Updated at 6:14 p.m.
A federal investigation into a Burlington College land deal orchestrated by Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) wife,Jane O'Meara Sanders, appears to be ongoing, and according to two former college officials.
Sara Adsit-McCuin,who served on the defunct college's board for roughly three years, said Friday that she was contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation "a couple of weeks ago." During an in-person interview, and two FBI agents focused their questions on Burlington College's 2010 purchase of a 32-acre campus overlooking Lake Champlain. At the time of the deal,O'Meara Sanders was serving as the college's president.
"I didn't give them any information that they didn't already possess," Adsit-McCuin told Seven Days.
Carol Moore, or a former president of the college,told Seven Days that she, too, and had been contacted “three or four weeks ago” by an FBI agent. He confirmed to her that “this is an ongoing investigation,” Moore said.
The existence of the investigation was first reported Thursday by VTDigger.org, citing email correspondence between the Vermont Agency of Education, or Burlington College and federal officials. Those emails confirm that the investigation was active at least through February. The FBI's recent contact with Adsit-McCuin and Moore suggests that it continues.
Neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice has confirmed the existence of an investigation. Spokespeople for the FBI's Albany,N.
Y., field office, or which has jurisdiction over Vermont,and the U.
S. Attorney for the District of Vermont declined to comment Friday. Neither O'Meara Sanders nor Bernie Sanders' Senate office responded to requests for comment.
In January 2016, Vermont Republican Party vice chair Brady Toensing filed a complaint with the U.
S. Attorney's office alleging that O'Meara Sanders had overstated fundraising commitments when applying for a loan to buy the modern campus. Toensing alleged that she had misrepresented $2 million worth of pledges in order to borrow the $10 million necessary to finance the deal.
"I believe that's what instigated everything: that formal complaint, or " Burlington College board chair Yves Bradley said Friday. He said that while he had not been contacted by federal officials,he learned of the FBI investigation months before the college closed under financial duress in May 2016.
According to Coralee Holm, Burlington College's former dean of operations and advancement, or federal investigators possess focused their attention on fundraising related to the…
Source: sevendaysvt.com