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The Republican candidate in the special House election to replace New York’s George Santos submitted sworn financial statements to Congress this week, offering a faint glimpse into his personal finances that raised questions and led to amendments to the filing. Ta.
Little-known candidate Maji Pilip has reported assets of between $1 million and $5.2 million, mostly comprised of her husband’s medical practice and investments in Bitcoin. In an unusual disclosure, she said the couple borrowed $250,000 from the IRS last year, which they later paid back.
But Ms. Pilip’s initial financial report, which she submitted to the House Ethics Committee on Wednesday, includes information on whether the assets were owned solely or jointly by herself or her husband, Dr. Adalbert Pilip. , it appears that other important essential information was missing.
And Pilip reported that she received a $50,000 salary from her medical practice in 2022 and 2023, despite previously saying she quit her job there in 2021 when she ran for Nassau County Legislature. did.
The discrepancies appear to fall short of Mr. Santos’ widespread misrepresentations, and federal prosecutors charged him with falsifying Congressional records before he was ousted. However, following inquiries from the New York Times, Pilip significantly revised his statement on Friday.
The updated documents reveal for the first time that she receives a parliamentary pension. She disclosed that her husband is the sole owner of New York General Medical Care, a medical practice. And she disclosed previously unreported investments and debts, including at least $50,000 in medical school loans to Dr. Pilip.
Pillip also revised her income, reporting that she earned much less from her medical practice, from $13,472 in 2022 to zero in 2023 (she earned $80,000 as a local councillor). (earned $).
Her campaign downplayed the initial omission as an innocent mistake by a team working on a compressed schedule ahead of next month’s special election.
Brian Devine, a spokesman for her campaign, said Saturday that the initial report was a “preliminary draft that was submitted in error prior to final review by Mazi’s finance team.”
Ethics experts said the change requires further study. All House candidates must annually file a disclosure form and certify, at risk of prosecution, that the information is “true, complete, and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.”
“The canary in the mine could be discrepancies in financial disclosure reports,” said Kedrick Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center.
Mr. Pillip’s Democratic opponent, Tom Suozzi, said Friday that his own reports show he earned more than $600,000 in 2023 as a consultant and director of Global Industrial Corporation, a Long Island-based industrial supply company. submitted a document.
Mr. Suozzi also earned $35,000 from Hercules Pharmaceuticals, a drug wholesaler based on Long Island.
He disclosed assets worth between $4.2 million and $6.3 million, many of which were related to real estate investments. Mr. Suozzi also owns an interest in a summer camp owned by New York Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs, which pays dividends worth between $100,000 and $1 million. (The House disclosure form requires filers to disclose assets to a certain extent, making it difficult to determine their exact value.)
Unlike Suozzi, a former congressman and county executive, Pilip is relatively unknown in the battleground districts of Queens and Nassau counties. She was born in Ethiopia and was a refugee in Israel, but she immigrated to the United States, where she won a seat on the Nassau County Council in 2021.
Most of Pilip’s assets are believed to be devoted to her husband’s medical business, with the couple receiving dividends of between $100,000 and $1 million last year. Before entering politics, she worked as an operations manager at a major medical clinic, she said.
In copies of his 2022 and 2023 financial disclosure forms filed with the Nassau County Ethics Commission and obtained by the Times, Pillip provided some information that is inconsistent with federal disclosures.
Pilip reported working at her husband’s clinic both years, and explained that her role was primarily marketing in 2022 and administration in 2023. Her salary information has been redacted.
Nassau’s forms show several investments that Ms Pillip did not disclose in her parliamentary filings. An entity named Medsched. And Pilip Medical Treatment, a “medical facility.”
Devine said these companies were not included in the Congressional report because they “haven’t grown and aren’t valuable yet.”
Pilip reported the debt owed to the IRS on both 2022 and 2023 local financial forms. Amounts have been redacted. In House filings, the couple reported debts ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 in 2023.
House candidates are not required to report tax liability. Devine said the couple paid what they owed to the IRS, but she voluntarily filed the report for “full transparency.”
“They have a quarterly estimated tax schedule,” he said, explaining the debt. “Their income was higher than expected, so they needed to make additional payments, and they are paying them.”
Public records do not say whether Pilip or her husband’s tax liens fall under that liability.
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