‘Hiring’ treasurer who turned down job
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Rep. George Santos’ marketing campaign committee advised federal regulators Wednesday that it had employed a brand new treasurer amid lingering questions concerning the source of his wealth and irregularities within the committee’s monetary stories.
The one downside? The person Santos supposedly employed stated he truly turned the job down.
It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not the committee made an error itemizing a brand new treasurer on Federal Election Fee paperwork — or if it was one other lie by a congressman who has been caught fabricating many elements of his life story.
The person who declined the job, Thomas Datwyler, stated by means of a lawyer that there gave the impression to be some form of miscommunication.
“On Monday we knowledgeable the Santos marketing campaign that Mr. Datwyler wouldn’t be serving as treasurer,” Datwyler’s lawyer, Derek Ross, stated in an announcement. “It seems there’s a disconnect between that dialog and the filings (Wednesday) which we didn’t authorize.”
Santos’ Home workplace referred questions Thursday to his marketing campaign, Devolder Santos for Congress. Messages in search of remark had been left with a marketing campaign lawyer, Joe Murray, and the marketing campaign’s former treasurer, Nancy Marks.
Underneath federal rules, a marketing campaign committee can’t elevate or spend cash except it has a treasurer. The treasurer collects all contributions — and solely the treasurer, or an individual designated by the treasurer, can approve marketing campaign bills.
Devolder Santos for Congress filed a brand new assertion of group on Wednesday itemizing Datwyler as treasurer and custodian of information, changing Marks, who had held each positions since Santos first ran for Congress in 2020. The shape included what it stated was his digital signature, alongside along with his electronic mail and mailing addresses.
5 different political fundraising committees linked to Santos filed comparable paperwork with the FEC Wednesday itemizing Datwyler as the brand new treasurer.
Santos’ marketing campaign submitted its new assertion of group a day after it filed new marketing campaign finance stories Tuesday that elevated confusion over the source of a personal fortune he claimed to have used to finance his marketing campaign.
The marketing campaign offered the FEC with amended variations of stories for the final two years, together with kinds that gave contradictory accounts of whether or not among the $705,000 he lent his marketing campaign since 2021 got here out of his personal pocket.
Hours earlier than the brand new assertion of group itemizing Datwyler was filed, Santos once more refused to reply questions concerning the supply of his wealth and positioned duty for amending his marketing campaign finance stories on marketing campaign workers.
“Let’s make it very clear. I don’t amend something. I don’t contact any of my FEC stuff, so don’t be disingenuous and report that I did,” Santos stated. “Each marketing campaign hires fiduciaries, so I’m not conscious of that reply, however we could have a solution for the press relating to the amendments from yesterday.”
Datwyler, a veteran political moneyman, is treasurer for dozens of Home and Senate campaigns, together with that of Rep. Nick LaLota in Santos’ neighboring district. Marks, a longtime Lengthy Island political operative, was treasurer for LaLota’s predecessor, former Rep. Lee Zeldin, and was intently related to Santos’ rise to workplace.
She had been treasurer for a number of committees supporting Santos — and she or he and her household gave most contributions to his marketing campaign. An organization related to Marks’ Lengthy Island deal with is listed on paperwork among the many co-owners of an organization he and others shaped in Florida in 2021 after the collapse of Harbor Metropolis Capital, an funding agency the place Santos labored that the SEC alleges was a Ponzi scheme.
Marks’ bookkeeping has come underneath scrutiny from the FEC and marketing campaign finance specialists. The fee has repeatedly flagged issues with Santos’ marketing campaign finance stories, sending greater than two dozen letters requesting further details about contributions, donors and his private loans.
The Marketing campaign Authorized Heart, a nonprofit watchdog group, filed an FEC criticism in opposition to Santos and Marks this month detailing issues it present in his marketing campaign’s stories, together with an outsized variety of bills slightly below the $200 threshold at which the marketing campaign could be required to retain a receipt, bill or canceled examine.
Santos’s marketing campaign reported 37 bills costing precisely $199.99 — together with seven from an Italian restaurant in Queens, 5 for Uber rides and 4 from Delta Air Strains. The Marketing campaign Authorized Heart highlighted a number of inconceivable transactions, together with a $199.99 keep at a complicated Miami resort the place the least costly room that week normally goes for greater than $700.
The group’s director of federal reform, Saurav Ghosh, stated it is uncommon for a marketing campaign treasurer to be implicated for reporting violations, however “when a marketing campaign has this stage of egregious reporting failures, it’s in the end the treasurer who’s accountable.”
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