Lawyers for New Hampshire casino owner fight fraud allegations at hearing

CONCORD, N.H. — A former state senator and casino owner accused of buying luxury cars with a fraudulently obtained COVID-19 relief loan kept financial records that were “sloppy at best” and nefarious at worst, an auditor testified Monday. “At its core, the evidence will show that Mr. Sanborn was co-mingling funds, mislabeling personal expenses as business expenses and running a financially-based business without regard to important regulations put in place as safeguards in this high risk industry.” According to the investigation, Sanborn fraudulently obtained $844,000 in funding from the Small Business Administration between December 2021 and February 2022. Casinos and charitable gaming facilities weren’t eligible for such loans, but Sanborn omitted his business name, “Concord Casino,” from his application and listed his primary business activity as “miscellaneous services.” He’s accused of spending $181,000 on two Porsche race cars and $80,000 on a Ferrari for his wife. In his opening statement, Sanborn’s attorney said the rent payments reflected the casino’s expansion to multiple floors of its building, and that the commission reached conclusions about business expenses based on internal documents that hadn’t yet been adjusted for final reporting.