Sanders Dismisses Burlington College Allegations As Political
Source: VT Digger
BURLINGTON In a rare interview with local media, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., dismissed as politically motivated nonsense the notion that his office pressured a bank to approve a loan for a college operated by his wife.
Sanders was asked by WCAX on Friday about allegations from Vermont GOP Vice Chair Brady Toensing that Sanders Senate office pressured Peoples United Bank to grant the $6.7 million loan Jane Sanders secured as Burlington College president.
The college used that loan to purchase of a lakefront campus in 2010. Burlington College closed last year under the crushing weight of debt incurred in that land deal.
Toensing sent a letter to the U.S. attorney for Vermont and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation calling for a probe into whether Jane Sanders committed fraud by overstating pledged donations used to secure the loan. The Justice Department has been investigating the college, according to documents, donors and former employees.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2017/05/09/sanders-dismisses-burlington-college-allegations-political/
redstatebluegirl
(12,264 posts)With that said, as tired as I am of Bernie, i don't think this is something we need to be arguing about here with the republic in danger.
RandySF
(57,661 posts)mackdaddy
(1,520 posts)Several massive banks have been found guilty of laundering drug cartel money and the "Corporation" gets there wrist slapped. None of the bank executives who knowingly authorized this behavior were ever touched.
Now this College which is some sort of corporation, is being investigated for not being precisely accurate, on a loan application for outside unwritten promises for donations. And this is all on Jane Sanders?
How many loans did the Trumpster lie on, and how many are under FBI investigation?
shenmue
(38,503 posts)and it's still a distraction.
7962
(11,841 posts)If not then it probably wasnt a corporation
QC
(26,371 posts)Presidents can't do much without their consent; even granting tenure to a professor typically requires a vote of the board.
I suspect that's what mackdaddy was referring to.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)And one of the problems seems to be that the college can't locate the paperwork they need to document some of the large donations they listed on the loan documents.
Cha
(295,929 posts)Or is it just left to others to find it?
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)mackdaddy
(1,520 posts)Non-Profit Corporations are still corporations too. All forms of corporations are separate entities in themselves.
It is still a big deal to "pierce the corporate veil" and go after individual corporate officers. I am a one person LLC business, and my business actions are still to a great degree separated from my personal affairs.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)that damaged someone.
People and non-profits can buy liability insurance to cover things like that.
The reason Jane might be singled out is that the loan documentation was prepared under her direction. She showed it to the Board of Trustees and then sent it to the bank. If she listed non-existent donations, then she'd be responsible for that. One donor says she told Jane that she'd pledge a bequest after her death -- of an unspecified amount -- but that her name ended up being listed with a multi-year gift (not bequest) in the total amount of $1 million.
Petrushka
(3,709 posts). . . on a loan document identifying Burlington as a corporation.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/295215742/Toensing-Wilton-Letter-to-U-S-Attorney-Miller
P.S.
Although I don't have an answer to your question, I believe it deserves repeating at every opportunity.
All best!
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)As the President, she was responsible for managing the loan paperwork and reporting to the board. So she is responsible for that.
Petrushka
(3,709 posts)Last edited Fri May 12, 2017, 04:36 AM - Edit history (1)
I ask because, in addition to Jane Sanders' signature, the CFO's signature appears on a 2010 oan document (Exhibit A in the lst link below); and, coincidentally, that signature belongs to the person who succeeded Sanders as Burlington College president.
In 2014, It was reported by the VTDigger that, "Many faculty members say Plunkett has sacrificed the schools mission in favor of a plan to sell half the campus to a real estate developer." Coincidence, perhaps? (See 2nd link)
(Also at 2nd link):
"Board of trustee meeting minutes from 2012 and 2013 show Plunkett urged board members to help her raise money by introducing her to their friends, neighbors and colleagues who might be potential donors.
"In an interview this week, however, the president said the college has abandoned fundraising and is focused only on enrollment.
'The only, only, only answer to our tight operating budget is to grow enrollment,' "she said. " "
So . . .
I agree with you when you say, "I think it's on her as the President and on the rest of the Board of Trustees." But, I'd include the CFO to the mix.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/295215742/Toensing-Wilton-Letter-to-U-S-Attorney-Miller
http://vtdigger.wpengine.com/2014/08/28/increased-enrollment-way-save-burlington-college-president-says/
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)And so have other college employees.
But Jane was the one who was personally meeting with the people whose donations are now being questioned, and she signed the loan documentation that wrongly listed a bequest for an unknown amount at an unknown date as a million dollar gift to be given over 5 years.
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2017/04/28/fbi-continues-to-investigate-jane-sanders-burlington-college-land-deal
Moore, who was Holm's boss at the time, was aware of the FBI's interest. She said it was clear from the start what the bureau was investigating: "Was there any collusion between Jane Sanders and the bank? Did she falsify records in order to get the loan from the bank?"
Holm said she provided the FBI a filing cabinet and three or four banker boxes filled with donor files. At the bureau's request, she searched email accounts that previously belonged to O'Meara Sanders and Christine Plunkett, who served as O'Meara Sanders' chief financial officer and then succeeded her as president. Holm said she transferred those and other electronic files to a hard drive provided by the FBI.
Asked if she found anything noteworthy in O'Meara Sanders' emails, Holm said, "I prefer not to comment on that."
While searching for information to aid the FBI's investigation, Holm said she had been "unsuccessful in locating documentation of the gifts and pledges" O'Meara Sanders represented in the loan application she signed.
https://vtdigger.org/2017/05/04/burlington-college-donor-says-never-signed-pledge/
I remember Jane asking if I would sign something, and I said, I never sign anything. Youll have to go through my accountant, Maietta said.
After writing Sanders a check, Maietta said she offered to leave the college something in her will. I never told them how much, and I never signed anything.
It was all on my word, she said.
SNIP
Richard Moss, Maiettas longtime accountant, said he, too, recalled Burlington College officials urging Maietta to sign a pledge agreement.
They wanted it all up front of course. I felt a lot of pressure to get it immediately. Thats their job. Bird in hand, you know? Moss said.
Moss said he saw draft versions of an agreement but never a signed a document. Certainly if I were a banker, I would have wanted to see the signed agreement, he said.
Petrushka
(3,709 posts). . . brought to mind something I read elsewhere, something that now evades me. Oh, well . . .
Here's the paragraph:
Moore, who was Holm's boss at the time, was aware of the FBI's interest. She said it was clear from the start what the bureau was investigating: "Was there any collusion between Jane Sanders and the bank? Did she falsify records in order to get the loan from the bank?"
Maybe I'll remember what it was I read elsewhere by doing a sorta mixed-up timeline, viz:
1. Holm wias hired by Burlington College in 2012 and, therefore, her initial boss would have been President Pluckett, former CFO when the land deal was made.
2. Moore became the college's president two years later, in 2014, after Pluckett resigned.
3. Moore said (somewhere in all of those links I bookmarked!) that she hadn't worked at the college before she was hired as its president.
4. In 2010, the year when the land deal was made, neither Holm nor Moore were employed by the college. Nor were they there when Sanders was president. (Sanders resigned in 2011.)
5. Yet . . . "Moore "...said it was clear from the start what the bureau was investigating: 'Was there any collusion between Sanders and the bank? Did she falsify records in order to get the loan from the bank.'" . . . as if it's possible for either Moore or Holm to give answers to such questions when they weren't even around when the land deal was made---there could be no answer except , "How should I know? I wasn't there."
6. Holm aided the FBI because she obviously had access to the loan documents and electronic files . .but she said her search for the documentation of the gifts and pledges was unsuccessful.
7. If I remember correctly, Holm is said to have turned over all the records she had to the FBI and, eventually, they were returned to the college. If tt the FBI didn't find documentation of the gifts and pledges in the college's files, isn't it possible they could be located in the bank's loan records? Wouldn't the bank have a documentation record in its files, considering such a record would have been part of the loan application?
8. And . . . wouldn't there be in the bank's files information related to the refinancing of the loan? Records dealing with the sale of 80% of the land purchased in 2010 to a real estate developer in 2015? The settlement with the Catholic Diocese?
9. 2016
January---Toensing complaint to US Attorney
February --Investigation begins
April ---bank pulls the plug (according to Moore, there would have been a surplus the following year if the bank had waited 3 months---new students enrolled.)
May ---College closes its doors.
10. #9 (above) is what came to mind when I read that paragraph in your post, this paragraph:
Moore, who was Holm's boss at the time, was aware of the FBI's interest. She said it was clear from the start what the bureau was investigating: "Was there any collusion between Jane Sanders and the bank? Did she falsify records in order to get the loan from the bank?"
Now, it leads me back to a Boston Globe article covering the college's closing. It seems that, on graduation day, everyone at the college but its students knew the doors were going to close in a couple days. It's interesting to note that, of all things, the real estate developer who ended up with 80% of the 2010 land purchase was given an honorary degree! So . . .
#9-a -- revision for May, 2016 --- Real estate developer, who knew a bargain when he saw one, receives honorary degree from college . . . and college closes its doors a couple days later.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/27/burlington-college-closes-under-unwanted-spotlight/vQcws7acOi4uuo8FtPresM/story.html
-----------------------------------
It's an all-around sad state of affairs for everyone directly and indirectly hurt. But as I keep saying: "It'll all come out in the wash." . . . knowing dirt isn't all that comes out and sometimes there's a sock or two missing.
P.S.
If you've read this far, thank you for your time. No need to reply. I'm gonna try to stay away from this place for a few days and I've decided to go back to lurking-mode . . . lurking-mode being much less time-consuming. Besides: In this post, I've been simply thinking (and sorta writing) out loud . . . up all night while probably less than half-awake.
Rincewind
(1,199 posts)who lied on the loan application, and had her husband lean on the bank to grant the loan.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)Unless she implicates others herself, there's no reason to go after anyone else. It's not difficult to understand.
Response to TomCADem (Original post)
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Response to TomCADem (Original post)
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R B Garr
(16,920 posts)JTFrog
(14,274 posts)Now let's have a discussion about hacking the DNC and hanging out with Putin's buddy Tad Devine.
dembotoz
(16,740 posts)don't doubt it for a minute.
this country has been generally immune from show trials
perhaps not anymore
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)to go on a political witch hunt against an Independent Senator who won over 71%.
And also he'd have to do some time-traveling because this investigation has been going on for a couple years and he just became Governor in January. (Shulim, the previous Governor, was a Democrat -- so he didn't go on a witch-hunt against Bernie either.)