An electronic device owned by billionaire South Dakota banker T. Denny Sanford has been the center of a months-long child pornography investigation that originally started in the state late last year, according to multiple sources.
The investigation expanded to include other jurisdictions where Sanford has a home, including Arizona and California, and is currently pending with the U.S. Department of Justice for possible criminal action.
ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, reported the investigation Friday night, citing four anonymous sources.
More: Here's everything you need to know about Sanford Health
Sanford, 84, is a billionaire philanthropist who founded and owned First Premier Bank. He is South Dakota’s wealthiest individual, and he has donated his wealth to various causes here and in other states, including to children’s groups.
Marty Jackley, former South Dakota attorney general, is representing Sanford.
"Although we know very little about any state or federal inquiry relating to Mr. Sanford, we do know those authorities responsible for investigating allegations obviously did not find information or evidence that supported or resulted in any criminal charges," Jackley told the Argus Leader on Friday night.
In late November, Sanford Health, the health system named after Sanford, abruptly canceled an annual birthday party it throws for Sanford, which was to be held Dec. 5 and was to also to celebrate the hospital system's merger with UnityPoint Health. At the time, Sanford Health cited its failed merger with UnityPoint, which had been halted earlier in November, as the reason for canceling the event.
In January, Micah Aberson, Sanford Health’s executive vice president, acknowledged the party was also canceled because Sanford “was not physically feeling up to it and didn’t want the party to happen.”
More: The Big Bang: How two men, one vision and $400 million changed Sioux Falls forever
Sanford's reach extends from banking to healthcare
Sanford made his fortune as founder and owner of First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard, taking full advantage of South Dakota’s lax usury laws to master the subprime credit card industry.
“I could never have accomplished what I’ve accomplished in any other state other than South Dakota,” he told the Argus Leader in 2017.
Sanford’s wealth is estimated at $1.6 billion and would have been higher if not for aggressive and high-profile philanthropy and his pledge to try to “die broke” due to charitable endeavors.
Of the more than $1 billion Sanford donated in his lifetime, the most significant was a $400 million gift in 2007 that changed the name of Sioux Valley Hospital to Sanford Health, established a network of worldwide clinics and initiated a research center with the stated goal of curing a major disease, which turned out to be Type 1 diabetes.
The donation helped signify Sioux Falls’ rise in regional stature while sparking a competitive relationship with Avera Health, setting the stage for a burgeoning health care market with national and global reach.
More: From the archives: Sioux Valley gets hundreds of millions
“I sometimes have to remind people that when they meet (Sanford), they’re talking to the single largest health care philanthropist in the world,” Sanford Health CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft said. “It would be like talking to the Mayo brothers or Johns Hopkins himself.”
Sanford’s giving extended well beyond South Dakota, including a $350 million pledge to National University in California, which renamed itself Sanford National University in July 2020. There have also been a series of gifts to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Florida, the result of a friendship with Jack Nicklaus that brought the champion golfer to Sioux Falls for the Sanford International golf tournament.
By the late 1990s, Sanford’s soaring net worth allowed him to start donating toward children’s health causes, including $2 million to the Children’s Home Society in 1998.
All told Sanford has donated nearly $1 billion to the Sanford Health system, with a 2014 gift of $125 million setting the stage for the Sanford Imagenetics Research Center that opened in 2017.
In 2019, he also gave $55 million to Children's Home Society and donated $3.5 million to help fund the restoration of the historic State Theatre in downtown Sioux Falls in coordination with the city.
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T. Denny Sanford's electronic device center of child pornography investigation - Argus Leader
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