George Santos’ campaign treasurer gets probation

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (CN) — The treasurer for former U.S. Representative George Santos’ congressional campaign was sentenced to three years of probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, admitting to filing false campaign finance reports, obstructing the Federal Election Commission and aggravated identity theft.

U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert handed down the sentence to Nancy Marks about a month after she gave Santos more than seven years in prison under his own guilty plea. Seybert also ordered Marks to pay more than $178,000 in restitution.

Marks copped to a scheme to ensure Santos qualified for financial and logistical support from the National Party Committee: He had to demonstrate, among other things, that his congressional campaign had raised at least $250,000 from third-party contributors in a single quarter. She and Santos agreed to report phony campaign donations from at least 10 of their family members, knowing the relatives had not actually donated the money, and to falsely claim Santos loaned the campaign at least $500,000 when he didn’t and couldn’t have afforded to do so.

Santos, 36, who briefly represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District, also admitted he lied to federal and state institutions to get unemployment benefits during the Covid-19 pandemic while he actually had a job.

Marks, who worked for decades as a political operative and bookkeeper for multiple candidates, left Santos’ team in January 2023, a month after it came out that he lied about parts of his life story, including fabricating his educational and work history and family background.

By the end of that year Santos would be expelled from Congress, after the House Ethics Committee concluded in a report that he “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit."

In sentencing filings, Santos sought to pin the false campaign finance reports on Marks and said he wasn’t involved in the process. He pointed to her long career in politics; Marks previously worked for John Flanagan, a former state senator and majority leader, and Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump and a former congressman who lost against Governor Kathy Hochul in the 2022 gubernatorial race.

Marks faced a maximum four years in prison under her plea deal.

Santos’ former campaign fundraiser Samuel Miele also pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Seybert, a Bill Clinton appointee, sentenced him to one year in prison.

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