Santos says he won’t seek reelection after damning Ethics Committee report
George Santos Spent Campaign Cash On Botox, And Other Wild Allegations In His Ethics Report
Report describes use of campaign funds for personal travel and cosmetics
The report provided extensive evidence that Santos used campaign funds for lavish personal use.
Santos racked up significant travel expenses for flights, hotels, Ubers and meals that do not appear to have any political or campaign purpose.
While one witness told the ethics panel there were only two trips taken during the campaign to Washington, DC, and Florida, additional witnesses described Santos’ travel as much more frequent.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/16/politics/george-santos-reelection-ethics-investigation
One witness said Santos traveled “once per month,” and another testified they were “worried about the look of the campaign spending all this money on … all these dinners and travel outside of the district.”
Another staffer who witnessed Santos use campaign funds for meals and Ubers described Santos as “a high roller,” but said they did not have concerns about the spending.
In December 2021, Santos put taxi and hotel charges from Las Vegas on the campaign credit card, even though that was a time when he told his campaign staff he was on his honeymoon and there were no campaign events on his calendar.
A Federal Election Commission report listed a July 7, 2022, $3,332.81 Airbnb expenditure as “Hotel stay,” when the campaign’s calendar revealed Santos was “off at [the] Hampton’s for the weekend.”
Santos also spent $2,281.52 at resorts in Atlantic City from July 23 to July 24, 2022, a day when his calendar revealed he had one event at 8pm on the 24th entitled “NRCC Candidate.”
One former Santos staffer told the Ethics panel he did not recall “any sort of fundraising or campaign things in Atlantic City,” but said Santos told him he enjoyed visiting casinos to play roulette, often with his husband.
Additionally, spa and cosmetic services did not appear to have a campaign purpose.
Examples in the report include:
• $1,400 at Virtual Skin Spa in Jericho, New York, in July 2022
• $225 at CityMD in Huntington, New York, on August 27, 2022
• $1,500 purchase on the campaign debit card in 2020 was made at Mirza Aesthetics, which was not reported to the FEC and was noted as “Botox” in expense spreadsheets
• $1,400 charge at Virtual Skin Spa was a campaign debit card purchase that was also described as “Botox” in the spreadsheets
• An unreported PayPal payment of $1,029.30 to an esthetician associated with a spa in Rhinebeck, New York.
• $4,127.80 purchase at Hermes
• Smaller purchases at Only Fans, Sephora, meals, and parking.
Report outlines long list of lies
A vulnerability report commissioned by his campaign during the 2022 election cycle – and included in the ethics report released Thursday – chronicles his lies about his education and his employment history and details multiple eviction notices and civil judgments.
These reports, typically created to show what opposition research can be dug up on a candidate, runs some 137 pages long.
Topping the vulnerability report are Santos’ lies about his education – that he graduated with an MBA from New York University and a bachelor’s degree from Baruch College.
“The registrar offices at both institutions said there was no record of Santos earning any degree from either university,” the report said.
The report also detailed “at least three housing eviction lawsuits were filed against Santos and his family in Queens, New York” between 2014 and 2017, and notes that Santos has had “multiple civil judgments filed against him for owing thousands of dollars to creditors.”
Santos reimbursed for personal loans he didn’t make
One of the enduring questions about Santos’ campaign filings has been his claim that he provided six-figure personal loans in support of his congressional bids – given his modest means.
In its report, the committee concluded that there “is substantial evidence” that most of the nearly $800,000 that Santos reported making in personal loans to his campaign committee and to an aligned leadership PAC in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles “were not actually made or properly disclosed” to regulators at the Federal Election Commission, known as the FEC. (Santos ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2020 before winning his Long Island seat last year.)
Additionally, the investigators found that Santos was improperly “reimbursed” with donors’ money for campaign loans he didn’t make.
The report also took aim at Santos’ repeated characterization of himself as the victim of a rogue campaign treasurer, saying he was “heavily involved in the day-to-day financial operations of his campaigns.”
“Representative Santos has login credentials to access the campaign’s bank accounts online, reviewed FEC reports, tracked money as it was coming and going out of the campaign, reviewed invoices and received weekly finance reports,” the report states.
In October, his former treasurer, Nancy Marks, admitted in court to conspiring with Santos to fill out federal documents with false claims and information as part of
pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.