Complaint Against New Rep. George Santos Alleges His Campaign Lied About the 'True Source' of Its Funding

George Santos.Photo: Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty

A federal complaint filed Monday argues that “unknown individuals or corporations may have illegally funneled money” into the campaign of controversial Rep.George Santoswho has in recent weeks been the subject of numerous headlines after admitting to lying about large portions of his past.

In an interview given days later to theNew York Post, thenew congressman said he lied aboutworking at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he had previously asserted, and revealed that he had also embellished his education, noting that he did not attend Baruch College or New York University.

As to his religious heritage, Santos told the Post that he “never claimed to be Jewish. I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.'” He previouslylaid claim to Jewish heritageon his campaign website and throughout his campaign.

John Locher/AP Photo

But even as Santos admitted to some fabrications, many questionsregarding his financesremain unanswered.

The complaint further notes that Santos’ claims of earnings millions of dollars in 2021 and 2022 from a business he started in May 2021 are “vague, uncorroborated, and non-credible in light of his many previous lies.”

The Campaign Legal Center alleges Santos engaged in a number of campaign finance violations, such as using campaign resources to cover personal expenses, like his rent, and falsifying its disclosure of day-to-day campaign expenses.

Citing campaign financial disclosures, the complaint says that Santos reported a number of “implausible” expenses, including “37 disbursements ofexactly$199.99” — just under the $200 threshold requiring a receipt.

One of those allegedly $199.99 expenses was a hotel stay at the W Hotel South Beach, where rooms routinely go for more than $700 per night. “Simply put, barring some type of private insider rate that would raise other serious violations of campaign finance law, the Santos campaign could not have paid $199.99 for a ‘Hotel Stay’ at the W Hotel South Beach,” the complaint says.

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The complaint claims that Santos acted as a “straw donor” for illegal contributions to his campaign, raising questions about who, exactly, made the contributions.

“The volume and timing of Santos’s dramatic increase in income and assets, the lack of a clear explanation of how he generated that income, his well-documented penchant for dishonesty, and the fact that he then used $705,000 from his sudden windfall to fund his subsequent congressional campaign strongly suggests that the rapid shift in Santos’s finances was not a mere coincidence, but a direct result of unknown persons directly and illegally, giving him money to run for federal office,” the complaint claims.

Santos is currentlyunder federal investigation over questions about his finances, and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office in New York recently announced that it, too,is investigating the incoming lawmaker.

source: people.com