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BY OLIVIA BEAVERS
The Hill
Federal investigators are looking into allegations that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) wife, Jane Sanders, falsified loan documents while she served as the president of Burlington College, according to a Friday Daily Caller News Foundation report.
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.
Jane Sanders has been accused of falsifying the information on the loan documents in order to expand the college grounds.
The Daily Caller 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 $676,00 in donations over the next four years, putting the college into bankruptcy in May 2016, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Discrepancies over numbers that donors say they pledged compared to what Sanders documented differ, according to 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 the Daily Caller 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 paper. “It was in regards to Corine Maietta’s current address and where they could contact her for questions related to Burlington College.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
Jeff Weaver, his spokesman, told the news site in a statement last week that the FBI has not contacted Jane Sanders yet.