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Geno Marconi’s seen a lot of fishing expeditions as New Hampshire’s Ports Director. And now, his defenders say, he’s the subject of a new one — from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit.

Marconi is charged with a slew of felonies and misdemeanors for alleged criminal acts that the Attorney General’s Office has been reluctant to describe in public. It turns out that they may have initially wanted to charge him with something else.

Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff disclosed this month that he was questioned by state investigators last year about a 20-year-old criminal case involving Marconi. 

Ruoff was recently assigned to preside over the criminal case against Marconi after Judge Andrew Schulman was transferred to Hillsborough Superior Court — South in Nashua. As a result, Ruoff filed a Rule 2.11 notice with the court disclosing his past encounters with Marconi and his wife, suspended Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi. 

Aside from describing the occasional social gathering, one would expect judges, lawyers, and their spouses to attend. Ruoff’s disclosure contains some interesting history. Two decades ago, Ruoff worked at the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and was part of the team that prosecuted former Harbormaster Roger Tropf, though Ruoff was not one of the case investigators.

Tropf’s alleged theft was initially spotted by Marconi, who was then the acting Ports Director, according to records in Tropf’s later employment appeal. A state audit of the port operations found widespread problems, leading to the ouster of Ports Director Thomas Orfe and later Tropf. 

Tropf went to trial in 2002 on charges of theft for allegedly submitting fake mileage reimbursement forms. Tropf was later acquitted at trial in May 2002, and Orfe took a deal and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of theft by deception. 

Marconi was suspended in April of last year as the Attorney General’s Office opened its investigation, but no one seemed to know why he was being investigated. Except, maybe Ruoff. Investigators tracked down the judge last spring to discuss the old Trope case, according to the judge’s disclosure.

“More recently, in spring of 2024, I was briefly interviewed by NHDOJ about my involvement in the Tropf/Orf prosecutions. While there were questions about Mr. Marconi’s involvement in the Tropf/Orf prosecutions, the present allegations were not disclosed or discussed. This jurist has no information or knowledge about the pending case, other than what has been generally published in the newspapers,” Ruoff wrote.

The charges the Public Integrity Unit used to finally reel in Marconi last October are not for anything related to Tropf and Orfe. Instead, Marconi’s alleged crime is that he violated New Hampshire’s Driver Privacy Act by providing copies of “confidential records” of one individual known as N.L. to another individual known as B.C.

N.L. is believed to be Neil Levesque, the vice chair of the Pease Development Authority and someone who clashed with Marconi over his management of Rye Harbor for years. B.C. is almost certainly Bradley Cook, the former Chair of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council, who is also charged with crimes for the alleged criminal mishandling of N.L.’s private records.

But Marconi’s lawyer, Richard Samdperil, writes in a pending motion to dismiss the charges that Marconi did nothing wrong. As the Ports Director, Marconi handled applications for pier use permits. Pier permit applicants are required to submit copies of their car and boat registration with the full application. At the time of the alleged crimes, Levesque was applying for a pier permit, according to Samdperil.

That means it is conceivably very legal for Marconi to have had copies of Levesque’s “confidential” driving records. It would also make sense for Cook, the advisory council chair, to at least be aware of the application. 

And, it now seems likely people in the Attorney General’s Office thought there was potential criminal conduct in the way Marconi handled the 20-year-old case against Tropf and Orfe. Instead, they may now be hoping the whole case isn’t a long walk off a short pier application.

Lawyers for Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz-Marconi say Attorney General John Formella broke Department of Justice policy by privately questioning former Gov. Chris Sununu, according to a new motion to dismiss the criminal case against the suspended judge.

And because of Formella’s conflicts, the lawyers are requesting that Formella and the Attorney General’s Office be replaced by a special prosecutor in this case.

In a motion filed last week in Merrimack Superior Court, Hantz-Marconi’s lawyers say newly disclosed evidence shows Formella is a conflicted witness whose own bias prejudiced the investigation from the start.

“The discovery shows that Attorney General Formella will be a necessary witness at trial because he was the first person to interview Gov. Sununu and legal counsel (Rudy) Ogden about the Hantz-Marconi meeting, which is at the heart of this case,” lawyers Richard Guerriero and Jonathan Kotlier wrote.

As a result, “Formella made himself a trial witness when he conducted those interviews alone with no investigator as a witness, despite standard practices in his office and ABA guidance to the contrary. Moreover, the discovery shows that Formella’s conflict of interest has resulted in prejudice that is evident throughout the investigation and prosecution of this case.”

The motion also complains to the court that evidence of Formella’s role in instigating the criminal case against Hantz-Marconi, including notes of his conversations with Sununu and Ogden, was not disclosed to the defense until recently, according to the motion.

“Formella failed to take the standard precaution of having an investigator present for the interview, despite the warnings from groups like the American Bar Association, that a ‘prosecutor should avoid the prospect of having to testify personally about the content of a witness interview’ by having a ‘trusted and credible person,’ such as an investigator, conduct the interview or at least witness it,” the lawyers wrote in the motion.

Formella’s private conversations with Sununu and Ogden were not known when Guerriero and Kotlier previously raised Formella’s close relationship with Sununu as grounds to have him and his office removed from the case. At the time, Judge Matin Honigberg denied that motion, in part, by pointing out Formella was not a witness to the case.

“The court understands defendant’s assertion to be that AG Formella or other AAGs (assistant attorneys general) may become conflicted because they could, hypothetically, become witnesses if the governor approached them with information regarding his conversation with the defendant. The court dismisses such a theory as speculative,” Honigberg wrote in his Dec. 18 order denying the motion to disqualify Formella.

While neither Honigberg nor Hantz-Marconi’s lawyers knew about Formella’s private conversations, prosecutors were aware he spoke to Sununu and Ogden, and gathered information about the case, according to the new motion.

“Formella and the prosecutors knew on Dec. 18th that it was not mere speculation. Formella and the prosecutors knew that Formella was a witness because, exactly as the court described in its order, ‘the governor approached them [specifically Formella] with information regarding his conversation with the defendant.’ Formella and the prosecutors knew that was a fact, but they did not reveal that to the defense or the court in their objection to the first defense motion or at the Dec. 2nd hearing,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

“One can imagine that if Formella had recognized the potential of a conflict of interest and if the prosecutors had filed such a motion and revealed Formella’s personal role in the case as the first interviewer of Sununu and Ogden, and the likelihood of Formella being a witness at trial, this court may well have had concerns.”

Asked about the defense’s claims, the Attorney General’s Office released a statement saying, “We will respond to this latest defense motion by filing an objection in court.”

Hantz-Marconi’s June 6 meeting with Sununu is the crux of the criminal charges against her. She’s accused of trying to pressure Sununu and others to intervene in the criminal case against her husband, former New Hampshire Ports Director Geno Marconi. Formella first learned about the meeting during a regular phone call with Sununu, who mentioned it in passing, according to the new motion.

Instead of stopping the conversation, though, Formella started asking Sununu about his chat with Hantz-Marconi, according to his own notes. He later called Ogden for a separate interview session about the June 6 meeting with the judge. During those conversations, both Sununu and Ogden told Formella there was nothing criminal being asked of them, the notes show.

“The manner in which Formella first learned of the meeting shows that neither Sununu, the supposedly improperly influenced government official, nor Ogden, his legal counsel and an experienced attorney, perceived anything illegal or any reason to make a report of any misconduct. Formella is a direct witness to this exculpatory evidence,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

How Hantz-Marconi’s June 6 conversation with Sununu became a matter of criminal charges is still a mystery. When the Public Integrity Unit began its criminal investigation into Hantz-Marconi, there was no written complaint filed with the office, even though Formella’s own policies require such a complaint.

Formella crafted the memorandum founding the Public Integrity Unit at Sununu’s direction in 2021. In that memo, Formella explicitly states that no investigation would start without a written complaint that included the identity of the person making the complaint.

“Yet, despite the explicit policy, there is no written complaint against Justice Hantz-Marconi in the discovery provided by the prosecutors from the Public Integrity Unit. Presumably, after multiple rounds of discovery and with the trial coming up quickly, if a complaint had been filed, the state would have produced it by now. Yet, by their own accounts, Sununu, Ogden, and Duprey did not file written complaints – they did not even perceive any illegality or misconduct on the part of Justice Hantz Marconi. Nor is there evidence that any other person filed a complaint against Justice Hantz Marconi,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

According to the motion, it seems Formella was trying to determine if Hantz-Marconi was badmouthing him during the conversation with Sununu. Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, another high-profile witness, reportedly told Formella that Hantz-Marconi called him “weak” and “very political” during her talk with Sununu. Both Ogden and Sununu denied that when asked during a subsequent interview with investigators. They even said Hantz-Marconi did not mention Formella at all during the June 6 meeting, according to the motion.

Because of Formella’s now confirmed role in the case and the fact that he can be called as a witness, Guerriero and Kotlier argue that not only should he be dismissed from the case, but his entire office should be removed in favor of an independent prosecutor.

“This is a case where the lawyer who will be a necessary witness at trial is the chief law enforcement officer of the State of New Hampshire, the supervisor of all front-line prosecutors, the author of his office’s policy regarding the initiation of complaints against public officials, the first person to interview the most important witness in the case, and in all likelihood, the only person who knows why this investigation and prosecution moved forward. There is no removing him from any part of this case. His entire office is disqualified because he is disqualified,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

Love hurts.

Former Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges he stole $19,000 in taxpayer money to fund his extramarital affairs. It was part of a deal to avoid some prison time.

But the plea agreement Brave reached with prosecutors still leaves him facing up to 14 years behind bars on perjury charges.

Brave’s deal has him pleading guilty to felony charges of theft by deception, falsifying physical evidence, and perjury for lying to a grand jury. In exchange for the guilty pleas, Brave agreed to two suspended terms of three and a half to seven years on the theft and falsifying physical evidence convictions.

But the sentences on the two perjury convictions are still open. Brave faces seven to 14 years for lying to the grand jury. The deal terms leave the question of the perjury sentences for a judge to decide. The sentencing hearing will take place sometime in the next three months, with both defense and prosecutors presenting arguments.

The disgraced lawman agreed to make $18,969 in restitution to Strafford County, surrender all his law enforcement certifications, never seek employment in law enforcement in any jurisdiction, be placed on a national registry of decertified police officers, and not contest his placement on New Hampshire’s Exculpatory Evidence Schedule. 

As part of the deal, the charges based on Brave’s later lies to the court in Rockingham County are being dismissed.

Brave, the Strafford County Democrat who became New Hampshire’s first Black sheriff, faced decades in prison after he got caught maxing out his county credit card for amorous trips and romantic getaways. He compounded his troubles by lying. He lied to the grand jury, he lied to the press claiming he was the target of racial animus from the county commissioners, and he lied to the court.

According to Rockingham Superior Court records, Brave lied about his finances in order to score a free public defense attorney. At the time he was flush with cash from selling his Dover home. He had enough money to buy a classic 1968 Porsche and pay a year’s lease on an apartment in Massachusetts.

The out-of-state apartment was part of another lie to the court. Brave was under orders to stay in New Hampshire, but he had moved to Massachusetts soon after his divorce went through. All the time, he claimed to still be in New Hampshire.

In fact, Brave may have told one recorded truth throughout the saga when he was questioned in front of a grand jury by Allison Vachon, an investigator for the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. Confronted by surveillance video of himself and the woman he spent a romantic weekend with in Boston, including a harbor dinner cruise, the then-married Brave was unable to come up with her name.

“Her name, her name is … um … Let me see, I forget which one this is. I’ve been dating a lot of people,” Brave testified.

Brave reportedly used his county credit card for out-of-state trips involving multiple women. In many cases, he created a web of easily disproved lies to justify the trips.

Brave claimed many trips were connected to meetings and conferences hosted by an organization called the New England Sheriff’s Association. Vachon reported that despite Brave’s insistence the group is real, she could not find any proof that the New England Sheriff’s Association actually exists. 

In one instance, he went to Maryland on the pretense of meeting with U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.). Brave told investigators that Pappas canceled the meeting at the last minute but gave the sheriff a flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol by way of apology.

Vachon called the congressman’s office and was told there was no scheduled meeting between Brave and Pappas. Instead, it turned out Brave was meeting with a Maryland woman he met online.

Brave’s once promising career in law enforcement may be coming to a close, but politics may be an option down the line. Brave will be eligible to run for state office again once he serves out his sentences. 

Attorney General John Formella and his entire office need to be dismissed from Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi’s criminal case due to serious conflicts of interest, according to her attorney Richard Guerriero.

“Attorney General Formella and his subordinate attorneys should not have been handling this matter before the grand jury and should not be prosecuting it now,” Guerriero wrote in a motion filed Thursday.

Ultimately, Guerriero wants all of the charges dismissed. Short of that, he wants Formella and his office removed from the case entirely. The concern Guerriero raises is that Formella not only has a long-standing personal and professional relationship with Gov. Chris Sununu, but he considers himself to be the chief executive’s lawyer in his role as attorney general.

Hantz Marconi is charged with felonies for allegedly trying to pressure Sununu to drop the criminal investigation into her husband, New Hampshire Ports Director Geno Marconi. That makes Sununu, Formella’s friend and client, the state’s key witness in the alleged crimes. 

Before becoming attorney general, Formella was a private attorney working for Sununu and his family who worked on the campaign for governor, and then became Sununu’s legal counsel in office. In his role as attorney general, Formella told NHJournal during a podcast interview that he considers himself Sununu’s attorney. 

“As far as the relationship with the governor, for every attorney general, the governor is probably their most important client. So, it’s an attorney-client relationship,” Formella said. 

The attorney general is the state’s chief prosecutor as well as the governor’s attorney in civil matters, according to memos from the Department of Justice.

Formella is tasked with making decisions on criminal prosecutions handled by his office, and he is in charge of directing his staff who handle the day-to-day work. With Hantz Marconi’s case, the prosecution is being handled by the Public Integrity Unit (PIU), which was created by order of Sununu in 2020 and not the legislature. Guerriero wrote that means the PIU can be subject to Sununu’s wishes, and not the work of the public.

“As a result of how it was created, Gov. Sununu has unique power over the PIU. Sununu determines what funding to recommend to the legislature for the PIU. Furthermore, he has the power to unilaterally dissolve the unit by executive order,” Guerriero wrote.

Because of that lack of impartiality, all of the indictments need to be dismissed, Guerriero wrote. The charges were handed up by a grand jury two weeks ago, but because of Formella and his office’s conflict of interest, Guerriero argues the grand jury’s findings should be discounted. Grand jury proceedings happen in secret, and there is no one representing the accused. Instead, prosecutors alone present evidence for the jurors to consider.

“If there is any chance a grand jury will make a fair decision about whether to indict a person, rather than simply signing off on the indictments presented to them, it depends on the impartiality of the prosecutors,” Guerriero wrote. “The prosecutors here are not impartial.”

Four Supreme Court justices, including Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, have recused themselves from the case. MacDonald, like Sununu, is a witness in the case as he reportedly told Hantz Marconi she had a right to talk about her husband’s investigation with the governor before the June meeting at the heart of the matter.

“I think you can do that. You are a constituent and have concerns,” MacDonald reportedly said.

Hantz Marconi then made an appointment with Sununu through official channels to speak with him on June 6 in his office. Sununu’s current legal counsel, Rudolph Ogden attended the meeting, which was on Sununu’s official calendar.

“The meeting was open and documented in multiple ways — not exactly the usual route to corruption,” Guerriero wrote.

Hantz Marconi and Gereero maintain there was no crime committed, and the state has not alleged any actual criminal acts.

Hantz Marconi allegedly told Sununu there was no merit to any of the allegations against her husband and the case “needed to wrap up quickly because she was rescued from important cases pending or imminently pending before the New Hampshire Supreme Court,” the indictments state.

No threat was made, nor was there any improper request, Guerriero claims. Prosecutors have not yet made their evidence available to the defense, so it is not clear who reported Hantz Marconi to Formella. Earlier this week, a panel of substitute judges sitting for the recused Supreme Court ordered Hantz Marconi’s law license suspended based on the fact she’s been charged with a felony.

Geno Marconi has been on leave from his job directing the ports since April of this year while the criminal investigation into his alleged acts proceeded. Geno Marconi and Bradley Cook, the chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain, were both indicted the same week as Hantz Marconi. Geno Marconi is accused of giving confidential driving records of an unnamed person to Cook, though the official charges give very little detail about the alleged crime. 

Hantz Marconi is facing charges of Attempt to Commit Improper Influence, Criminal Solicitation of Improper Influence, Official Oppression, Criminal  Solicitation of Official Oppression, Obstructing Government Administration, and Criminal Solicitation of Misuse of Position. Geno Marconi is indicted on felony charges of Tampering with Witnesses and Informants and Falsifying Physical Evidence. He’s also charged with four class A misdemeanors – two counts of Driver Privacy Act Violations and two counts of Obstructing Government Administration.

“It was off the charts.”

Leila McDonough, the New Hampshire Lottery Commission auditor, described the volume of issues the state had with Andy Saborn’s Concord Casino.

McDonough made the comments during a Monday hearing over whether the former state senator can keep his casino owner’s license despite accusations of fraud, including using COVID relief money to buy sports cars. While Sanborn’s attorneys claimed Sanborn did nothing wrong, McDonough testified Sanborn never cared to follow the rules.

The Department of Safety showdown featured one witness for the state, McDonough, the woman who for years was tasked with trying to get Sanborn to follow state regulations.

McDonough’s testimony painted the picture of Sanborn as entitled and stubborn, a casino operator whose refusal to follow basic accounting procedures created a huge mess — or worse, led to massive fraud.

For instance, when a casino owner claims to have hundreds of thousands in cash, but he won’t let the state auditor in charge of casino financial reports count the money, you have a problem, she said.

“How can you conduct an audit that includes cash when you’re not allowed to count the cash?” McDonough asked. “Eventually, you have to assume the cash doesn’t exist since you’re not allowed to see it or count it.”

She said Sanborn was difficult to deal with since he opened his casino in 2018. Both Sanborn and his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn, would call the commission to complain about audits and regulations they had to follow, McDonough said. The Concord Casino’s record-keeping was sloppy at best, she added, and Sanborn never appeared to take the legal requirement from the commission seriously. 

McDonough is the Lottery Commission auditor who spotted enough red flags to go to the commission’s enforcement officials. who then brought in New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella. Formella has said a criminal probe by his office is also underway.

At one point, McDonough said, she found a statement of cash flows for July 2021 through to July 2020.

“This is actually the document that made me very concerned,” McDonough said.

That document showed Sanborn’s casino ran a $29,000 operating loss in that year and had no cash. This was at the time Sanborn claimed to have $200,000 in cash in secure locations McDonough was not allowed to see.

The statement also showed a large amount of cash invested in large equipment that had little to do with the business, like two Porsches and a Ferrari. The Ferarri was reportedly a gift for Laurie Sanborn. 

Sanborn still managed to report $23,000 in cash for owner’s equity, McDonough testified. According to the records, Sanborn reported taking $5,700 in cash out of a bank and putting that into the equity cash amount.

“I’ve never seen this done with any other entity,” she said. “That was very odd.”

The financial statement McDonough revised seemed to show the whole operation was being funded with $844,000 in COVID relief loan money. The records also repeatedly showed large ticket purchases like the sports cars and tens of thousands in car parts charged business expenses.

McDonough reportedly uncovered Sanborn was also paying himself rent for the casino. The casino is owned through Sanborn’s LLC called Win, Win, Win LLC, but the Main Street property in Concord, where the casino is housed, is owned by another Sanborn LLC, 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 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.

McDonough said the records had a lot of large, round numbers for expenses that lacked detail and supporting documentation.

Sanborn was not at the hearing. One of his attorneys,  Zachary Hafer, said Sanborn is in Boston receiving medical treatment. His legal team includes attorney Mark Knights, who argued the state’s case simply does not stand up to scrutiny.

“It is an incomplete story that has yawning gaps in the evidence,” Knights said.

You can’t beat the house, so former state Sen. Andy Sanborn is going to court for better odds.

Sanborn, the controversial Bedford Republican and owner of the Concord Casino, filed a lawsuit late last week to stop the New Hampshire Lottery Commission’s hearing into allegations he is unfit to hold a casino license. Sanborn is accused of misusing $844,000 in COVID relief money.

Sanborn claims he did nothing wrong. But court documents show a state audit found he allegedly overpaid himself hundreds of thousands in rent, bought sports cars for himself and his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford), and used the federal funding to plan a new casino. State officials call it an “airtight case,” according to court records.

Sanborn asked Judge Martin Honigberg in Merrimack Superior Court to set the Lottery Commission hearing for December once his lawyers have had time to go through the evidence. 

“Defendants have violated Plaintiff’s due process rights by refusing to allow Plaintiffs time to prepare for a hearing and refusing to allow an impartial adjudicator to preside over the proceedings,” Sanborn’s lawsuit states.

Sanborn additionally wants Lottery Commission Chair Deborah Douglas removed from the case, claiming she has prejudged his case. He is asking to have an independent presiding officer appointed and to be reimbursed for his attorney fees.

Honigberg granted Sanborn an emergency temporary restraining order delaying the planned Oct. 13 Lottery Commission hearing, but the judge did not make any rulings on the complaint’s merits. The state and Sanborn are now due in the Concord court on Oct. 20 to argue when the commission hearing should occur.

A state audit detected the alleged COVID relief fraud in May 2022. Court records indicate concerns about Sunburn go back further. The previous year’s audit found problems with the casino’s record-keeping and internal financial controls. According to court records, both Laurie and Andy Sanborn had been disciplined and fined by the commission for breaking state casino rules.

Along with two Porsches and a Ferrari allegedly bought with COVID money, the May 2022 audit found Sanborn was paying himself rent for the casino. While the casino is owned through Sanborn’s Win, Win, Win LLC, the Main Street property in Concord is owned by another Sanborn LLC, 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 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. He states that while the business lost money in 2020, things had picked up in 2021. 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 worried about his stint as a state senator when 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 and acknowledged making a crude joke in front of an intern. While the exact joke has not been disclosed, 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.

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

Laurie Sanborn was forced to step down as chair of the new state gambling commission after New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced the fraud allegations against her husband in September.

Formella is investigating both Andy and Laurie Sanborn. He has also referred the case to federal prosecutors.

Casino operator Andy Sanborn wants to take his chances in front of the state Lottery Commission, but his odds aren’t looking good.

The former GOP state senator has decided to publicly challenge charges that he stole COVID relief money and used the cash for sports carts and other luxuries.

Sanborn is set to appear before the New Hampshire Lottery Commission on Oct. 3 to appeal Executive Director Charlie McIntyre’s decision that he is too corrupt to own and operate a casino in the Granite State. Concord recently approved a second casino and a microbrewery, which were part of a planned Sanborn development.

But now the scandal-plagued Republican may lose his license to operate a gambling business altogether.

Sanborn is accused of misappropriating $844,000 in pandemic relief tax dollars while operating a casino at his Draft Sports Bar and Grill, which he owns along with his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford). The allegations against her business partner forced her to give up her position as chair of the state’s new commission reviewing practices in the charitable gaming industry.

McIntyre sent Sanborn a letter on Aug. 31 laying out the findings of the commission’s investigation. According to a statement released by Attorney General John Formella, Sanborn “fraudulently applied for and received at least one Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), with loan proceeds of $844,000. Further, investigators obtained evidence indicating that after receiving those taxpayer dollars, Mr. Sanborn used them to purchase at least three race cars: two Porsche 987 Cayman S racers for his personal use, and a Ferrari F430 challenge racer as a gift for his wife, Rep. Laurie Sanborn.”

Sanborn also allegedly used COVID money to make 27 years’ worth of prepaid rent payments on another business he owns.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are now looking into Sanborn’s practices. According to Formella’s statement, that includes “a review by the Public Integrity Unit of the actions of all of the individuals and entities involved.” That would presumably include Laurie Sanborn.

Andy Sanborn’s checkered political career includes a bribery investigation after he allegedly made a “crude joke” to a Senate intern in 2013. After the joke was made, the exact nature of which has never been revealed, the intern was given a full-time job in the Senate and an envelope with $200 in cash.

Five years later, an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office did not result in any charges, and Sanborn denied any wrongdoing.

“No one in the room was offended by the joke,” Sanborn said in 2018. “No complaint was filed. Case closed. If that’s news, so be it.”

Sanborn threatened a college student in 2014 via email after the student, one of Sanborn’s constituents, sent an email asking Sanborn to support marijuana legalization. A clearly irked Sanborn called the student “a college freshman who just wants to get high at any cost” and implied he would get the student’s scholarship revoked.

“I’m thinking if I call the [organization you received a scholarship from] and ask their opinion on legalization, they may have a different opinion (not to mention may be asking you for their scholarship money back…).” Sanborn wrote.

Sanborn made a failed bid for Congress in 2018 after serving in the state Senate for eight years.