Things went from bad to worse for Rep. George Santos (R-NY) on Monday after a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission accused the Republican of a wide range of campaign finance violations.
The allegations include lying about campaign spending, using marked money to cover personal expenses, and hiding the true source of his campaign’s funding, the Washington Post reported.
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The complaint was filed by the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group, and could trigger an investigation into Santos.
In its letter, the Campaign Legal Center asked that the FEC “thoroughly investigate what appear to be equally brazen lies about how his campaign raised and spent money.”
One issue the watchdog had with Santos was his filing dozens of disbursements of exactly $199.99, one penny below the $200 threshold in which campaigns are required to provide receipts.
The Campaign Legal Center also questioned claims he earned millions of dollars over the past two years and lent his campaign $705,000, arguing it didn’t make financial or logical sense.
In his failed 2020 congressional bid, Santos listed no assets and a salary of $55,000. Two years later, he reported a $750,000 salary he earned from Devolder Organization, an LLC Santos formed in Florida three weeks after launching his 2022 congressional bid in New York.
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The Campaign Legal Center called assertions he made millions of dollars and donated a large sum of money to his election coffers “vague, uncorroborated, and non-credible.”
Candidates are legally allowed to contribute or lend an unlimited amount of cash to their campaigns from their personal accounts. However, it’s illegal to give corporate money. Santos claimed his “specialty consulting” firm landed multiple million-dollar deals from wealthy clients within the first six months. However, Santos failed to list any of his firm’s clients and in a previous interview described Devolder as a “family firm.”
Lawyers for the Campaign Legal Center alleged that “unknown individuals or corporations may have illegally funneled money to Santos’s campaign.”
“George Santos has lied to voters about a lot of things, but while lying about your background might not be illegal, deceiving voters about your campaign’s funding and spending is a serious violation of federal law,” Adav Noti, senior vice president at the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement Monday.
Santos was sworn in early Saturday morning to the House of Representatives under a cloud of suspicion after he was busted by the New York Times last month for embellishing his background and lying about his family, religion, education, work experience, sexuality, and perhaps even an animal rescue charity he allegedly founded.
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The 34-year-old, who campaigned on saving the “American dream,” is now at the center of multiple investigations.
“Politicians don’t tell the truth, sure,” Katie Sanders, the managing editor of PolitiFact, a nonpartisan fact-checking service, said. “But to be this brazen is unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory.”
