Concord Casino owner and former state Sen. Andy Sanborn was arrested Tuesday and charged with theft by deception in connection with nearly $190,000 in pandemic aid that was paid out in 2020, the Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday afternoon.
The charge appears to be separate from the fraud investigation the state launched 13 months ago into Sanborn’s use of nearly $844,000 in a separate pandemic loan program.
Attorney General John Formella said Tuesday’s charge alleges that Sanborn misrepresented his casino’s gross receipts by nearly $1 million in order to increase his grant from the “Main Street Relief Fund” by nearly $188,474.
The charge, which can carry a 7 ½ to 15 year prison sentence, is the latest of Sanborn’s legal and financial problems.
The state shut down his casino in December as part of the earlier pandemic loan investigation after a judge found sufficient evidence that Sanborn and his wife, Rep. Laurie Sanborn, had misrepresented the nature of their charitable gaming business when they applied for the $844,000 loan and then misspent the money. The alleged fraudulent purchases included three race cars, two Porsches and a Ferrari, that totaled $181,250.
The judge declined to revoke Sanborn’s charitable gaming license in December as the state asked and instead ordered him to sell the casino by no later than September. Sanborn’s attorneys are seeking to extend the deadline, saying Sanborn has a buyer who will close the deal as soon as the Attorney General’s Office completes its background check and approves him for a gaming license.
Meanwhile Sanborn’s attorneys have sued the Attorney General’s Office in Merrimack County Superior Court, alleging that the office seized confidential records while executing a search warrant and then allowed the investigative team to review them. The attorneys allege the documents included notes about legal strategy and other matters that are protected under attorney-client privilege.
Sanborn, of Bedford, could not be immediately reached. His attorneys, Zachary Hafer and Adam Katz, responded in an email to questions from the Bulletin. In their statement, they alleged the arrest is the latest attempt by the Attorney General’s Office to imperil Sanborn’s ability to sell his casino.
New Hampshire lottery rules prohibit anyone or any business convicted of a felony from holding a gaming license for 10 years. It remains unclear whether that liability would extend to the person who buys Sanborn’s business should he be convicted. Sanborn’s attorneys have won many of their legal challenges against the Attorney General’s Office but have been unable to get confirmation that a new buyer would not face a licensing penalty should Concord Casino, which operates as Win Win Win, be convicted.
“In an eleventh hour attempt to sabotage a sale of Win Win Win, the same AG who has been enjoined repeatedly for violations of Mr. Sanborn’s constitutional rights by three New Hampshire superior court judges, who has had his legal positions soundly rejected time and again by administrative law judges (overseeing the licensing case), and whose office is currently facing potential sanctions for prosecutorial misconduct, has now arrested Mr. Sanborn on the eve of a sale to a qualified buyer,” the attorneys wrote in an email. “We are disappointed, but not surprised. And we remain confident that the New Hampshire judiciary will continue to do justice and hold the AG accountable.”
The reference to “prosecutorial misconduct” relates to allegations in their lawsuit that the Attorney General’s Office failed to ensure that confidential records seized in May did not reach the investigative team. Hafer and Katz have asked the judge to disqualify the investigative team or suppress the evidence collected.
New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on Facebook and X.
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