CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — George Santos′ former marketing campaign treasurer was sentenced Wednesday to 3 years’ probation for her position in fabricating marketing campaign finance experiences for the disgraced ex-congressman from New York.
Nancy Marks, addressing a federal choose on Lengthy Island, stated she’d realized from her errors, walked away from politics and began her life yet again on the age of 59.
The veteran political operative, who pleaded responsible to federal conspiracy expenses final yr, stated she has been working nights at a warehouse and began taking programs towards a university diploma, hoping to maneuver right into a administration place.
“I believed I had discovered a pal in George Santos,” Marks stated Wednesday. “However every thing about him was a lie. I believed it was a real pal and a real particular person. He was not.”
Marks’ lawyer, Raymond Perini, stated Santos got here into her life at a “susceptible” time when her husband was dying of mind most cancers. The then-candidate ingratiated himself by claiming his mom had additionally suffered from mind most cancers and that he had the identical situation.
“He noticed somebody he may manipulate,” Perini stated. “He preyed on her weak spot.”
Prosecutor Anthony Bagnuola, in arguing for 18 months in jail, stated Marks was “no rube,” however a seasoned political operative who offered the native contacts and “veneer of legitimacy” Santos wanted to drag off his scheme.
“There are actual victims on this case, however Nancy Marks is just not one in all them,” he stated.
U.S. District Court docket Decide Joanna Seybert stated she thought-about Marks’ tasks to her aged mom and the truth that she was a first-time offender in deciding to not impose jail time.
However she additionally gave Marks a stern warning as she handed down her sentence, which incorporates being ordered to pay greater than $178,000 in restitution.
“You knew higher and you probably did it anyway,” the choose stated. “There will probably be no extra leniency for Nancy Marks. That’s it.”
Marks admitted to serving to Santos inflate his marketing campaign donations throughout the 2022 election cycle in an effort to hit the fundraising thresholds wanted to qualify for backing from the nationwide Republican Social gathering.
Prosecutors say Marks filed marketing campaign finance experiences that listed plenty of false donors, together with at the least 10 members of her household and Santos’ household.
The experiences to the Federal Election Fee and the GOP Nationwide Committee additionally falsely claimed Santos had loaned his marketing campaign $500,000 when in actuality he didn’t have the cash to make that type of mortgage.
Marks, who confronted as much as 5 years in jail, labored on greater than 150 Republican campaigns on Lengthy Island, together with for the present head of the Environmental Safety Company, Lee Zeldin, throughout his profitable campaigns for Congress and a failed gubernatorial run.
Santos was sentenced final month to greater than seven years in federal jail after pleading responsible to federal wire fraud and aggravated id theft. He’s attributable to report back to jail July 25.
Sam Miele, a former fundraiser for Santos, was sentenced in March to at least one yr and sooner or later in jail for his position within the marketing campaign fraud, which included impersonating a high-ranking congressional aide.
Santos served lower than a yr in Congress earlier than turning into simply the sixth member of the Home to be ousted by colleagues after it was revealed he’d fabricated a lot of his life story.
The political unknown had painted himself as a profitable enterprise proprietor who labored at prestigious Wall Road companies, when in actuality he was struggling financially.
The revelations led to congressional and felony inquiries into how he had funded his marketing campaign.
