Concord Monitor – Andy Sanborn arrested and charged with pandemic fraud

According to the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, Andy Sanborn, a former state senator and owner of the Concord Casino, was arrested Wednesday and charged with embezzlement and fraudulent use of pandemic relief funds.

The warrant accuses Sanborn of misrepresenting the revenue of his Concord casino in order to receive additional money from the state of New Hampshire's Main Street Relief Fund, an economic support for small businesses during COVID-19.

“Andy Sanborn falsified the casino's gross receipts and this falsification resulted in Win Win Win and Andy Sanborn receiving $188,474.33 more in grant funds than they were entitled to under the grant formula,” the attorney general's office said in a statement.

Sanborn was under criminal investigation for using $844,000 in pandemic relief funds received by his company, WIN WIN WIN LLC, which operates the Concord Casino. With that money, earmarked for small businesses rather than casinos, Sanborn financed a lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of two Porsche racing cars for himself and a Ferrari for his wife, state representative Laurie Sanborn, an earlier investigation by the attorney general Office and state lottery commission found.

This joint investigation accused Sanborn of circumventing regulations by concealing the registered trade name “Concord Casino” on his SBA application. Instead, he used the name “Win ​​Win Win LLC” and categorized the business as “other.” As a result, he was found unfit for charitable gambling and has since been ordered to sell his casino, but was not prosecuted until Wednesday.

Sanborn's legal team said the New Hampshire attorney general's arrest of Sanborn was a last-minute move to sabotage the sale of the Concord Casino.

“The same Attorney General who has been repeatedly impeached by three New Hampshire Supreme Court justices for violations of Mr. Sanborn’s constitutional rights, whose legal positions have been consistently rejected by administrative law judges, and whose office is currently facing potential criminal sanctions.” “I have now arrested Mr. Sanborn for misconduct on the eve of a sale to a qualified buyer,” his legal team said. “We are disappointed, but not surprised. And we remain confident that the New Hampshire judiciary will continue to dispense justice and hold the AG accountable.”

The investigations remain active and have not yet been completed, the public prosecutor's office said.

Sanborn is involved in several other lawsuits.

He has filed a lawsuit against the New Hampshire attorney general, claiming that the files and documents investigators obtained through a search warrant contained confidential information such as attorney-client communications.

Sanborn's proposed 450,000-square-foot casino on Loudon Road is currently under review by the New Hampshire Supreme Court after a Concord resident appealed a lower court ruling that upheld the Zoning Board's approval of the project.

Sanborn also challenged the order requiring him to sell the casino by Sept. 30 or have its license revoked for two years. His lawyers are asking for another extension to seal the deal with a buyer, but the lottery commission is resisting another denial of the deadline.