“Congressman-elect George Santos has now admitted that he is a total fraud. He didn’t graduate college, didn’t work on Wall Street or in private equity, doesn’t own property, and isn’t Jewish — all of which he asserted in order to dupe the voters in Queens and Nassau County. 

“This clear pattern of intentionally disseminating misinformation in order to defraud the voters of New York’s Third Congressional District also requires that all of Mr. Santos’s disclosures, which are inconsistent with his recent statements, must be thoroughly investigated by the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for campaign finance fraud. 

“According to the Washington Post, in his unsuccessful run in 2020, Mr. Santos’s disclosures revealed no annual income or assets and only included one commission of $5,000. In early 2021, Santos began raising money for his 2022 campaign for Congress. In May 2021, Mr. Santos incorporated the Devolder Organization in Florida, which has no known assets nor any declared clients. In September 2022, shortly after filing his only financial disclosure for the 2022 campaign, Santos dissolved the Devolder Organization without filing an annual report, which would require public reporting of assets and income for the corporation. One day after the New York Times broke the story about his litany of lies, Santos reinstated the Devolder Organization.

“Yet in his personal financial disclosure submitted during his run for Congress, Santos reported to the FEC that he took home a salary of $750,000 from Devolder and also had more than $1 million in income and dividends from the firm. Of that $750,000, Santos’s disclosures show that he gave $700,000 – purportedly from his own salary – to his campaign, notwithstanding the fact that he still has numerous outstanding debts and court judgments.  

“Given Santos’s pattern of lies and deception, and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the Devolder Organization, the federal election and law enforcement authorities must investigate whether the Devolder Organization was created simply as a pass-through entity through which Santos funneled illegal campaign contributions.

“Congress also has an obligation to hold George Santos accountable, but it is sadly clear that we cannot trust House Republicans to initiate an investigation in the House Ethics Committee. In fact, senior House leadership is already complicit in Santos’s scheme – The New York Post’s reporting also revealed that George Santos’ lies were well-known among House Republican leadership, who considered them a ‘running joke.’

“Democracy is not a joke. If House Republican leadership seats George Santos in Congress, and quashes any investigation in the House Ethics Committee, they will confirm that the Republican Party simply does not believe in fair elections.”