Concord Casino owner Andy Sanborn intends to plead guilty to federal charges accusing him of misusing pandemic relief funds, including spending a portion of the money to purchase a Porsche for his personal use.
Sanborn was charged with one count of theft of government funds in U.S. District Court in Concord.
During the COVID emergency, Sanborn applied for and received $844,000 in Economic Injury Disaster Loan funding from the Small Business Administration to be used as working capital for his business, Win Win Win, which owned and operated the Concord Casino, according to court documents.
Sanborn plans to admit that he diverted more than $255,000 of those funds toward personal expenses. For example, he spent $48,750 on a 2006 Porsche Cayman in 2022, federal prosecutors stated.
Under a signed plea agreement, Sanborn faces a prison sentence of one year and a day and could be held liable for the $255,232.72 he misappropriated.
The federal charges come nearly three years after a state investigation first revealed that Sanborn had fraudulently obtained federal pandemic loans for his casino. The money was intended to help struggling small businesses, not casinos.
State investigators accused Sanborn of misrepresenting his business on the federal application, omitting the trade name “Concord Casino” and listing the business activity as “Miscellaneous Services.”
Sanborn also faces similar state-level charges for misusing New Hampshire’s pandemic relief funds, with that trial scheduled for September.
