Separated at Birth?

George Santos and Kari Lake

(Hat tip: Scissorhead Bruce The Desert Rat)

People (well, me) are starting to wonder where the now-infamous fabulist George Santos got his wealth. I mean, not just anyone gets invited to the Schlapps Christmas Party (and annual investment portfolio review). The Hill (!) dives in:

Sizable personal loans from Santos to his campaign alongside a sharp jump in his reported personal wealth have led to questions about how he got his money.

Federal Election Commission filings show Santos loaned his campaign at least $580,000 during his 2022 run and nearly $80,000 during his 2020 run. In total, Santos brought in nearly $3 million from all sources during his 2022 campaign.

Financial disclosure forms filed with the House clerk in 2020 and 2022 show a sizable jump in Santos’s personal wealth during the intervening years. His 2020 financial disclosure said that he made $55,000 from LinkBridge Investors during the previous year and listed no other assets, income or liabilities.

But just two years later, Santos reported bringing in a $750,000 salary from his company, the Devolder Organization. He said in one interview that the loans to his campaign came from that salary.

He also reported holding between $1 million and $5 million in a savings account, between $100,001 and $250,000 in a checking account, and an apartment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, valued between $500,001 and $1,000,000.

Santos formed Devolder in May 2021, according to documents filed with the Florida secretary of state. His campaign website previously said that his company managed $80 million in assets, but that claim has since been removed. The Washington Post reported that financial data company Dun & Bradstreet estimated in July 2022 that Devolder had revenue of only about $43,688. Santos’s disclosures have not revealed any clients.

To say nothing adds up is an insult to mathematics. Someone owns this dude and the only question is, who?

Our pal Steve M over at No More Mister Nice Blog has a post up that finds an intriguing Russian accent in Santo’ rapid and unaccountable rise to wealth.

I wonder if Mr. Santos (if that is his real name) has many owners. While it is not a crime to lie to voters, it is a crime to file lies with the FEC.  This is going to get interesting.