Baltimore-based developer David S. Cordish is suing an upstate New York weekly and a freelance contributor for defamation for a pair of articles that ran in the newspaper earlier this month.

Cordish filed the lawsuit against the Niagara Falls Reporter and writer Frank Parlato Jr., claiming the newspaper ran articles containing false information that damaged his reputation.

One of the articles that Parlato wrote accused Cordish of improperly taking public money and creating fake companies for a theater development project, according to the court filing.

The lawsuit seeks more than $2 million in damages.

gus.sentementes@baltsun.com