Federal campaigns must have a treasurer in order to accept or spend money. So, it’s a big deal if Santos lied to the FEC and just made up the name of a treasurer. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has good reason to think that’s exactly what happened. The organization has asked the Department of Justice and the FBI to expand their criminal investigation into Santos to include “false representations to the FEC.”
As CREW's letter to the DOJ and FBI explains, four Santos campaign committees forged the name of Thomas Datwyler as the treasurer who signed filings to the FEC. But Datwyler later notified the FEC that he was not the treasurer and had not signed the filings.
A month later, each committee named “Andrew Olson” as their treasurer. But CREW told the DOJ and FBI there is reason to believe that person does not exist:
Mr. Olson is not and has not been identified as a treasurer to any political committee outside of those connected to Rep. Santos. No one asked about it appears to know Mr. Olson, including those knowledgeable of political committee treasurers and New York Republican politics. His listed address on the FEC forms is the former address of Rep. Santos’s sister. He also has not responded to any attempts to contact him through the means provided in the FEC filings.
It's not clear what new penalties or punishment Santos and/or his campaign could now face if Olson is a fictitious person. But if he doesn’t exist, “that would be very bad for Santos,” CREW tweeted.
