By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; C01

The genteel sport of polo showed its rough-and-tumble side earlier this year when two factions of young social mavens started scrapping -- in angry blasts of e-mails and heated conferences with lawyers -- for control of a fledgling Northern Virginia charity match.

On one side: Greg Ball, the former Air Force officer who founded the Courage Cup in 2004 while living in D.C. On the other: two Washington women whom Ball handed the event off to last year -- temporarily, he says -- when he moved home to enter politics in Upstate New York.

But why did Ball, 29, now a busy freshman state assemblyman, even want to keep running a youthful charity party several hours from his home district? Perhaps because it helped him win his seat.

The Reliable Source found that a New York political action committee started by Ball -- which later transferred its entire treasury to his campaign -- netted as much as $10,000 by selling tickets to the 2005 Courage Cup. That's four times the amount the polo match raised that year for its prominently advertised beneficiary, Work to Ride, a Philadelphia charity that teaches poor kids to play polo.

It's unclear whether anything about the arrangement was improper. But it shocked several D.C. area Courage Cup ticket buyers, who said they had never heard of the group and were stunned to find their names in Ball's campaign finance records.

"I thought the money was going to kids," said Andrew McKenna."I'd be pretty [infuriated] if I found out this was for a political race."

Ball insists there was nothing irregular about the involvement of the PAC, Citizens United for Ethical Growth, in the charity event. He said he had nothing to do with the group's fundraising efforts at the polo match he organized, and that patrons of the event's Golden Mallet Tent were informed their money was going to the PAC by a disclaimer on a ticketing Web site.

"A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into making the event a success," said Ball, who claimed he's under attack by former friends he says "stole" the event from him. Citizens United's filings with the state of New York show the PAC collecting $41,563.38 during its three-year existence. Though many donations in 2004 came from Upstate New York, the vast majority of donations recorded in spring 2005 came from donors with Washington area addresses -- 120 donations in all, totaling $11,590.

We randomly contacted a dozen of these D.C. donors to ask why they gave to a New York state PAC. None could remember ever hearing of the group, let alone giving it money. But all, as it turned out, had bought tickets to the 2005 Courage Cup, held that year on June 18 in Poolesville, Md.

"I think it was billed as a fundraiser to get kids involved with polo," recalled Britt Jung, who was surprised to find herself listed as a $55 donor to CUEG -- an amount she thinks she spent on her Courage Cup ticket.

"I don't recall supporting him," said Eden Ellis, an acquaintance of Ball's who remembered hearing about his political aspirations but didn't know how $50 in her name ended up in CUEG's filings. "I think I would have remembered that."

Kids involved in Work to Ride attended the match to charm spectators with their polo skills, and brochures advertising the event cited Work to Ride as the match's sole beneficiary. We could find only one document from the Courage Cup that mentioned Citizens United -- an online form, linked from the Cup's Web site, hawking tickets to the Golden Mallet Tent, with a note at the end stating profits would go to a PAC by that name.

According to New York state newspaper accounts at the time, Citizens United for Ethical Growth was founded in fall 2004 with Ball as its president. Its goals were to promote "smart growth" and regional planning in the small-town and suburban communities north of New York City, with special concern for traffic congestion on state Route 22. The following April, Ball announced he would run as a Republican for state assembly against a longtime incumbent. In December 2005, CUEG -- then described in its press releases as being led by a Dutchess County, N.Y., landscaper, Frank Chiera -- announced it was transferring its $18,000 in assets to Ball's campaign.

Contacted several weeks ago and asked about the 2005 Washington area contributions, Chiera responded that "Greg held a fundraiser, a polo match." But he said he didn't have anything to do with the event other than attending, and he referred questions to Ball.

Ball told us the Courage Cup sold "tent space" to Citizens United -- CUEG's finance records show a $2,500 payment to Courage Cup -- as well as other outside organizations, at least one of which then sold tickets to its own members. Ball said the Courage Cup's Web site offered people options to buy tickets at different price levels to different tents. Those who selected the Golden Mallet Tent ("a catered affair with a free flowing bar") were sent to the online form that stated profits would go to Citizens United. "If they don't remember that, I don't know what to say," Ball said.

How much did CUEG sell tickets for? And how did it provide food and booze when no such expenses are listed in campaign finance records? Ball and his legislative spokesman referred questions about the Citizens United/Golden Mallet tent back to Chiera. "Frank is really the one who was in total control of this, not Greg," said spokesman Rob DiFrancesco.

Chiera, contacted a second time, reversed his previous account, saying he had misspoken earlier. In the second interview, he said that Ball was not involved in the PAC's fundraising at the polo match and that he himself had authorized the CUEG tent. But Chiera could not explain how the money was raised, saying the effort was organized by other CUEG volunteers whom he could not name. "All I did was approve it."

In January, two months after Ball won his state assembly seat, he engaged in a highly public feud with Andrea Rodgers and Keri Ann Meslar, who ran the 2006 Courage Cup while he was running for office. His former friends resisted his attempt to retake a leadership role, claiming he left the organization in fiscal disarray; Ball charged that he was the Courage Cup's rightful owner and that the two women stole his intellectual property.

Meanwhile, Rodgers is carrying on with plans for the 2007 event, to be held Saturday in The Plains. In a statement, Rodgers said she was "disappointed" to learn about money going to the PAC and emphasized that Ball is not involved in the newly incorporated nonprofit that now runs the match.

Lucy Shackelford, Post director of information resources, contributed to this report.