Nancy Marks, the former campaign treasurer for Rep. George Santos (R-NY), pled guilty this week to multiple federal charges stemming from her role in falsely reporting that Santos made a $500,000 loan to his campaign to make it appear as though he had more support than he really had.
Marks pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud, making materially false statements, obstructing the administration of the Federal Election Commission, and committing aggravated identity theft, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
While the statement does not use Santos’ name, it makes clear that he was the candidate mentioned in court documents since they note that Marks was the treasurer for the candidate in New York’s Third Congressional District during the 2022 election cycle.
The Department of Justice said:
During this election cycle, Marks and the candidate devised and executed a fraudulent scheme to obtain money for the campaign by submitting materially false reports to the FEC on behalf of the campaign in which they inflated the campaign’s fundraising numbers for the purpose of misleading the FEC, a national party committee, and the public.
Specifically, the purpose of the scheme was to ensure that the Candidate and his campaign qualified for a program administered by the national party committee, pursuant to which the national party committee would provide financial and logistical support to the Candidate and his campaign committee. To qualify for the program, the Candidate had to demonstrate, among other things, that his congressional campaign had raised at least $250,000 from third-party contributors in a single quarter.
To meet the financial criteria required to get support from the Republican National Committee, Marks and Santos allegedly agreed to submit false reports to the FEC claiming that “at least 10 family members of Marks and the Candidate had made contributions to the campaign, when Marks and the Candidate both knew that these individuals had not made the reported contributions.”
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They’re also accused of filing false reporting to the FEC that claimed Santos had loaned his campaign $500,000 when, in fact, he did not even have the money to do so, prosecutors said.
“Marks engaged in criminal conduct intended to deceive and defraud the American public. This guilty plea holds her responsible for those various fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge James Smith. “The FBI will continue to investigate all allegations of campaign finance abuse to ensure openness, fairness, and transparency in our election process.”
Santos was indicted on 13 felony counts earlier this year, including 7 counts of wire fraud, 3 counts of money laundering, 2 counts of making false statements to the House of Representatives, and 1 count of theft of public funds.