Photo: John Locher/AP Photo
Among the many mysteries surrounding embattled Rep.George Santos— now under investigation after lies on his resume began to surface in recent weeks — is that of his alleged relationship to a powerful Russian oligarch.
Santos has said the more-than $700,000 in funds he lent to his campaign came from his company, the Devolder Organization, whichThe Washington Postreports was organized just one month before the Republican declared his candidacy in 2021.
This week, thePostreported onother campaign donations, these from Andrew Intrater, the cousin of sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to thePost, campaign finance documents show that Intrater and his wife both donated the maximum $5,800 to Santos' 2022 campaign.
The outlet also points to an SEC filing showing that a company linked to Intrater gave a $625,000 deposit to Santos' former employer, Harbor City, which regulators haveaccused of being a Ponzi scheme.
Harbor City’s assets were frozen in 2021, after which point Santos — along with another Harbor City employee — formed a new company: the Devolder Organization.
The Devolder Organization has been the subject of much speculation since Santos was elected, with financial disclosure forms showing that the company paid the Republican some $3.5 million over the last two years. (Those payments are especially significant considering Santos stated in a 2020 financial disclosure that he had no assets and no earned income.)
Rep. George Santos outside his office on Capitol Hill.Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images
While on the campaign trail, Santosmade headlinesfor seemingly siding with Russia in theUkraine war, calling Ukraine a “totalitarian regime” that is wrongly revered in the U.S.
“Look, if the Ukrainians really hated Russia so bad, the eastern border of Ukraine wouldn’t have welcomed Russians into their provinces. They feel more Russian than Ukrainian,” Santos said the at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2022. “It’s not like Ukraine is a great democracy. It’s a totalitarian regime. They’re not a great bastion of freedom.”
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Santos is currentlyunder federal investigation over questions about his finances, and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office in New York recently announced that it, too,is investigating the incoming lawmakerfor fabrications that DA Anne T. Donnelly called “nothing short of stunning.”
“The volume and timing of Santos’s dramatic increase in income and assets, the lack of a clear explanation of how he generated that income, his well-documented penchant for dishonesty, and the fact that he then used $705,000 from his sudden windfall to fund his subsequent congressional campaign strongly suggests that the rapid shift in Santos’s finances was not a mere coincidence, but a direct result of unknown persons directly and illegally giving him money to run for federal office,” the complaint claims.
source: people.com
