George Santos tied to cousin of Russian oligarch: report

August 2024 · 4 minute read

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A cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch has deep ties to disgraced Long Island Rep. George Santos, whose murky campaign financing is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee and federal prosecutors.

Andrew Intrater, 60, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company linked to the sketchy Republican congressman while also heavily contributing to Santos’ campaigns for office, according to a new report.

Intrater and his wife each made a maximum contribution of $5,800 to Santos’ 2022 House campaign, the Washington Post reported Monday. The couple also gave tens of thousands of additional dollars to committees linked to the Republican — who admitted to The Post that he fabricated his personal and professional biography — since 2020, according to the outlet.

Intrater is an American citizen and the cousin of Russian billionaire energy investor Viktor Vekselberg, who was sanctioned by the US in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Over the summer, authorities raided Vekselberg’s homes in Manhattan and the Hamptons, seized a $90 million yacht and froze his assets.

A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly showed that Intrater put hundreds of thousands of dollars into Harbor City Capital, the Florida-based investment firm where Santos worked for more than a year — and which is under investigation for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme.

A new report found that investor Andrew Intrater has deep financial ties to New York Rep. George Santos, who is under investigation for campaign finance violations. USC Shoah Foundation
Intrater is the cousin of Russian billionaire and businessman Viktor Vekselberg, who has been sanctioned by the US amid the war in Ukraine. Getty Images

Intrater’s investment firm Columbus Nova is closely tied to Vekselberg, whose conglomerate was the business’ largest client as recently as 2018, when he was sanctioned by the Treasury Department, according to the Washington Post.

Intrater’s 2016 and 2017 contacts with former Donald Trump lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen were investigated during Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged links between the former president’s campaign and the Kremlin, but the special counsel did not accuse Intrater of impropriety.

Intrater and Cohen — who pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion and campaign finance law violations — exchanged hundreds of texts and calls, and the financier’s company paid Cohen to flag business deals, records examined by the outlet showed.

Santos, 34, also said Columbus Nova was a “client” of his during a Harbor City Zoom call in 2020, when the aspiring politician was tasked with finding New York investors, the outlet reported.

Santos alluded to Columbus Nova while discussing investors in the mega-tall residential skyscraper at 432 Park Ave.

Santos has resisted calls to resign as allegations and investigations continue to swirl around the newly minted lawmaker. Getty Images

“You might know who they are,” Santos reportedly told his colleagues on the Zoom call. “They’ve made the news on several occasions. They were heavily involved with the Russia probe. Unjustified.”

“But they’re a real estate company,” he added. “They’re legitimate.”

It is unclear if Intrater or his company ever actually invested in the Billionaires’ Row project. However, Harbor City did receive an undated $625,000 deposit from a Mississippi company that identified Intrater as its lone officer, an SEC complaint against the company reportedly showed.

The SEC inquiry, which accuses Santos’ old company of running a “classic Ponzi scheme,” did not name the freshman congressman, fraud allegations against whom are being probed by prosecutors in New York, Washington and Brazil.

However, Santos had been warned by a potential investor that his former firm was doctoring bank documents, according to the newspaper.

The Republican admitted he had fabricated almost every aspect of his resume, from his work experience to his high school.

The lawmaker has remained defiant amid a chorus of calls for his resignation. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said Sunday that his fellow Republican would be expelled from Congress if found guilty of violating campaign finance regulations.

“I don’t approve of how he made his way to Congress. And I haven’t even introduced myself to him, because it’s pretty despicable, the lies that he told,” Comer told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But, at the end of the day, it’s not up to me or any other member of Congress to determine whether he could be kicked out for lying.”

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