Credit: Unsplash

The Federal Election Commission has launched multiple inquiries into Santos’ finances.

New York Congressional Representative George Santos has become an extremely controversial figure since his election to the position this month due to the multiple falsifications found throughout his professional resume and personal history. These falsehoods have made his colleagues on both sides of the political divide wary of him, especially with the latest inquiry into his campaign.

This week, the Federal Election Commission launched several investigations into Santos’ finances, specifically the unmarked loans of $500,000 and $125,000 to his election campaign. Santos previously claimed that he had personally loaned $700,000 of his own money to the campaign, but on his FEC filings, the boxes indicating personal funds were left blank. Due to Santos’ messy personal history, investigators are genuinely uncertain if this is an indication the money came from elsewhere, or if Santos just forgot to mark his forms properly.

“I have no idea what’s going on with the loans,” Jordan Libowitz of watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told CNN. “It is without a doubt the most confusing FEC filing I’ve seen.”

In the event that these funds came from somewhere besides Santos’ personal coiffeurs, that could constitute criminal charges, as it is illegal for a congressional candidate to accept a campaign contribution of six figures or more from a third party individual or group.

In a brief statement with reporters on Wednesday, Santos refused to provide an explanation of the amended forms or the campaign funds. “Let’s make it very clear: I don’t amend anything, I don’t touch any of my FEC stuff, right?” he said. “So don’t be disingenuous and report that I did because you know that every campaign hires fiduciaries.”