A State Appellate Court could rule as early as Friday on a lawsuit that may determine the future of one of Upstate New York's largest projects. The owner of Carousel Center wants to turn the Syracuse mall into Destiny USA. The first phase, an expansion of Carousel, is now stalled after banking conglomerate Citigroup cut off funding saying cost overruns and delays had jeopardized the project. Our Bill Carey says the Justices now are trying to work their way through a number of conflicting claims.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- It is an argument at the heart of the legal battle? Was it simply a construction loan, as Citigroup claims? Or was it part of an entire package of funds, ultimately controlled by Citigroup that cannot be replaced by a simple loan?

Attorneys for Destiny say it's all clear. They were the funnel for every dollar that was spent on this project. And Citigroup has been just as clear saying no special package of deals existed. The record precisely contradicts that characterization.

What does exist are four separate sources for funding on this massive project. There is a mortgage on the original Carousel Center. A so-called mezzanine loan, which in effect is borrowing against the value of stock owned by the principals of the development company. There is the actual construction loan for building the expansion. And hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds from the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency. And Destiny says Citigroup clearly made money off every source.

"What permanent financier will come in and say, oh, this is a good income producing property. I'll take it off your hands. Not gonna happen," said Leslie Fagen.

While Citigroup publicly worries about losing money, Destiny says the bank has made plenty, so far.

"It's collected $123 million in fees, costs and interest," said Howard Graff.

Here are the figures the developer is looking at. They list closing costs on all the loans at just under $8 million. Post closing fees and various extensions totaling over $10 million. An underwriting fee for the city bonds of $3.7 million and interest from the various loans totaling more than $100 million.

Destiny no longer claims Citigroup has made $123 million off the deal, so far. The number is now closer to $130 million.

Citigroup still says the case is about a simple construction loan and says its records show it's made just over $9 million in various fees on the financing of the expansion. It calls the figures pressed by the developer absurd and dramatically overstated.