquisition and development, and the firm didn't have the money.

"Great, you haven't allowed us to build homes. That's how you get your revenue," Barela said, adding that W Investments' goal had been to build the townhomes, sell them and used that money to repay the loans and make a profit.

"We were current with all payments to the bank," Barela said. "I think this is a big state bank liquidator that has basically put the squeeze on a number of small businesses, including ours."

Beal has since sold Charter Bank Santa Fe to Seattle-based Washington Federal.

Officials from Beal could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The lawsuit against W Investments appears to have been filed in May 2010 and is still active, with court records showing activity as recently as last week in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, where the case is being heard.

Barela said he informed Gov. Susana Martinez of the lawsuit during the vetting process.

"I was totally upfront," Barela said.

The Governor's Office confirmed that Barela had alerted the governor to the lawsuit prior to his appointment as economic development secretary.

Contact Trip Jennings at 986-3050 or tjennings@sfnewmexican.com.