Former state senator Andy Sanborn’s criminal trial on pandemic relief fraud charges tied to his Concord Casino has been pushed back to next year.
Last October, Sanborn, who operated the casino on South Main Street in Concord, was arrested and later indicted on theft charges, accusing him of inflating his company’s worth by about $1 million to secure more state pandemic relief funds than he was entitled to.
The jury trial was scheduled to take place on October 7. But, on Thursday, Merrimack Superior Court Judge John Kissinger rescheduled it to April 7, 2026.
The trial is expected to last about three weeks.
Sanborn and his company, Win Win Win, which owns the casino, face charges of theft by deception and theft by unauthorized taking.
His attorneys in court documents have said that the duplicate charges have “violated principles of multiplicity, due process and selectivity.”
They’ve also said that the indictments are part of an attempt by the Attorney General’s Office to block the sale of Concord Casino.
According to the state’s indictment, Sanborn and Win Win Win misrepresented financial data in their application for the Main Street Relief Fund, a program designed to help New Hampshire small businesses weather COVID-19 disruptions.
Sanborn’s falsified records resulted in him receiving $188,474 more in grant money than he was owed.
In February, attorneys for Sanborn asked the court to dismiss the charges but were denied.
This case is separate from the $844,000 in federal pandemic relief funds that investigators say Sanborn fraudulently obtained and misused, according to a 2023 investigation by the New Hampshire Lottery Commission and the Attorney General’s Office.
The federal money was intended to support small businesses—not casinos. He used the money to purchase three race cars – two Porsche 987 Cayman S models for himself and a Ferrari F430 Challenge, which he gifted to his wife, Laurie Sanborn, a former state representative.
Sanborn has not been forced to repay either sum.