By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — Concord Casino owner and former state Sen. Andy Sanborn sought a two-month delay for an administrative hearing to contest regulators’ findings that he is unsuitable to hold a charitable gaming license.
On Thursday in Merrimack County Superior Court, Judge Martin Honigberg granted Sanborn a temporary restraining order to delay the hearing scheduled for the next day by the New Hampshire Lottery Commission, which oversees charitable gambling in the state, and its chair Debra M. Douglas.
Sanborn’s attorneys sought the delay to review hundreds of pages of documents generated by the Attorney General’s investigation into Sanborn’s suitability to hold a gaming license.
The investigation alleges Sanborn committed COVID-19 relief fraud by accepting a $844,000 federal COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan and buying three race cars with the money, paying the casino’s rent to the building he owns for more than three years in advance and other allegations.
Casinos were prohibited from accepting COVID loans under the economic injury program, but Sanborn’s application omitted the casino’s name and changed the business description to “Miscellaneous Services.”
Zachary Hafer, Sanborn’s lawyer, noted in the affidavit that Sanborn hired a third-party to produce the loan application, and that person needs to be found and interviewed.
Investigators also allude to complaints filed against the Concord Casino that prizes were lowered during games, there were discrepancies in donations to charities, some earned less than the 35 percent of gross revenue state law requires, there was a sliding scale for rent charges to charities, surveillance cameras were inoperable at times or had wrong time stamps and table game dealers made errors.
In light of the allegations, Attorney General John Formella found Sanborn was not suitable to hold a charitable gaming license nor a license to hire employees at his casino, which is in the same building as The Draft restaurant and bar, he owns with his wife Rep. Laurie Sanborn. She is the Bedford Republican House Speaker Pro Tem, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and was chair of a commission studying the effects of changes in charitable gambling laws which include increasing the waging limit from $10 to $50 and the per game limit from $150 to $2,500.
She resigned as chair of the gaming study commission after regulators announced that her husband was unfit to hold a casino license.
In an affidavit filed Thursday before the court hearing, Sanborn’s attorney Hafer, seeks the two-month delay to review the investigation documents, noting they have just received the information and hired a forensic auditor to review the material.
He said the additional time is needed to present Sanborn’s case before the Lottery Commission’s administrative hearing, and is complicated by a criminal investigation the Attorney General’s Office opened and also referred to the US Attorney’s Office in New Hampshire.
However, Assistant Attorney General Mark Dell’Orfano, representing the commission, said they believe the hearing is a “show cause” case where Sanborn would try to prove the investigation was incorrect and said the state did not plan to call witnesses or make other fillings.
He was concerned extending the administrative hearing for two months would come up against a deadline at the end of the year when Sanborn’s licenses to operate the Concord Casino would automatically be revoked, which could create additional legal problems.
Discussions over the time extension occurred during preliminary hearings before the commission on Sept. 22 and 27 prior to the originally scheduled administrative hearing date of Oct. 3.
The commission was willing to postpone the hearing for 10 days until Oct. 13, but Sanborn and his attorneys sought the temporary restraining order in Merrimack County Superior Court the day before the hearing.
At one of the preliminary hearings, Douglas expressed concern about allowing the situation to drag out saying it was affecting the commission’s brand.
She also expressed concern that Sanborn had only recently hired Hafer to represent him, when he had to know what was coming from the investigation.
Sanborn had hired an attorney before, but the attorney left the case due to a conflict of interest, according to the affidavit.
Hafer contends the state has not provided needed information to allow Sanborn and his attorneys to craft his defense in order to retain his licenses.
“As of the date of this filing, many issues that are critical to Plaintiffs’ defense remain outstanding,” Hafer writes. “By way of example, Plaintiffs have not yet had the opportunity to speak with or evaluate potential witnesses, and the AAG has not yet responded to any of Plaintiffs’ discovery requests—despite repeated follow-up. Nor has the AAG responded to Plaintiffs’ letters regarding the AAG’s receipt and disclosure of the Prohibited Materials.”
The Attorney General’s Office notes the temporary injunction does not dispute the facts in the case.
“We disagree with the positions that the licensee takes in its filings. The office did appear at the court hearing and objected to the licensee’s request to delay the licensing hearing. We will review the judge’s order and will continue to work to move this forward,” said Michael S. Garrity, Director of Communications. “The temporary injunction from the Merrimack Superior Court did not in any way dispute the findings or the merits of the investigation into the Concord Casino, but rather was specific to the timing for the hearing.”
Sanborn proposed a larger charity gambling facility on Loudon Road in Concord which was recently approved by the Concord Planning Board, but the decision is being litigated by neighbors of the proposed facility.
Sanborn, a Bedford Republican, served in the state Senate for five terms, and left to run unsuccessfully for Congress in 2018.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.
