District 1 candidate’s campaign materials had inaccurate information

District 1 City Council candidate Cory Sanders included inflated claims about his professional and educational accomplishments in campaign materials.

Until the The Washington Post interviewed him last week for a story about discrepancies on his resume, Sanders’ website stated he had a master’s of business administration from Excelsior, an online college. He has not yet completed the degree. His website now says he is “currently finishing his MBA from Excelsior.” 

His campaign website also previously read that he is enrolled at Georgetown University to earn a “master’s certificate” in cybersecurity. 

The school does not offer that program, said the School of Continuing Studies Communications Manager Andrew Glass, and only offers a professional certificate program. Sanders’ website has been updated to reflect that. 

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Sanders said these two issues on the website were “oversights.” He said he did not personally write the information on his campaign’s website, but delegated the task to his web designer.

“I just kind of glanced at it and said, ‘Go ahead and put it up,’” Sanders said. “That’s my mistake. … I should have read the bio before it went out.”

Sanders also lists in his campaign biography that he earned a bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M University. A university spokesman told The Post he attended the school between 1999 and 2004, but there is no record of him graduating. 

Sanders provided a photo of his diploma to The Diamondback. The university could not be reached Friday afternoon for further comment or verification. 

Sanders’ campaign website also states that he spent years “advising the current Mayor of Tallahassee Florida and dissecting the $400 million dollar budget of the capital of Florida.”  

Sanders worked as an unpaid intern in Mayor Andrew Gillum’s office when Gillum was city commissioner. The Post reported staffers in Gillum’s mayoral office could not remember him from the campaign. 

Sanders said the staff Gillum employed as city commissioner are likely different from the people who now work with him as mayor. He maintained he worked closely on advising Gillum and provided emails to The Diamondback, which he said were sent from Gillum to Sanders and a few others.  

Interns “advised him on the budget and his campaign,” Sanders said. “We advised him on a lot of things. One thing he did was give interns the ability to speak their minds and assist.”

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Sanders also included on his website that his “passion for government relations led him to make the jump to College Park, Maryland, as the Federal Government Manager and Director for ProTelecom, an IT firm in the D.C. metro area.” However, Sanders left the company in March. He said he should have included that on the campaign biography.

Sanders said he resigned after putting in his two weeks notice to take another job at IP Consulting and because of moral disagreements with his boss. A ProTelecom representative, however, said he left after the company found he was competing with them by starting his own business, SandTech. 

“The contracts he was supposed to be bidding on for ProTelecom, he was bidding on for SandTech,” the representative said.

Sanders maintains ProTelecom executives knew about his company and sent The Diamondback a November 2014 email in which he said he sent two invoices to ProTelecom “from my company (SandTech).” The email identifies Sanders as “Director of Sales” and is signed “Cory Fitzgerald Sanders, MBA.” 

ProTelecom has sued Sanders for fraud, breach of contract and interfering with its business by being “willfully and maliciously” dishonest, The Post reported, and is claiming as much as $500,000 in lost business. They filed the lawsuit Wednesday, according to Maryland Case Search. 

“The legal process doesn’t start until you get served,” said Sanders’ lawyer, Andre Hammel. “He hasn’t been served yet. The litigation is a long process, and the court will later make a decision on the validity of the claims. Now it’s just accusations.”

Sanders was charged with unemployment fraud while living in Florida in 2010, The Post reported. He pleaded “no contest to a lesser charge of making false statements” and was given two years probation and made to pay restitution. 

Sanders said this was a misunderstanding, and appealed for early termination of probation, which was granted. He said he paid back the money and was only on probation for a month. 

Sanders, who is running against incumbent Fazlul Kabir and former Councilwoman Christine Nagle, maintains many allegations published about his background are untrue, and said the timing of the information coming out was “a political hit.” College Park elections are Nov. 3.

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“Looking forward to Tuesday but most importantly looking forward to due process,” Sanders wrote in a statement on his website Sunday. “It is sad my opponents and there friends must stoop to this level in order to win an election. That will not stop us from victory Tuesday but most importantly we look forward to having our day in court with the information we have received regarding this smear campaign.”

This year’s College Park election is the most contested in more than 20 years. Sanders said he hopes people look to his record — starting a neighborhood association, founding the College Park Democratic Club and serving on city committees – on election day.

“I’ve done great things, and I want to continue doing them,” he said. “I’m just looking to keep pushing forward.” 

But some residents said the new information could influence them at the polls. 

“I don’t know what to make of things, and for me, it creates a dilemma as far as the upcoming elections,” said College Park resident David Keer. “I don’t know if I’ll vote for any of the District 1 candidates.” 

District 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn, a mayoral candidate, is quoted in The Post’s story as standing by Sanders.

Wojahn said he felt blindsided by the information and did not want to rush to conclusions without first getting all the facts, but he is no longer supporting Sanders.

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“I wanted to hear both sides to the story,” Wojahn said. “I was hoping Mr. Sanders would come out with a greater explanation and clarify allegations, but I haven’t seen him do that. … At this point, I am not supporting him and not supporting any candidates in the race. I’m focused on my own race. It’s up to District 1 voters to decide.”

Sanders sent a message over the North College Park listserv asking any residents with concerns about information in the Post article to call him. He also wrote “this story will be retracted as a lot of [it is] untrue.” The story remains online with no listed corrections.

“The allegations are certainly troubling and his response has not helped,” said College Park resident Bill Bystricky. “Some people are interpreting that as yet another lie. It’s hard to find a good way to interpret that.”