Rep. George Santos, who already faces widespread calls to resign from Congress due to lying about every aspect of his life on the campaign trail, has deeper ties than previously known with Andrew Intrater, a businessman who is the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
The New York Republican congressman's main campaign committee received the maximum $5,800 from both Intrater and his wife, who both also gave tens of thousands more dollars since 2020 to committees linked to Santos, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
The evidence suggests that the New York congressman may have had a business relationship with Intrater from the time that Santos was first entering politics in 2020.
In addition, according to an SEC filing, Intrater placed hundreds of thousands of dollars into Santos' onetime employer for more than a year, the Florida-based investment firm Harbor City Capital, which has been accused by regulators of running a Ponzi scheme.
Although Santos has previously claimed that possible fraud at Harbor City Capital was never made known to him, a now deleted tweet shows that he in fact was made aware of it two years ago by at least one prospective client, according to The Washington Post.
Intrater is the cousin of Viktor Vekselberg, a known Russian oligarch with ties to American politics and who has been sanctioned for his role in the Russian energy industry.
Although Intrater is an American citizen, his company has long had extensive connections to the business interests of his Russian cousin.
Santos has previously said that he has been to Moscow many times in his career.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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