Former U.S. Rep. George Santos’s treasurer, who pleaded guilty to a series of crimes associated with the ousted Republican congressman, had her sentencing pushed out to February – more than a year and a half after she entered her plea back in October.
Santos’s former treasurer, Nancy Marks, whose case is being heard in New York’s Eastern District Court, pleaded guilty to conspiring with Santos to commit wire fraud, making materially false statements, obstructing the administration of the Federal Election Commission and aggravated identity theft.
Marks, 58, is scheduled to appear in court again on Feb. 18 for her sentencing. She faces up to five years in prison, restitution and a fine.
Marks was the treasurer for Santos’ principal congressional campaign committee during his 2022 bid for New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Santos, who was indicted on 23 federal charges, pleaded guilty Aug. 19 to two counts of wire fraud and identity theft. The remaining 21 counts were dropped as part of his guilty plea.
He faces a mandatory two years in prison but could be sentenced to upwards of 87 months – just over seven years.
Santos agreed to pay $373,749.97 in restitution to various entities. These included donors whose credit cards he used without authorization and the state unemployment fund from which he fraudulently received benefits.
He will be required to forfeit another $205,002.97 before his sentencing on Feb. 7.
Marks, who has served Long Island Republicans for more than a decade, said she filed fraudulent reports to artificially inflate the amount of funds Santos raised to meet financial benchmarks required to receive financial assistance from the Republican National Committee to meet the committee’s goals. The campaign needed to report raising at least $250,000, according to court records.
“I did this knowing it was not true and the donors, who are real people, didn’t give me permission to use their names,” Marks told District Judge Joanna Seybert when she pleaded.
Prosecutors said to meet the committee’s benchmarks, Marks and Santos agreed to falsely report to the FEC that “at least 10 family members of Marks and the candidate had made contributions to the campaign, when Marks and the candidate both knew that these individuals had not made the reported contributions.”
Marks and Santos, prosecutors said, also agreed to falsely report to the FEC that the congressional candidate had “loaned the campaign significant sums of money, including in one instance a $500,000 loan when, in fact, the congressional candidate had not made the reported loans and, at the time the loans were reported, did not have the funds necessary to make such loans.”
Marks resigned as Santos’ campaign treasurer in January 2023. The congressman blamed her for mounting questions about his fund-raising and spending before his federal indictment in May 2023.
Marks also served as treasurer for the Santos D’Esposito Nassau Victory Fund, a joint fund-raising committee between Santos and Rep. Anthony Esposito (NY-04).
The two Republican Long Island representatives made filings to the FEC with Marks serving as treasurer of the fund.
D’Esposito’s campaign spokesperson Matthew Capp previously told Blank Slate Media that he did not have a working relationship with her.
