Controversial Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., reportedly scored big bucks donations from a New York real estate kingpin who is a cousin of a Russian oligarch and was once accused of being a go-between in the Stormy Daniels hush money deal.
Santos, who admits lying about much of his life story, won $5,800 donations from Andrew Intrater and his wife, along with tens of thousands in donations to political action committees that backed his upset victory in a Long Island congressional district, the Washington Post reported Monday.
Intrater, 60, is a cousin and close business associate of Russian oil billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, a crony of strongman Vladimir Putin who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government.
Intrater, an American citizen, also had major business ties to Michael Cohen, the onetime fixer for former President Donald Trump who did federal prison time for his role in paying porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her affair with Trump.
Intrater was accused of funneling $500,000 to Cohen as a way of reimbursing him for the hush money payments. His financial firm, Nova Columbus, made several payments in 2017 to the same bank account that Cohen used to pay Daniels on Trump’s behalf.
Both men said the payments to Cohen were for real estate consulting work and had nothing to do with Daniels. Intrater’s lawyer also said Vekselberg had nothing to do with the payments.
Neither Intrater nor Vekselberg were ever charged in connection with the payments.
Cohen, who later dramatically broke with Trump, pleaded guilty to tax and fraud charges in the Stormy Daniels case and served more than a year in federal prison.
Trump has never been charged in the hush money case, although Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is reportedly still investigating the case.
Adding to the Santos intrigue, Intrater’s company was a major investor in a Florida financial company that Santos once worked for that has been described by federal authorities as a Ponzi scheme.
Santos, 34, once pitched himself to investors as a partner of Nova Columbus, which he conceded had come up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian ties to Trump.
“They were heavily involved with the Russia probe. Unjustified(ly),” Santos said in a video of a Zoom call obtained by the Post. “But they’re a real estate company. They’re legitimate.”
Intrater’s spigot of big money assistance may help explain the meteoric rise of Santos, who was making just $55,000 a year as a call center worker as recently as 2020.
Santos, a Brazilian immigrant who framed himself as a trailblazing gay conservative, won a huge upset by winning a Democratic-leaning district on the North Shore.
The newly minted lawmaker shocked the nation by admitting he made myriad false claims about supposedly working for big-time investment banks and graduating from New York University and Baruch College.
He even claimed Jewish heritage and falsely said his grandparents fled the Holocaust.
Santos is under investigation by state and federal prosecutors, along with authorities in Brazil for his role in a bad check scheme. He insists he won’t step down.
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