Former CU Volunteers Hit Jackpot

CRANFORD, N.J. - Three former volunteer credit union directors who worked together won the million-dollar lottery yesterday when their credit union-turned-bank agreed to be sold to another bank for $170 million. The agreement by New York Community Bancorp to take over Synergy Financial Group, known until 1999 as Synergy FCU, means that stock owned by each of the three former volunteers is worth more than $1 million, according to the company's annual proxy statement.

The $14.18-a-share deal, coming a year after an ugly proxy battle that left control of the ex-credit union in the hands of a group of S&L speculators, will provide a windfall of almost $6 million for John Fiore, the bank's president and CEO, who owns more than 290,000 Synergy Financial shares. Ironically, the Wall Street speculators won their proxy battle last year to remove Fiore from the board, partly because of his huge pay package.

Two Schering-Plough employees and one retiree - once volunteer directors of the credit union and now on the board of the bank - will also share in the windfall. That includes Nancy Davis who owns $1.1 million worth of stock, Kenneth Kaspar, $1.2 million, and George Putvinski, $1 million. It is the second acquisition in the past month for Long Island, N.Y.-based New York Community, which has $30 billion in assets and more than 30 branches in New York and New Jersey. Synergy Financial has almost $1 billion in assets. Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP, which underwrote Synergy's 2003 initial public offering, advised the ex-credit union on the deal. Synergy is the 13th credit union to disappear through merger or acquisition after being converted to mutual savings bank.