To qualify, Santos had to show that his campaign had taken in $250,000 in one quarter.
Santos and Marks “both knew that these individuals had not made the reported contributions,” according to a court document charging Marks with the crimes.
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Marks pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to what’s known as an information, which bypasses the need for a grand jury presentation and vote.
U.S. Attorney Breon S. Peace said in a statement that Marks was found “falsely inflating the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent contributions and loans.”
Santos was charged in May with a number of financial crimes over allegations that he defrauded campaign donors by misusing funds and lied about his work status to get unemployment benefits he wasn’t entitled to during the pandemic. He’s also accused of falsifying information on required financial paperwork submitted to the House of Representatives.
The freshman legislator representing parts of Long Island and Queens has denied all charges.
The seemingly damning indictment of Rep. George Santos
Santos earned a national reputation when it was revealed that he’d made an astonishing number of false claims about his background and qualifications while seeking office. He publicly claimed that he was a descendant of Holocaust survivors and that his mother survived the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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His lies were widely mocked on social media and...
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