Hopes dashed that the state would clear the way for him to sell his casino by a Friday deadline, Andy Sanborn has moved to keep the clock running in hopes he can still close a deal. The state is objecting, arguing that Sanborn shouldn’t have gotten his latest extension in the first place.
In a filing Friday, Senior Attorney General Jessica King argued the judge overseeing the fate of Sanborn’s license erred in giving Sanborn more time to sell after determining he didn’t have the authority to do so. The legal route he took to get there is “seemingly at odds with that determination,” King wrote.
The latest issue in the state’s 13-month effort to revoke Sanborn’s gaming license over alleged pandemic aid fraud centers on the state’s “suitability” review of Sanborn’s unidentified buyer, a step Sanborn argues is taking longer than the state indicated.
The New Hampshire Lottery Commission has told Sanborn’s buyer that it has completed its review and sent its findings to the Attorney General’s Office for its own review. That office has not said when it expects to issue a finding.
If the state completes its background check and denies Sanborn’s buyer a gaming license, he won’t close a deal with Sanborn. Without a sale by the state’s deadline, Sanborn will lose his gaming license for Concord Casino — virtually the only reason to buy the business — for two years.
Sanborn initially had to sell by June but was allowed a three-month extension to September if he had a buyer ready to close a deal.
In September, Gregory Albert, the administrative law judge overseeing the fate of Sanborn’s license, essentially gave Sanborn a second extension with an argument the parties did not expect.
Albert ordered Sanborn’s license revoked if he didn’t sell by Oct. 1 but halted his own order until at least mid-November, giving Sanborn at least another 50 days.
Albert gave both parties until Friday to challenge his order. Both sides did.
King of the Attorney General’s Office asked Albert to clarify his order, saying her office deemed Sanborn’s license revoked.
Sanborn’s attorneys, Zachary Hafer and Adam Katz, requested a rehearing reluctantly, they said in filings Friday and Tuesday. They agreed with most of Albert’s orders, they said, but sought a rehearing on three issues, a move that keeps the clock running for Sanborn.
They blamed the Attorney General’s Office for forcing their hand.
“…Had the state credibly assured the buyer or (Sanborn) that the (Attorney General’s Office) would finish its (suitability) review by a date certain, (Sanborn) would have welcomed a chance to gracefully end this case,” they wrote. “But there is no clarity from the (Attorney General’s Office) and the clock is ticking.”
It is unclear from Albert’s order how much longer Sanborn will have to sell now that the parties have requested to be heard again on his findings.
A sale, they said in a separate filing, would benefit taxpayers by ending the litigation in the case, and charities that received thousands of dollars from charitable gaming at Concord Casino.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Office is pursuing a criminal investigation of Sanborn’s alleged misappropriation of nearly $844,000 in pandemic loans. His attorneys are suing the office in superior court arguing that the investigative team should be disqualified because members allegedly seized and reviewed documents during a search that were confidential.
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