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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Mon Jul 10, 2017, 01:54 PM Jul 2017

Federal prosecutors step up probe of land deal pushed by wife of Bernie Sanders

Source: The Washington Post



By Shawn Boburg and Jack Gillum July 10 at 11:12 AM

A federal investigation into a land deal led by Jane Sanders, the wife and political adviser of Sen. Bernie Sanders, has accelerated in recent months — with prosecutors hauling off more than a dozen boxes of records from the Vermont college she once ran and calling a state official to testify before a grand jury, according to interviews and documents.

A half-dozen people said in interviews in recent days that they had been contacted by the FBI or federal prosecutors, and former college trustees told The Washington Post that lawyers representing Jane Sanders had interviewed them to learn what potential witnesses might tell the government.

The investigation centers on the 2010 land purchase that relocated Burlington College to a new campus on more than 32 acres along Lake Champlain. While lining up a $6.7 million loan and additional financing, Sanders told college trustees and lenders that the college had commitments for millions of dollars in donations that could be used to repay the loan, according to former trustees and state officials.

Trustees said they later discovered that many of the donors had not agreed to the amounts or timing of the donations listed on documents Jane Sanders provided to a state bonding agency and a bank. That led to her resignation in 2011 amid complaints from some trustees that she had provided inaccurate information, former college officials said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/federal-prosecutors-step-up-probe-of-land-deal-pushed-by-wife-of-bernie-sanders/2017/07/10/e3fc3e72-625a-11e7-8adc-fea80e32bf47_story.html

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MineralMan

(146,189 posts)
2. Uneasy times for the Sanders family.
Mon Jul 10, 2017, 02:41 PM
Jul 2017

Once an investigation is underway, it will not stop until it's finished. Where it leads, I don't know. But, it will proceed until either a grand jury is seated or it is dropped for lack of evidence sufficient to prosecute.

Being investigated by the Feds isn't something anyone really looks forward to.

George II

(67,782 posts)
3. It should be noted that when he worked for the Bergen Record (New Jersey) Shawn Boburg was...
Mon Jul 10, 2017, 03:56 PM
Jul 2017

...the reporter who dug into the details of "Bridgegate" and exposed it for the scandal that it turned out to be.

If there is something to this story (appears as though there is) Boburg will find it. He should change his name from Boburg to Bulldog!

StevieM

(10,499 posts)
6. I am not a big Bernie fan, but I don't take this story seriously. The FBI is not to be trusted.
Mon Jul 10, 2017, 06:09 PM
Jul 2017

It is overrun with partisan Republicans.

I tend to think if they had anything incriminating we would have heard all about it.

 

VermontKevin

(1,473 posts)
9. It's in the grand jury's hands now. Looks like the FDIC and Vermont AUSA are
Mon Jul 10, 2017, 09:18 PM
Jul 2017

leading the prosecution.

 

VermontKevin

(1,473 posts)
10. Here is where it gets weird. From the article, it looks like the state bonding agency
Mon Jul 10, 2017, 09:32 PM
Jul 2017

had the donor information, but the people were only identified by their initials. The agency approved the bond, the bank then buys the 10 million dollar bond. It seems like there were people at the bond agency who were outvoted, along with Trustees at the College.

So you'd have to look at both the agency, I guess, and then at the bank.

jmowreader

(50,447 posts)
8. This is a story with no heroes, but I'm still not clear on a few things
Mon Jul 10, 2017, 07:18 PM
Jul 2017

In 2010, the economy was a total wreck. No one was spending. No one was loaning. Anyone who had cash was hoarding it. And Burlington College, a 40-year-old, expensive, hippie school with a 38-percent second-year return rate, on the shores of Lake Champlain, had 250 students. Exactly how much crack would a loan officer have to be on to think giving this place seven million dollars was a good idea?

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