The Hill: Santos’s finances, financial disclosures to be probed.
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US authorities investigate Republican representative-elect George Santos's rapid accumulation of wealth.
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Republican representative-elect George Santos (The Washington Post)
Republican representative-elect George Santos’s finances and financial disclosures are being investigated by the US attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York, The Hill reported.
Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the news website that one of the most noticeable oddities in Santos’s finances is his rapid accumulation of wealth before running for Congress in 2022.
In his most recent financial disclosure, Santos claimed that he provided his campaign with a loan of $700,000 from the $750,000 salary that he reported earning from his company, the Devolder Organization.
But two years earlier, during his unsuccessful campaign for Congress, Santos reported having no assets and a salary of $55,000.
"He went from essentially no money in 2020 to millions in 2022," Libowitz was quoted as saying by The Hill.
According to The Hill, Santos created the Devolder Organization in May 2021, weeks after his prior employer, Harbor City Capitol, was accused of running a Ponzi scheme by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The news website said Santos' campaign website in 2021 described the Devolder Organization as his "family’s firm" and claimed to oversee assets worth $80 million there.
However, in his incoming congressman's 2022 financial disclosure form and in a recent interview with Semafor, Santos claimed the company was a capital introduction business that included "deal building" and "specialty consulting" for "high net worth individuals."
Regarding his rapid accumulation of wealth, Santos told Semafor that he "landed a couple of million-dollar contracts" within the company’s first six months.
The Hill noted that Santos' Devolder Organization was dissolved in September 2022 for failing to file an annual report. But according to the Florida Department of State, the company was reinstated on December 20, a day after the New York Times published a report questioning the Republican representative-elect's resume.
"We don’t know very much about this business that he said he created, made millions off of, then folded," Libowitz commented on the matter. "It doesn’t seem to have had any footprints anywhere."
"If that income wasn’t bona fide and was actually part of a scheme to funnel money into and bankroll his campaign (which is possible though we do not know for certain just yet), that would constitute a brazen violation of federal campaign finance laws," Saurav Ghosh, the director of federal campaign finance reform for the Campaign Legal Center, was quoted as saying by The Hill.
It is noteworthy that Santos confessed on Monday that he had lied about his education and job history during his campaign.
According to the New York Times report, Santos never worked for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs. Furthermore, he claimed to have graduated from Baruch College in 2010, however, according to the school's administration, neither his name nor his birthdate was among the class of that year's graduates.
Not Ukrainian refugees nor descendants of Holocaust survivors
In the same context, US media suggested last week that Santos' claims to be a Holocaust survivor's descendent may also have been made up.
Santos said his ancestors arrived in Belgium as Ukrainian refugees after his grandparents fled the Holocaust.
Megan Smolenyak, an author and professional genealogist debunked Santo's claim, pointing out that "There’s no sign of Jewish and/or Ukrainian heritage and no indication of name changes along the way."
According to CNN, which consulted "multiple genealogists", neither the Holocaust Museum nor the International Center for Nazi Persecution, which maintains records of Jewish refugees, had any information on Santo's ancestors.
"I never claimed to be Jewish," Santos argued, adding that "I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was 'Jew-ish.'"
Last month, Santos appeared in a Jewish News Syndicate where he said that he was "very proud" of his Jewish heritage.
