The cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch may have deeper ties than previously reported to a newly elected Republican congressman with a long history of false claims now under scrutiny from state and federal officials following allegations of campaign finance violations.
George Santos received maximum campaign contributions of $5,800 each from Andrew Intrater and his wife, along with tens of thousands more to campaign committees associated with the Long Island lawmaker since 2020, according to The Washington Post.
But Mr Intrater – the American citizen cousin of Russian billionaire energy investor Viktor Vekselberg – also invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into Mr Santos’s former employer, Harbor City Capital, which federal regulators have accused of running a “classic Ponzi scheme” to defraud investors.
Statements from a lawsuit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Committee against the company – where Mr Santos worked for more than a year – and other statements obtained by the newspaper appear to reveal the pair developed a business relationship as Mr Santos entered politics in 2020.
Mr Santos also boasted about Mr Intrater’s investment firm, Columbus Nova, as a “client” of his during a Harbor City meeting over Zoom in 2020, according to footage viewed by The Washington Post.
“You might know who they are,” he said. “They’ve made the news on several occasions. They were heavily involved with the Russia probe. Unjustified. … But they’re a real estate company...
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