Santos's financial woes pile up, threatening his political career

[Eugene]

Source: The Hill

Santos’s financial woes pile up, threatening his political career

BY EMILY BROOKS AND MIKE LILLIS - 01/23/23 6:00 AM ET

The controversies swirling around Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) are shifting quickly from résumé lies to questionable finances, posing a much more serious threat to the embattled freshman even as he vows to remain in Congress.

While the early cloud of scandal had focused on the ethics of Santos’s fabricated campaign biography, more serious revelations suggest the Long Island Republican might have violated campaign finance laws — a much graver class of misconduct that could result in civil penalties, criminal prosecution, expulsion from Congress or all three.

The questions center around the hundreds of thousands of dollars Santos has loaned his campaigns from personal accounts; his sharp increase in reported wealth; an outside group that was raising funds on behalf of his campaign, without being registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC); and a host of expenses submitted by his campaign for $199.99 — one cent less than the figure requiring receipts.

“We certainly are talking about potential FEC investigations and DOJ investigations,” said Robert Maguire, research director with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

-snip-

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3821857-santoss-financial-woes-pile-up-threatening-his-political-career/

[niyad]

1. May he, and his enablers, receive everything they deserve.

[maxsolomon]

2. In 2021, he worked at a Ponzi Scheme ripping off a Russian Oligarch-adjacent "Investor"

At Harbor City Capitol, and he ripped off one Andrew Intrater: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/nyregion/george-santos-sec-intrater.html

Mr. Intrater is a private equity investor perhaps best known for his financial ties to Viktor Vekselberg, his cousin. Mr. Vekselberg is a Russian oligarch whose U.S. assets were frozen in 2018 by the Treasury Department because of his ties to the Kremlin.

Reading that, I think the FEC charges are the least of his worries (although he's probably safe from the long arm of the Russian Mob as long as he's in Congress).

Again, WHERE DID THE 750K COME FROM?

[Cha]

3. Hope it's Soon Not

"potential" anymore.

[Lovie777]

4. GQP needs warm bodies to up their majority.......

doesn't matter if person is un-qualified, a serial liar, a criminal, corrupt, rapist, cheater, etc.

GQP takes them into the party.

[Takket]

5. Don't think people like MBS and Putin are seeing someone they can exploit here

They’ll be there to bail him out. For a favor or two…

[UTUSN]

6. There were still plans for a career?!

[NNadir]

7. The GOP will not expel him for being a criminal. They are criminals, the softest on crime...

...there is.

The joke is that the Congressional District in which I grew up elected a criminal because of concerns about "crime."

Trust me, having grown up there, I understand completely.

Expect him to become the next GOP speaker candidate. He qualifies as much as does the current Speaker of the House, two peas in a pod.

[pirsquared]

11. Reminds me: "Only I can fix it."

Reminds me of "only I can fix it."

or the childhood taunt: "takes one to know one."

[rpannier]

8. Stefaniak vouched for this guy

Remind everyone of that every chance we get

[republianmushroom]

9. his finances are only one of several things threatening his political career

there are several others.

[Lonestarblue]

10. By the time the FEC and the DOJ get around to investigating him, the 2024 election will be

happening, and he probably will not be re-elected.

[ShazzieB]

12. GOOD.

I hope his woes -- financial and otherwise -- pile up until they bury him alive. The sooner, the better.