MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2023) US Republican Congressman George Santos, who has admitted to fabricating portions of his background prior to his election to the US House of Representatives, was associated with Andrew Intrater, cousin of sanctioned Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
Since 2020, Intrater and his wife each provided Santos's main campaign committee with a maximum of $5,800 in addition to tens of thousands more to committees associated with the congressman, the Washington Post said, citing the US Federal Election Commission's documents.
The congressman himself said that Intrater's company was his "client," however, Santos's relationship with Intrater supposedly developed over the years and turned out to be deeper than was previously known, the newspaper claimed.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission data, Intrater sent hundreds of thousands of Dollars to the Harbor City company, one of Santos's employers, which was accused of running a financial pyramid scheme, the report said.
The ties between Santos and Intrater reflect the means of personal and political support enjoyed by the congressman, the Washington Post said.
On Sunday, lead Republican on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee James Comer said that Santos may be removed from his post if found in breach of campaign finance laws. Comer called his fellow Republican lawmaker a "bad guy" and stressed that he disapproved of how Santos made his way to the Congress. Still, Santos is not the first politician who was not truthful about parts of his biography, Comer noted.
In December 2022, federal prosecutors launched a probe into the claims against Santos. This past Monday, the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan government watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission claiming Santos and his 2022 campaign committee also violated campaign finance laws.
