Former Santos treasurer pleads guilty over campaign work

Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) former campaign treasurer pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon to conspiring with the then-candidate to fraudulently inflate his campaign finance reports after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Nancy Marks, 58, a veteran campaign staffer for Republicans on Long Island, appeared before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, court filings show.

Also a longtime campaign treasurer for former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), Marks is now the second former Santos campaign staffer to face criminal charges since the first-term congressman was indicted in May.

“The parties have agreed to the terms contained in a written Plea Agreement,” prosecutors wrote in court filings. 

Prosecutors said Marks filed campaign finance reports falsely showing that Santos had loaned his campaign $500,000 and that their family members had donated various sums.

Marks and Santos, identified as “co-conspirator #1” in the indictment, filed the false reports to meet thresholds to qualify for financial and logistical support from an unnamed national party committee, prosecutors said.

Marks’s guilty plea adds to the controversy surrounding Santos, who arrived on Capitol Hill in January already the subject of criticism. Shortly before he was sworn in, the New York Republican admitted to embellishing parts of his background.

Federal prosecutors charged Santos with 13 criminal counts in May over three alleged schemes that accuse him of misleading campaign donors, fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits and lying on financial disclosures. 

Santos pleaded not guilty and has not been charged in connection with the new allegations.

The purported $500,000 loan had been a source of mystery after Santos’s campaign filed amended reports in January unchecking a box indicating it came from personal funds. The documents were filed as Marks resigned from Santos’s campaign.

The congressman made headlines in July after campaign records revealed that Santos withdrew $85,000 from his campaign to help him repay a loan he took out during the 2022 cycle. It is unclear if the loan he was repaying is related to the loan he allegedly falsely took out, as outlined in the indictment.

Court filings indicate that prosecutors possess several texts between Marks and Santos, including ones in which the then-candidate passed along names of his family members and false amounts they donated so Marks could include it on a campaign finance report.

At one point as they were trying to meet the threshold, Santos allegedly texted Marks that he was “lost and desperate.”

Marks’s guilty plea was filed on the same docket as Santos’s case. 

Her sentencing is set for April 12, 2024. She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Marks is the second former Santos staffer to face criminal charges.

In August, prosecutors charged the New York Republican’s former fundraiser, Samuel Miele, with five counts over allegations that he impersonated former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) chief of staff while soliciting donations for Santos’s campaign.

Miele pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors have signaled that plea negotiations are ongoing.

Santos has faced bipartisan calls to resign or be expelled, but the congressman has consistently said he has no plans of stepping down.

In May, the House voted to refer a resolution to expel Santos to the House Ethics Committee, a development that was largely panned as redundant because the panel had already been looking into the congressman. But it prevented lawmakers from having to vote directly on whether or not they thought the freshman lawmaker should remain in Congress.

The Ethics Committee has been looking into whether Santos “engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office.”

Around the time of the vote to refer the resolution, then-Speaker McCarthy told reporters that he wanted the Ethics Committee to “move rapidly” in its investigation of Santos. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), who has called for Santos to resign and be expelled but voted to refer the resolution, at the time said he expected the committee to complete its probe in 60 days.

The panel, though, has not said the investigation is over. In June, the committee expanded its investigative purview to include whether or not the congressman fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits.

Santos is running for reelection in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.