“A Republican technology firm says it is asking Rep. George Santos (R-NY) to correct yet another apparent error on his campaign spending records,” NBC News reports.

“Santos reported paying WinRed more than $206,000 to process donations to his 2022 campaign, records show. But that amount doesn’t match up with how much money Santos actually raised.”

“A Republican fundraising platform, WinRed charges candidates a 3.94% fee for contributions made online by credit card. At that rate, Santos would have had to have raised more than $5.2 million through WinRed to warrant a $206,000 payment to the firm.”

Rep. George Santos’ (R-NY) campaign briefly reported making 1,200 small payments that totalled $254,000 to “anonymous” but then amended its filing to remove them, the Washington Post reports.

“Rep. George Santos’ congressional campaign reported dozens of transactions just cents below the threshold that would have triggered a requirement to preserve spending records — an unusual spending pattern that is now part of broader complaints about alleged financial improprieties,” Politico reports.

“Santos, who admitted in December that he faked parts of his biography, already faces a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission alleging his campaign repeatedly reported suspicious expenses. Those included eight charges of exactly $199.99 at an Italian restaurant in Queens and another $199.99 charge at a Miami-area hotel where rooms do not usually go for less than $600 per night. The specific amount matters because campaigns are required by law to keep receipts or invoices for expenses greater than $200.”

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) “filed a flurry of amended campaign finance reports, telling the feds, among other things, that a $500,000 loan he gave to his campaign didn’t, in fact, come from his personal funds as he’d previously claimed,” the Daily Beast reports.

“However, while the new amended filing told us where the funds did not come from, it also raised a new question—where did the money come from?”

Michigan state senators raised, on average, only 11% of their campaign funds in that period from the districts in which they ran, MLive reports.

Nearly half of elected legislators in both the House and Senate won election after raising no more than 10% of their money from the constituents they sought to represent.

PACs represented a majority of the fundraising for 33 campaigns of the 38 elected senators, and for 66 representatives in the 110-member House.

“A dark money group tied to conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo was dissolved three days after Politico inquired about whether it helped to facilitate the multi-million-dollar sale of former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway’s polling company,” Politico reports.

Politico: “Doubling down on mass emails and texts is still a way to raise significant cash, and federal candidates and committees raised a combined $3.3 billion on ActBlue and WinRed, the parties’ primary online fundraising platforms, during the 2022 cycle.”

“But people who work in the field are growing concerned that fundraising appeals are crowding out newsletters, volunteer efforts and other forms of communication amid the insatiable and never-ending hunt for cash.”

“When Justice Department prosecutors unsealed an indictment against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday morning, they revealed an array of serious charges against the crypto boy-king for billions of dollars in high-profile financial crimes, but the very last count opens a new mystery—an enigmatic straw donor scheme to violate federal campaign finance laws,” the Daily Beast reports.

Said U.S. Attorney Damian William: “All of this dirty money was used in service of Bankman-Fried’s desire to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington.”

“A member of George Santos’ political team had a plan to raise money for the Republican congressman’s campaign: Impersonate the chief of staff of now House Speaker Kevin McCarthy,” CNBC reports.

“Wealthy donors received calls and emails from a man who said he was Dan Meyer, McCarthy’s chief of staff, during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles… His name was actually Sam Miele, and he worked for Santos raising money for his campaign.”

“The impersonation of the top House Republican’s chief of staff adds to an emerging picture of a winning congressional campaign propelled by fabrications and questionable tactics. Santos now finds himself in the sights of investigators and in danger of losing his political career even after he’s been sworn into office. In raising money for his campaign, Santos fed donors the same falsehoods he gave voters.”

“The Federal Election Commission has flagged issues with contributions made to embattled Rep.-elect George Santos’ campaign,” CNN reports.

“The commission has requested clarification and more information on certain donors and about apparent excessive contributions to Santos’ winning 2022 campaign for his Long Island seat.”

Theodore Schleifer: “Among the many lingering mysteries of the Bankman-Fried saga is how exactly these effective altruist, S.B.F.-employed operatives were spending so much money on Democratic politics in the first place. Sure, operatives can stack their income with consulting work, but enough to donate $100,000-plus in one campaign cycle? That is indeed peculiar.”

“But, as several friends of the people in question have noted, effective altruists are, well, peculiar. They donate more money to charity than average people, and they donate more money to aligned politicians too. Like lobbyists, they are also professionally in the business of cultivating relationships. So if an effective-altruist operative was making $400,000 a year in salary as a strategist (for S.B.F. and other clients), could they set aside, say, 25 percent of that money for political donations?”

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone notes Democrats are scouring their books for donations linked to Bankman-Fried.

“Federal prosecutors accused FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who made nearly $40 million in political contributions in the 2022 election cycle, with violating multiple campaign finance laws,” CNBC reports.

“The indictment says Bankman-Fried and others violated numerous federal campaign finance laws, including giving contributions ‘in the names of other persons.'”

Bloomberg: “While there’s precedent for forcing political entities to return contributions in cases of fraud, recovery prospects are unclear in FTX’s case.”

“Recouping campaign funds as part of the bankruptcy proceedings is a complicated and lengthy process, and the scope of the total funds eligible for clawback depends on myriad federal and state laws.”