Dealer's Choice: Former State Senator's COVID Theft Plea Deal Will Send Him To Prison For 1 Year And 1 Day

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

Concord Casino mogul Andy Sanborn’s deal with federal prosecutors would send him to prison for one year and one day in exchange for his guilty plea to stealing more than a quarter-million dollars in COVID-19 relief money.

Sanborn has not pleaded guilty yet, but he is due in U.S. District Court in Concord on July 7 for his official plea hearing. The plea agreement on file calls for prosecutors to recommend that Sanborn serve one year and one day in prison and repay the government $255,232.72 that it says he stole during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sanborn received $844,000 from the Small Business Administration through the federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, part of the federal pandemic relief response intended to help businesses keep operating as COVID-19 and government shutdowns battered the economy.

According to court records, Sanborn turned that COVID cash into personal spending, including a sports car.

Prosecutors say Sanborn used $48,750 in federal aid money to buy a 2006 Porsche Cayman. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella accused Sanborn in 2023 of buying two Porsches with aid money, as well as a Ferrari for his wife, then-state Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford).

New Hampshire Lottery Commission regulators first flagged Sanborn’s spending during an audit conducted after he received the federal funds in January 2022. Along with the cars and other questionable purchases, Sanborn allegedly used the money to pay rent to another company he controlled.

The casino was owned through Sanborn’s company, Win Win Win LLC. But the Main Street property in Concord, where the casino was housed, was owned by another Sanborn company, The Best Revenge LLC.

The lease agreement between The Best Revenge and Win Win Win called for the casino to pay $6,000 a year in rent, or $500 a month. According to the audit, Sanborn wired $163,500 from Win Win Win to The Best Revenge between January and August 2022 to cover rent.

That worked out to more than $20,000 per month for a $ 500-per-month lease.

The federal charge, announced last month by U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan’s office, is the latest chapter in a legal saga that began with the Lottery Commission audit. Sanborn and Win Win Win also face separate state theft charges for allegedly filing fraudulent applications with the New Hampshire Main Street Relief Fund, another COVID-19 aid program.

In that case, prosecutors allege that Sanborn inflated the casino’s receipts by more than $1 million, allowing him to obtain about $188,000 in grant money he was not entitled to.

Sanborn has denied wrongdoing in the state case. His attorneys have accused state officials of trying to sabotage his efforts to sell the casino.

In addition to the criminal cases, Sanborn has an appeal pending before the New Hampshire Supreme Court regarding his casino license. In response to the initial fraud allegations, state regulators ordered him to sell the business by a deadline or have his casino license revoked.

Revocation effectively made the business worthless. Sanborn’s attempts to sell failed, and his license was revoked in 2024.

As part of the license revocation appeal, Sanborn accuses Formella and New Hampshire Lottery Commissioner Charles McIntyre of conspiring to thwart his sales attempts.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.