Statement regarding guilty plea from Santos campaign treasurer Nancy Marks

Washington, D.C. - Following a guilty plea by Rep. George Santos’s 2022 campaign treasurer Nancy Marks to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, Erin Chlopak, Senior Director for Campaign Finance at Campaign Legal Center issued the following statement: 
 
"While information regarding Nancy Marks’s guilty plea is still unfolding, there is one thing we can say with certainty – it’s encouraging to see real accountability for those who knowingly make false statements to conceal election spending from voters. Every voter has a right to know who is spending to influence our elections and our government and they have a right to know how the candidates competing for their vote are spending those funds.  

As this case continues to unfold, we hope that voters in New York’s 3rd congressional district – and across the country – are given the insight they deserve into how the Santos campaign raised and spent donors’ money. Of course, voters were entitled to this information when they were deciding how to vote in 2022, and it’s imperative that they have it now, as Congressman George Santos seeks their vote once more.”
     

On January 9, 2023, Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that recently elected Rep. George Santos, his 2022 campaign committee, Devolder-Santos for Congress, and treasurer Nancy Marks violated federal campaign finance laws. The following day, CLC referred the complaint to the Department of Justice.  

CLC’s complaint alleged, among other things, that Santos’s campaign falsely reported $705,000 in “personal loans” from Santos, and the information underlying Marks’s guilty plea appears to support that allegation: Prosecutors in Marks’s case have reportedly indicated that Marks and Santos conspired to fabricate $500,000 in loans made to the campaign in order to meet fundraising benchmarks.