Bank Is Suing McNall, Seeking $28.3 Million : Hockey: Suit claims owner of the Kings defaulted on a loan, but his spokesman says, ‘We dispute the debt even exists.’

In another sign of growing business woes, King owner Bruce McNall is being sued in federal court in New York for $28.3 million by a Dutch-owned bank that alleges he defaulted on a loan.

According to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Times, European American Bank in Uniondale, N.Y., last week alleged that McNall personally owes $27.8 million in principal on a loan, interest totaling at least $442,864 and unspecified costs and fees he is required to pay under an agreement with the bank.

A McNall spokesman disputed the bank’s allegations Thursday. “We believe the suit is totally without merit, and, in fact, dispute that the debt even exists,” spokesman Ron Iori said. A lawyer for European American Bank declined comment.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York, said that European American Bank and McNall entered into an amended loan agreement as of Feb. 1, 1992, with the principal amount set at $30 million.

McNall was required under the terms of the note to make monthly installment payments of $320,000 due Dec. 1, 1992, and Jan. 1, 1993. “McNall failed to make the necessary payments as required by the note and thus defaulted under the terms of the note and the amended loan agreement,” the lawsuit said.

European American Bank is a subsidiary of ABN AMRO Bank N.V. based in the Netherlands.

The lawsuit does not specify what McNall used the money for, but in an interview last month McNall said one transaction the bank had financed for him in the past was his 1988 acquisition of Wayne Gretzky in what arguably remains professional hockey’s biggest trade ever. McNall paid Edmonton Oiler owner Peter Pocklington a total of $15 million in the deal for Gretzky and two other players.

Addressing European American in the February interview, McNall said he was no longer involved with the bank. “They were the bank that financed the Wayne Gretzky deal. They’re long gone. That’s way back when,” McNall said then.

The lawsuit comes as McNall is working hard to wrap up a $60-million deal in which he plans to sell 65% of the Kings to Los Angeles telecommunications entrepreneur Jeffrey Sudikoff and partner Joseph Cohen. The move is largely to help McNall shed a loan with Bank of America, which had extended him $90 million in loans and a line of credit. McNall is scheduled to continue operating the team as something of a managing partner.

Prospective owner Cohen said last week that the transaction was on schedule to close by the end of this month. Previously, the projected closing date had been the end of February. Sudikoff, chief executive of IDB Communications, added in an interview Saturday that he was comfortable with the deal’s progress.

The European American lawsuit also follows a Times report this month detailing a number of other McNall business problems, including a separate lawsuit alleging he defaulted on a loan made by a Torrance bank, a court order obtained by Twentieth Century Fox attaching McNall assets for money he allegedly owes the studio and various late payments by his companies.

People familiar with McNall’s financial situation have attributed the problems to such factors as softness in the rare coin business, where he is one of the world’s major players, a steep debt load, losses from a Toronto football team he controls and an inability to exploit the Kings’ popularity because of an unfavorable Forum lease.

McNall has denied he is having financial problems. A settlement is pending with the Torrance bank. McNall’s dispute with Fox includes a suit he has filed against the studio alleging it mishandled the release of one of his films.