FBI investigating Jane Sanders for possible fraud: report

Federal investigators are looking into allegations that Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) wife, Jane Sanders, falsified loan documents while she served as the president of Burlington College, according to multiple reports.

The small Vermont liberal arts school closed down in May 2016, after going bankrupt and failing to meet accreditation standards. 

The college began to face financial difficulties during Sanders’s tenure from 2004 to 2011, falling $10 million into debt when the school purchased a new campus in 2010. 

{mosads}Sanders has been accused of falsifying the information on the loan documents in order to expand the college grounds. 

The VTdigger.org reported that some of the donors Sanders appealed to for help with loans are now in contact with the FBI and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Sanders left her leadership role in 2011 for undisclosed reasons.

She claimed the college could count on $2.6 million in donations to pay for the purchased land, according to a 2010 loan application. But she ultimately raised only a fourth of that, making $676,000 in donations over the next four years, putting the college into bankruptcy in May 2016.

The numbers that donors say they pledged compared to what Sanders documented differ, according the report.

The report cites an example where Corinne Bove Maietta pledged to give $1 million over half a decade, according to the 2010 loan application. Maietta, however, says she did not make that pledge, saying she offered a bequest of an unspecified amount to be paid to the college when she died, the report said.

Richard Moss, Maietta’s accountant, told Daily Caller News Foundation that the FBI has reached out to him and requested an interview with Maietta.

“It was sometime back in March or April, during tax season,” Moss told the Caller. “It was in regards to Corine Maietta’s current address and where they could contact her for questions related to Burlington College.”

Jeff Weaver, his spokesman, told the Daily Caller in a statement last week that the FBI has not contacted Jane Sanders yet.

Updated: Monday, 1:25 p.m.