By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — Lawyers for former state Sen. Andy Sanborn say it is not true their client used $844,000 in COVID relief loans to buy sports cars and overpay himself rent.
“There is nothing to the (state’s) case,” said Mark Knights, one of Sanborn’s lawyers.
Sanborn, who owns the Concord Casino and had plans for another casino, is facing the possible loss of his charitable gaming license after the New Hampshire Attorney General and the New Hampshire Lottery Commission called out the alleged misuse of money this summer.
During Monday’s hearing at the Department of Safety Offices in Concord before an independent administrative arbiter, Knights accused lawyers with the Department of Justice and the New Hampshire Lottery Commission’s enforcement division of doing a sloppy investigation. The accusations against Sanborn are easily disproved, Knights said.
“They are locked in a sunk cost fallacy after that big announcement all but calling my client a criminal. They are trying to end Mr. Sanborn’s career,” Knights said.
But Leila McDonough, the Lottery Commission’s auditing administrator, said there were major red flags caught in the 2022 audit, enough that she stopped her work and went to her superiors.
McDonough, the sole witness for the state, testified that both Andy Sanborn and his wife, Rep. Laurie Sanborn, R-Bedford, constantly called to complain about the routine audits. Laurie Sanborn is the co-owner of the Concord Casino. Andy Sanborn was difficult to deal with, and he fought with the state constantly over the regulations, McDonough said.
When McDonough started seeing things like two Porsche’s, a Ferrari, and $40,000 worth of car parts accounted for as business expenses in the financial statements for the 2022 audit, she let her boss know there was a problem, she testified.
“Purchasing three race cars when you had a need to go get taxpayer money for a loan is very concerning,” McDonough said.
Sanborn is also accused of paying himself close to $200,000 in rent for the casino soon after his COVID relief loans were paid into his accounts.
The casino is owned through Sanborn’s LLC called Win, Win, Win LLC, but the Main Street property in Concord that is home to the casino and the couple’s restaurant, The Draft, is owned by another Sanborn LLC, The Best Revenge LLC.
The 2018 lease agreement on file calls for Win, Win, Win to pay The Best Revenge $500 a month, or $6,000 a year. But McDonough testified she started seeing monthly rent payments of $15,000 to $30,000 between the entities after the COVID money came through.
“There were a lot of nice, round numbers,” McDonough said.
Sanborn’s lawyer, Zachary Hafer, said all of the spending McDonough and others found questionable was completely above board, eventually. McDonough looked at an incomplete picture when she reviewed financial statements part way through the year, Hafer said. All of the money was properly accounted for when Sanborn filed his 2021 and 2022 taxes, Hafer said. Sanborn filed his taxes last week, according to the attorney.
Neither Sanborn was at Monday’s hearing. Hafer said Andy Sanborn was receiving medical treatment in Boston at the Dana Farber Center.