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Prosecutors did not hide evidence by failing to ask New Hampshire Lottery Executive Director Charles McIntyre about calling Concord Casino owner Andy Sanborn a “lying sack of trash.”

Sanborn faces criminal charges for allegedly filing false financial information in order to get COVID relief money. He’s also fighting the state in court over the forced sale of his casino. His lawyers wanted to depose McIntyre, as well as Director of Taxpayer Services Lisa Crowley, claiming the state failed to pursue questions that could clear Sanborn during their separate interviews with investigators.  

Merrimack Superior Court Judge John Kissinger recently ruled that Sanborn’s defense lawyers are free to ask their own questions during witness testimony at trial, but they don’t have the right to get either McInTyre or Crowley to sit for sworn depositions. McIntyre expressed a personal animus toward Sanborn during his interview with investigators, which defense lawyers claim demonstrates a potentially disqualifying bias.

But Kissinger wrote in his order that Sanborn likely already knows if McIntyre does not like him as a person, and prosecutors are not responsible for plumbing the depths of their relationship.

“To the extent, for example, that the defendants seek to explore Mr. McIntyre’s alleged animus toward Mr. Sanborn, the Court finds that whatever animus exists is known to Mr. Sanborn and may be properly addressed in cross-examination,” Kissinger wrote.

Prosecutors have already had their knuckles rapped by Kissinger after he found they violated attorney-client privilege when executing a search warrant last year. 

“The Court finds that the NHAG exhibited gross negligence at several points throughout its execution of the warrant and subsequent taint review of the seized material that rises to the level of prosecutorial misconduct,” Kissinger wrote in January.

Assistant Attorney General David Lovejoy and forensic accountant Don Swanson were both kicked off the case by Kissinger as a result.

McIntyre’s January 2024 interview with members of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office included numerous anecdotes about Sanborn’s behavior and truthfulness. In one answer, McIntyre told investigators the Lottery Commission had long dealt with Sanborn’s non-compliance when it came to following audit and cash management regulations. For his part, Sanborn blamed the Lottery Commission for holding back his business, McIntyre said.

“I mean, certainly first the cash management, and then the expansion, where he basically lied to us and said: ‘Oh, you’re the last thing holding us up.’ And then I find out he didn’t get approval for his fire sprinkler system yet. It’s like: ‘You lying sack of trash.’ Like (sigh). Yeah, so, correct. It was, it was a constant catching up with him,” McIntyre said in the transcript.

McIntyre painted Sanborn as a difficult person who tried to bully his way through licensing procedures and audits with the Lottery Commission. He was constantly trying to get around the process by essentially calling ‘the manager,’ McIntyre said, including McIntyre’s own cell phone.

“I made the mistake of giving it to him, and I regretted it from that moment until I stopped answering his phone calls,” McIntyre said.

Sanborn even tried to use supposed political allies like House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) and former Gov. Chris Sununu to weigh in on his behalf, to no avail, McIntyre said.

“It was, like: ‘Oh, we’re going to bring the speaker in, you’re going to get yelled at.’ And the Speaker never said anything, he never said ‘You need to do this, you need to do this.’ (Packard) never once did. And Sununu, the same way. I don’t, like I said, I don’t want to waive a privilege, but he never asked me for any — to do anything for them,” McIntyre told the investigators.

Sanborn is a former Republican state senator whose career highlights include a failed bid for the GOP nomination in the First Congressional District in 2018. While a state senator for Bedford, Sanborn was investigated for alleged sexual harassment of a Senate intern in 2013, though he maintains it was a misunderstanding about a crude joke.

Andy Sanborn still had a casino license Tuesday, though that could change by the end of the month.

After two days of hearings in Concord on allegations that Sanborn fraudulently misused $844,000 in COVID relief money for his Concord Casino, a decision on his gaming license is expected by Dec. 31.

Sanborn denies any wrongdoing after a New Hampshire Lottery Commission audit found several concerning payments in Concord Casino’s 2022 financial statements. The commission oversees New Hampshire’s charitable gaming casinos.

Sanborn fought to delay the hearing, which took place Monday and Tuesday, to give his attorneys adequate time to mount a defense. The hearing was originally set to happen in October.

Lottery Commission auditor Leila McDonough testified about finding the purchase of two Porsches and a Ferrari listed in the statements as business expenses. The Ferrari was reportedly a gift for Sanborn’s wife and business partner, Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford). Concord Casino also reported spending tens of thousands of dollars on car parts, again as business expenses. 

According to the financial statement, Sanborn also paid $163,500 for rent between January and August 2022, averaging about $20,000 a month. But, all that money was going to Sanborn.

Sanborn’s casino business is organized as the Win, Win, Win LLC, which pays rent to The Best Revenge LLC, the Sanborn business entity that owns the Main Street building in Concord. According to court records, the 2018 lease agreement on file between Win, Win, Win LLC and The Best Revenge LLC calls for $500 a month in rent, or about $6,000 a year.

Neither Andy Sanborn nor Laurie Sanborn testified during the license hearing. Andy Sanborn is reportedly dealing with a serious illness and was getting medical treatment in Boston on Monday. 

Accused of spending COVID relief money on sports cars, Andy Sanborn is betting he can keep the license for his Concord Casino.

Sanborn, a former GOP state senator, is now set to argue his case to the New Hampshire Lottery Commission at a Monday hearing after weeks of delays. Sanborn sued the state to push back the hearing, originally scheduled for October. He successfully got more time for his lawyers to put together his defense.

Sanborn has denied the accusation that he misused $844,000 in COVID relief funds to buy himself two Porsches and a Ferrari for his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford.).

In August, the Lottery Commission and New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella publicly declared Sanford unfit to hold a casino license based on the alleged misdeeds uncovered during a regular background investigation.

Sanborn first got the casino license in 2018. He was up for renewal when the alleged fraud was found.

Along with three vehicles allegedly bought with COVID money, the May 2022 audit found Sanborn was paying himself rent for the casino. It is owned through Sanborn’s Win, Win, Win LLC, but the Main Street property in Concord is owned by another Sanborn business, The Best Revenge LLC.

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

That was more than $20,000 a month for the $500 a month rent. To put it another way, Sanborn appears to have paid himself for more than 27 years of rent in eight months.

According to the audit, Sanborn’s casino was losing money, and the business was down to a little more than $900 available cash before the COVID relief money came through.

Sanborn disputes those facts, claiming the audit looked at the wrong accounts and he had about $150,000 available. While the business lost money in 2020, things had picked up in 2021, he states. Sanborn claims the casino generates $400,000 a month in revenue.

The commission had concerns about Sanborn before the May 2022 audit. Records show his suitability to hold a casino license was being questioned. The commission had worries about his past stint as a state senator, where crude jokes resulted in allegations of sexual harassment in 2013 and an investigation into a bribe to hush up a witness in 2018.

Sanborn was cleared of the bribery accusation. He acknowledged making a crude joke in front of an intern. The exact joke has not been disclosed, but records indicate he was discussing oral sex. One woman told investigators she was warned not to be alone with Sanborn when she started her job in the State House.

The commission was also concerned about the lawsuit brought by creditors in his business bankruptcy filing. Sanborn filed for bankruptcy in 2004 as his business, Brannigan’s Cycleworks, was failing. According to court records, he was sued by creditors who accused him of moving money ahead of the bankruptcy.

After Formella announced the charges, Laurie Sanborn was forced to step down from her role as chair of the new state gambling commission. Formella referred the matter to his office’s Public Integrity Unit as well as to the United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire.