SAM Magazine—Burke, Vt., June 22, 2023—An unnamed bidder has made an offer of an undisclosed amount to buy Burke Mountain Resort, according to a filing by Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver in charge of overseeing the ski area. 

Goldberg will continue to seek other qualified buyers, according to VT Digger. If a matching or higher priced bid is made, the resort will go to auction. A motion to approve a final sale will follow the auction process, which Goldberg expects to take place later this year. 

The sales process is identical to the sale of Jay Peak, Vt., to Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. last year after a multi-bid auction, which was precipitated by an initial “stalking-horse” bid by PGRI. 

Jay Peak and Burke both entered receivership in April 2016 after previous owner Ariel Quiros and former resort president Bill Stenger were charged with fraud. Quiros was sentenced to five years in prison and Stenger was sentenced to 18 months in April 2022 for their respective roles in a "Ponzi-like" scheme that misused $200 million of EB-5 investor funds raised to support capital projects at Jay Peak and Burke Mountain, and development projects elsewhere in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

The proceeds from a sale of Burke Mountain Resort will be distributed to defrauded investors.