Evidence Suggests Rep. Santos Violated Federal Law
Washington, D.C. --- Today, the non-partisan ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), submitted a complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) seeking an investigation into whether Rep. George Santos and his campaign committee failed to disclose expenditures.
Federal law prohibits federal candidates from soliciting, receiving, directing, transferring, or spending funds in connection with an election for federal office unless the funds are subject to the limitations, prohibitions, and reporting requirements of the Act. A candidate must report all money raised and spent.
FACTS:
Rep. Santos’ 2022 congressional campaign had unexplained spending of $356,389.08.
The campaign reported $3,060,549.17 in total operating expenses, but only reported $2,695,160.09 in itemized disbursements. It is unknown what happened to the difference of $356,389.08--there simply is no record of where it went.
Additionally, in FEC filings made in 2022, Santos’ campaign reported 1,287 disbursements to “Anonymous” in the amount of $254,108.88. Santos’ campaign later removed the disbursements to “anonymous” from the reports.
The majority of the anonymous disbursements were for exactly $199.99. Specifically, there were 1,151 reported anonymous disbursements in the amount of $199.99--just one penny beneath the threshold at which campaigns must itemize disbursements.
“The law is quite clear – federal candidates must report money raised and spent. Based on the facts presented in his own FEC filings, Rep Santos and his campaign committee failed to report a large dollar amount of disbursements. There are two separate facts indicating this is the case. First, his own filings show he didn't report over $350,000 of disbursements, and second, the number of disbursements in the dubious amount of exactly $199.99 indicate either that they were not actually in that amount or that payments were structured in a way to avoid disclosure--either of which would be a major violation of federal campaign law. We have requested the FEC investigate this unknown spending and hold the candidate and campaign accountable,” said Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT.
A full copy of the complaint can be here.
FACT is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas. For more on FACT, visit http://www.factc.org/
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