George Santos Refunds More Than He Earns in Donations: Report

Rep. George Santos is giving back to his constituents. That’s right: He’s giving them their money back.

A federal disclosure shows the New York fabulist returned more money than he raised during his most recent fundraising campaign.

Overall, Santos returned nearly $8,400 in donations.

As a result of his net loss, Santos’ cash on hand is just over $25,000, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday. Santos raised $5,333.26 in the first quarter but received refunds exceeding that amount.

In contrast, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a first-term Republican from Nassau County, raised more than $215,000 from individual donors and more than $300,000 from political action committees, The New York Timesreports.

Santos can continue to generate and spend money even though he hasn’t decided whether to run again.

No vendor payments or campaign trips are mentioned in the FEC filings. Furthermore, no payments have been shown to lawyers, even though ethics and criminal investigations are ongoing.

Santos attributes his campaign finance issues to his former campaign treasurer, which led to the Campaign Legal Center filing a complaint.

Andrew Olson, the new campaign treasurer, signed several subsequent filings in the following months. However, since no payments were mentioned in the campaign’s reports, it appears that he was not paid for his work.

Santos’s previous treasurer, Nancy Marks, resigned in January after numerous financial irregularities were reported in the press. Some included an odd series of $199.99 payments and hundreds of thousands in unexplained and unaccounted-for expenditures.

Most House members spend a lot of time on committee assignments. However, Santos does not serve on any committees since temporarily resigning from his positions at Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s urging.

Santos has filed four bills since being in Congress. None of them have attracted cosponsors.