OnlyFans, Botox, And Hermes: How Santos Misspent Campaign Funds (VIDEO)

George Santos

Rep. George Santos

Back in March, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) joked with a Fox Business host that he had “just discovered” what OnlyFans was, and the host, Kennedy Montgomery, laughingly under her breath said, “just can’t tell the truth” (video below).

On Thursday, the House Ethics Committee’s Investigative Subcommittee (ISC) released its massive report on Rep. Santos, which alleges “overwhelming evidence” of misconduct, including that he spent campaign contributions on purchases at cosmetics retailer Sephora, high-end fashion house Hermès, and OnlyFans, which is a subscription and pay-per-view site that streams videos created by sex workers, musicians, artists, and physical fitness experts. It also appears to suggests funds were spent at Ferragamo, the Italian luxury fashion house, on Botox, to pay his rent, at casinos, and a spa.

Santos is also facing 23 federal felony counts on charges including wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and false statements, among others.

The subcommittee’s “report found that in multiple instances, Santos moved funds donated to his campaign to his personal checking accounts, and used the money at luxury store Hermès, OnlyFans, Sephora, as well as for meals, parking, and to pay off his credit card bills. His FEC reports included payments for Botox, a luxury vacation in the Hamptons, taxis and hotel stays during his Las Vegas honeymoon, and spa treatments,” Rolling Stonereports.

According to the report, Santos’ “campaign incurred significant travel expenses for flights, hotels, Ubers, and meals. Witnesses affiliated with the campaign had conflicting testimony regarding Rep. Santos’ out of district travel.”

“In addition to the travel expenses,” the report states, the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) “identified several specific expenditures as raising concerns of potential personal use of campaign funds: $2,281.52 spent at resorts in Atlantic City from July 23 to July 24, 2022; $1,400 at Virtual Skin Spa in Jericho, New York in July 2022, and $225 at CityMD in Huntington, New York on August 27, 2022.”

In another instance the report says that “during the 2020 campaign, a $1,500 purchase on the campaign debit card was made at Mirza Aesthetics; this expense was not reported to the FEC and was noted as ‘Botox’ in expense spreadsheets…”

“Similarly, the $1,400 charge at Virtual Skin Spa was a campaign debit card purchase that was also described as ‘Botox,’ ” the report states. “The ISC also identified an unreported PayPal payment of $1,029.30 to an esthetician associated with a spa in Rhinebeck, New York.”

In a damning allegation the committee’s report states: “On October 21, 2022, RedStone’s bank account received a $25,000 wire from an account affiliated with Contributor 2.”

The ISC states RedStone Strategies, LLC, is “another company [Santos] owned or controlled, and which was also used in a separate scheme to defraud his campaign supporters.”

“From there, $25,000 was transferred from RedStone’s account to Representative Santos’ personal checking account. On October 26, 2022, RedStone’s bank account received a $25,000 wire from an account affiliated with Contributor 1. On the same date, the $25,000 was transferred from RedStone to a different personal checking account owned by Representative Santos. After the $50,000 from RedStone was deposited into Representative Santos’ personal accounts, the funds were used to, among other things: pay down personal credit card bills and other debt; make a $4,127.80 purchase at Hermes; and for smaller purchases at Only Fans; Sephora; and for meals and for parking.”

The Committee also details a “$20,000 transfer to a Devolder Organization account, requested by Ms. Marks’ staff,91 was made at a time when that account had a negative balance.” The report describes the Devolder Organization as a “single member LLC.”

It adds, “in the week after it was transferred to Devolder Organization, it was used to make about $6,000 worth of purchases at Ferragamo stores, withdraw $800 in cash from an ATM at a casino, withdraw $1,000 in cash from an ATM near Representative Santos’ apartment, and to pay Representative Santos’ rent.”

In response to the Committee’s report Santos issued a lengthy attack on social media, declaring (in all-caps), “the time is now for the states to rise up and commence an Article V Constitutional Convention!”

He also announced he will “NOT be seeking re-election for a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time.”

Watch Santos from March below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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