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Friday, December 30, 2022
Vol. 10, No. 52
HEALTH AND WELLNESS GUIDE
RESTORING CANNON BESIDE CLOCK TOWER
COUNTY, PBA REACH AGREEMENT
PAGES 19-22
PAGE 2
PAGE 8
Dems, GOPers blast serial liar Santos Call for probes of congressman-elect BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z
PHOTO BY BRANDON DUFFY
Congressman-elect George Santos announcing victory in November.
Republican Congressman-elect George Santos has received criticism from officials on both sides of the aisle, including Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, for lying about his personal and professional background along with a challenge from the Democrat he beat in the race for Congress in November. Blakeman and newly-elected U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Bay Shore) called for the House Ethics Committee to launch an investigation into Santos’ past riddled with discrepancies as outlined by the New York Times last week. Blakeman told Newsday that
the congressman-elect’s record has now come into question. “I think that he’s entitled to a hearing with the [House] Ethics Committee, and that they should do a thorough investigation to see if he violated any laws or any ethics rules,” Blakeman told Newsday. “I think that we have to let the process unfold, which I think will happen fairly swiftly.” “New Yorkers deserve the truth and House Republicans deserve an opportunity to govern without this distraction,” LaLota, who will represent the state’s 1st Congressional District, told Newsday. Continued on Page 38
Pironi, Lafazan clash on FTX funds claim BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y Nassau County Legislator Josh Lafazan (D-Woodbury) said in a statement to Blank Slate Media that his campaign never received contributions from a PAC funded by Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, who is charged with wire fraud and money laundering in the cryptocurrency exchange’s multibillion-dollar collapse.
Bankman-Fried, 30, is a former billionaire who was detained in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States after federal prosecutors filed charges following FTX’s implosion in November that revealed an $8 billion hole in its accounts. Paolo Pironi, a Republican who in 2021 ran against Lafazan for the county’s 18th Legislative District and lost by 220 votes, called on Lafazan to return funds he received from Bank-
man-Fried. “I call on Josh Lafazan to return the more than half-million dollars in stolen funds he received from Sam Bankman-Fried during his failed congressional campaign,” Pironi said. “To secure these contributions, Lafazan abused his position in the county Legislature to curry favor by encouraging donors to invest in this ponzi-scheme,” Pironi said in a Facebook post. FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange
Bankman-Fried founded, was established in 2019 and is currently bankrupt after becoming the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume at one point. “From creating a taxpayer funded “cryptocurrency” task force, to writing op-eds, and lobbying elected officials, Lafazan focused on delivering for himself — not his constituents, Prioni said. “It’s time this fraud is held accountable for his actions.”
Lafazan said the funds in question were independent expenditures that did not go to his campaign. “By its nature as an independent expenditure regulated by federal law, my campaign never received a dollar from this entity,” Lafazan said in a statement to Blank Slate Media. “Because of that, no campaign contributions exist to be returned. Any implication to the contrary is ignorant at Continued on Page 39
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