George Santos was spotted giving something to his sister last week, but he will be evicted for not paying more than $40,000 in unpaid rent, court records say.
Financial sources
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Congressman George Santos is back on the street.
At least that’s what the fired Republican congressman told The Daily Beast this week about the Queens apartment he shares with his sister. According to New York court filings, the sister faced eviction for failing to pay rent.
Details of Santos’ travels add to the contradictions and lies surrounding his biography and financial statements, raising new questions about where exactly he lived and how he funded it. for his lifestyle and campaign. The impending eviction conflicts with the Republican Party’s hardline stance against the city’s eviction ban and in favor of the landlord, as he complained about his family’s rent in the “13 estates.” property” – which he later admitted was a lie.
Santos’ 2022 financial report shows her net worth between $2.5 million and $11.5 million, while her Rio apartment is worth between $500,001 and $1 million la. Some basic facts about his life are fictitious. The allegations prompted a number of law enforcement investigations and a report of a federal investigation was released the day after the incident.
But Santos arrived at his Elmhurst home three weeks ago when he brought his personal belongings and four dogs – which Santos used as an opportunity to win the federal election, even though he did not. Register to vote at another address. The property owner has asked the Queens District Court to order the deportation of his sister. The project is the latest step in a longstanding rent dispute between landlords and tenants that has not been paid for years. The trial is scheduled for February.
When asked if the move would affect his new living arrangements, Santos told The Daily Beast that the Elmhurst home was only temporary. He said on Monday that he has moved into a new apartment north of Queens, his home county.
But that day, Santos was in Washington, DC, accepting the seat at Long Island House he won in November. He said his family helped him move his belongings. Santos, who was pictured on the floor Tuesday without her wedding ring, did not respond to a question whether the man she said was her husband had moved in with her.
(A Daily Beast reporter saw Santos’s non-husband with two Republican golden retrievers after leaving the apartment building Wednesday afternoon.)
Santos also told The Daily Beast that he was considering opting out of voter registration, a move he said would help conceal that from the media. (New York voter records still show he was registered at an address in White Rock.) New York election law requires candidates to be registered to vote for a political party to be eligible. vote. Santos is said to have told local Republican officials that he would not run for re-election.
The August 2020 deportation dispute arose from New York’s eviction moratorium during the COVID crisis, according to a court filing. In May 2022, five months after the city lifted the ban, the building’s owner terminated his sister’s lease, citing tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent while living in a permanent apartment. The owner said two other people, who did not want to be named in court documents, lived in the building and failed to pay despite receiving more than $30,000 in money from the Money Assistance Program. federal Emergency Housing Rental (ERAP) in July. Completing the payment obligation is approximately $40,000.
ERAP is a financial assistance program created under the COVID Relief Act of December 2021. It allows troubled renters to apply for federal funds, which the government pays directly to landlords. In this case, despite the ERAP split between landlord and landlord, Santos’ sister said she couldn’t pay the rent in full.
“Even after paying the ERAP, the defendant failed to pay the debt in the lawsuit,” the landlord’s attorney wrote in the December 5 filing, after the 180-day eviction moratorium expired after the ERAP was paid. .
“To date, all rent has been paid and unpaid … and unpaid,” the statement said, seeking an eviction order.
In 2021, Santos asked the city to lift the ban on evictions. He and his family criticize a plan to punish landlords by unfairly subsidizing tenants by falsely claiming they haven’t received rent on 13 properties – he later admitted he didn’t got the property – and complained that the tenants didn’t get it. state support.
The New York Times
She moved into her sister’s Elmhurst apartment on December 27, three months after Santos moved out of Whitestone’s home, where she still lives with her sister, a registered property owner and registered voter .
But the day before December 27, Santos told the New York Post
His sister, Tiffany Santos, did not respond to a request for comment. His attorney in the matter, an attorney with Queens Legal Services, responded to The Daily Beast’s questions via email, but he did not respond.
With his brother at risk of deportation, George Santos’ balance sheet shows the millionaire has easy access to liquidity. During the campaign, Santos withdrew at least $1.75 million in cash from Devolder’s organization, including $750,000 in salary and between $1 million and $5 million in dividends. He previously told The Daily Beast that he was paid to fund his campaign, which campaign experts say would constitute an illegal corporate donation.
The Elmhurst Building is located across from Queens Mall – four miles from LaGuardia Airport, on a street lined with fast food restaurants, furniture and cushion stores, and large department stores. It has 144 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments. Amenities include 24-hour concierge service, a fitness center, a media room, and a rooftop terrace. According to court documents, Santos’ sister rented a fifth-floor apartment in Santos for $2,050 a month, where a dog-hair rug that read “Come in, Brandon” greeted guests.
Specifically, Santos wrote the address himself while reporting with one of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans during the campaign and political action committee – the last time on October 26, 2022, when his owner and Ing.
As The Daily Beast previously reported, Santos may have violated federal law by taking cash from the company to secure a loan, a move that campaign finance experts say has may lead to illegal company support. Not sure if their corporate clients are aware of this.
In addition, the FEC marked the October loan as unsuitable. The statement said campaign loans were no longer on schedule, requiring candidates to disclose their funding sources.
“If the loan is from the applicant, is it from a personal fund or did the applicant obtain it through a bank loan, brokerage account, credit card, home credit line or line of credit? other uses?” he said. . agency wrote the problem that they show in the loan.
Santos’ recurring campaign expenses also include variable-proportional rent payments for the Huntington property, The New York Times reported.
Brendan Fisher, deputy chief executive officer of the government watchdog Legal expert in campaign finance and documents, explained that while some rent expenses are allowed, candidates are not. Use donations for personal expenses.
“Campaign funds are authorized to be used to pay office rent for employees who move to the district during the campaign period, and if possible, even short-term apartment rent. However, the campaign fund. election campaign may not be used for personal expenses, including the personal expenses of the candidates.” Fisher said, adding that if Santos used campaign funds to pay his personal rent, he could face campaign finance violations and room ethics violations.
Ironically, Santos’ sister did not pay the rent and make a large political donation. But he only released two campaigners: his sister and one of his most important partners.
In December 2021, his brother gave $5,000 to Santos’ fundraising committee, according to FEC filings. In June 2022 — a week before he received more than $30,000 in state emergency aid to pay his rent — he tried to invite Michelle Bond, a losing Republican candidate. of Long Island, Md., is also a friend of FTX. . Founder Ryan Salama was awarded a total of $8,700.
That amount — more than four times her monthly rent — exceeded her personal limit of $5,800, and she was refunded $2,900 in overpayment. For both gifts, Tiffany Santos used the address of an apartment that is currently under threat of eviction. (It looks like the house number was mistyped in his message to his brother.)
The number of donations surprised campaign finance experts.
“Sister Santos can’t pay her rent and is only applying for government rent subsidies, how can she pay thousands of dollars in political donations? Where does George Santos get his campaign money? , his sister took the money. Maximum political donations?” Fisher thought. “It’s another part of the Santos legend that doesn’t fit together.”
Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance legal expert and deputy executive director of the Citizen Involvement Funding Council, explains that federal law prohibits individuals from closing role as a “straw donor” to raise money for the candidates.
Ryan told The Daily Beast: “It’s called a ban on publishing on behalf of the other party.
He added: “Based on this real-world model, both the straw donor and the actual source of the money are in violation of federal law. If a candidate knows that the money doesn’t actually belong to the donor, then it doesn’t matter. the person is knowingly violating federal law by donating on behalf of someone else.”
“When we look at the largest number of people who donate, the money usually goes to the rich people sitting there instead of those struggling to pay the rent.”
Libowitz added that the financial model around Santos seems so unstable that “everyone around him is being questioned.”
The Daily Beast previously reported that from February 2021 to February 2022, Tiffany Santos received tens of thousands of dollars in payments from the New York State political action commission known as Rise NY PAC, which was approved by the New York Times. affiliated with her brother’s campaign treasurer. of its sponsors and sponsors. In some of his federal filings, he lists his occupation as “President” of the PAC.
Empire State campaign financial records also show that in March 2022, Rise NY PAC paid $8,000 to Redstone Strategy Group in Boulder, Colorado. The Daily Beast, which advises philanthropists and nonprofits on social justice investments, has a client who says he has never received or received any payment from Rise NY PAC .
Specifically, the Devolder Santos foundation set up a Florida organization called Redstone Strategies in late 2021 with Jason Benoit, one of the former employees of Harbor City Capital, which was shut down the same year after The SEC filed a lawsuit. Ponzi scheme. (Santos and Benoit were not included in the plan.)
Attempts to reach Benoit were unsuccessful.
