A former college in Burlington was sold at auction this week. The financial woes that led to the decline and closure of Burlington College began when Jane Sanders was president of the school. Now, federal investigators are looking into the financial dealings.
Burlington College closed last year after it defaulted on a $10 million loan to purchase 33 acres of property and buildings from the Roman Catholic Diocese Of Burlington in 2010. At the time Jane Sanders, wife of Senator Bernie Sanders, was president of the college.
Since 2014 Vermont Attorney Brady Toensing has requested materials related to the financial dealings at Burlington College. In January 2016 he formally asked for a federal investigation into possible loan fraud. “I was just interested to see what facts were out there, what evidence was out there, behind this land purchase and I really had no intent beyond that. It wasn’t until the Diocese reported almost $2 million in losses in November of 2015 that the complaint was put together citing those losses in particular to the U.S. Attorney’s office.”
Toensing says he was told in May that the Senator pressured a Vermont bank to approve a loan application that his wife requested for the college. “As far as the information that I received it was a sitting Vermont legislator who received information from a prior People’s Bank executive saying that the Senator’s office had pressured the bank to make the loan. And that type of evidence is used all the time by investigators.”
In published reports, Vermont Republican House Minority Leader Don Turner has said he provided the information but it was hearsay.
Toensing, vice chair of the Vermont Republican Party, has repeatedly filed complaints against Democratic and Progressive lawmakers in Vermont. One of his past targets is retired state Attorney General Democrat Bill Sorrell, who says Toensing is a political operative targeting a high-profile politician. “Just because Bernie is such a national figure now and you know Toensing doesn’t know anything personally. He’s just passed along some information. So it’s not like Toensing’s done any investigation. You know he just makes these very public allegations and then sees what happens.”
Despite the vortex of political discourse swirling over both Sanders’ role in the Burlington College investigation, Middlebury College political science professor emeritus Eric Davis says it’s premature to speculate over any political implications for Senator Sanders and the focus should be on Jane Sanders’ role as president of Burlington College. “And what due diligence was or was not done on the loans to purchase the property and whether any of those loan documents involve claims about donations that may have been much more nebulous than firm written pledges. So at this point the investigation is really on Burlington College, Jane Sanders’ role as president, and what sort of documentation was presented to lenders when loans were being sought.”
People's United Bank bought the former Burlington College property Wednesday at auction for $3.1 million.
