The New York Times reports that former Gov. Mario Cuomo

The major interest in this story is the "particularly thorny questions," as NYT reporter Danny Hakim puts it, about a (hypothetical, at this point) bank that's trying to invest in local governments headed by the father of current Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (The governor's spokesman denies that there's a conflict, because the bank doesn't exist yet.)

But there's also a local interest, too: The elder Mr. Cuomo is the chairman of Modern Capital Holdings, a parent holding company that is trying to acquire Upstate National Bank, the Times reports.

Upstate National Bank was based in Lisbon, in St. Lawrence County, from 1922 to 1997. (It's now based in Rochester.)

It has branches in Ogdensburg, Lisbon and Philadelphia. There was also a big to-do about opening a branch in bank-less Theresa, but that effort fizzled out.

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