Nancy Marks, former Rep. George Santos' campaign treasurer, sentenced to 3 years probation

Nancy Marks, the former campaign treasurer for ex-Long Island Rep. George Santos, was sentenced Wednesday to 3 years probation for her role in conspiring with Santos to file fraudulent campaign finance reports — a stunning blow for federal prosecutors who had wanted her to go to prison.

Marks, 59, a Shirley resident who was a mainstay in local Republican political campaigns for decades before she worked for Santos, was also ordered to pay $178,402.97 in restitution.

Marks held her hands over her mouth and appeared to sob when U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert handed down the sentence. Prosecutor Anthony Bagnuola and his team had sought for Marks to serve 18 months in prison, with him saying that Marks' conduct has "made a mockery of our political system" just before Seybert imposed the sentence.

Marks, reading from a written statement before her sentence was announced, referred to herself as "an abused spouse" in her relationship with Santos, who she said manipulated her as her husband died from brain cancer. "I honestly thought I had found a friend in George Santos," said Marks. "But I came to realize, everything about him was lies."

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the sentence.

Marks pleaded guilty in 2023 to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the United States in connection with her work on the embattled congressman's campaign, admitting that she filed reports with both the Federal Election Commission and the Republican National Committee that included the names of false donors, including her own mother, to artificially inflate the amount of funds the campaign raised on paper so it would qualify for federal matching funds.

Seybert said she had considered sentencing Marks to a year and a day in prison but considered the fact that Marks has no criminal record, appears unlikely to reoffend and had quickly taken responsibility for her conduct by pleading guilty.

"You need to come to grips with this case and that is that you committed crimes," Seybert told Marks, adding that if she finds herself in a similar situation again: "Get over it. Go to therapy."

The judge added: "I do this with a great deal of hesitation. The government's arguments were solid."

In court Wednesday, Bagnuola sought to dismiss any notion that Marks was a victim of Santos and said her vast political experience served as a "force multiplier" in the schemes of a "petty thief" like Santos.

"She is not a victim," he said. "She's a coconspirator."

Bagnuola pointed to Marks' long career in politics before Santos and said she was essential to committing the fraud because her experience provided "a patina of credibility."

Bagnuola also rejected claims by Marks' counsel that her criminal conduct with Santos was "an aberration," telling the judge that in addition to reporting two fake donations for $2,900 each in her mother's name on Santos' campaign finance reports, she also listed the same amount of donations from her mother on another candidate's report two years earlier. Additionally, Bagnuola said, she listed 21 fraudulent expenses in the amount of $199.99 on Santos' reports, just below the $200 amount that requires a receipt.

"She was not the young impressionable staffer who got swept up in Santos' aura," Bagnuola said.

Marks' attorney, Ray Perini, however, argued that his client was "vulnerable and weak" and Santos took advantage.

"Santos saw a woman who was very vulnerable," Perini said.

Marks entered the $199.99 costs into the report as a shortcut because she was overworked and overwhelmed, Perini said.

"She had thousands of receipts so she lumped them into $199.99's," Perini said, adding that she should have never taken on congressional campaign accounts.

The sentencing of Marks, who resigned as Santos' campaign treasurer in January 2023, closes the chapter on the legal saga of Santos and his criminal conspirators.

Santos is scheduled to report to prison on July 25 after Seybert sentenced him to more than 7 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft charges, admitting to filing the fraudulent reports with the Federal Election Commission, embezzling funds from his campaign donors, fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits from New York State and lying on his congressional disclosure forms.

 While Santos’ attorney has said he would seek a pardon for his client, now a podcaster, from President Donald Trump, Santos has in recent days said on social media that he has decided not to pursue a pardon.

Santos' lead attorney Joe Murray attended Marks' sentencing and said audibly to himself "wow" when Marks, who had also worked on Murray's earlier failed campaign for Queens district attorney, described herself as abused by Santos.

Afterward, he said that was false — they were friends — but he agreed with the judge's sentence.

"That's the sentence she should have given to George and all first-time nonviolent offenders," Murray said. 

Ex-Santos fundraiser Samuel Miele was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted that he had impersonated a top aide to a high-ranking congressional leader — identified as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — while soliciting a financial contribution to the Santos campaign from a donor in August 2021.

Marks worked on more than 150 Republican campaigns on Long Island.

Marks and Santos filed false reports in 2020 and 2022, reporting that Santos lent his campaign $500,000 in 2022 knowing he didn't have the money to do so, prosecutors have said.

 Her firm, Campaigns Unlimited, which has the same Flintlock Drive address as her home, collected $1.29 million for work on Republican campaigns from 2008 to 2022 from state and local campaigns and $1 million from congressional campaigns since 2009, Newsday has reported.

In court Wednesday, her lawyer said Marks has left politics and works at a warehouse at night making $22 an hour. During the day, she takes care of her aging mother and engages in online college studies paid for by the warehouse, which will allow her to become a manager, Perini said.

Marks' political career dates back to 1992, when she was an unpaid volunteer for then-Suffolk County clerk, now Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine's failed congressional run in 1992.

In 2008, she started her own firm Campaigns Unlimited. Two years later, she worked on Lee Zeldin's in state senate campaign.

At the end of the 2022 election cycle, Campaigns Unlimited had worked for more than 40 candidates and political committees and took in $321,030, Newsday has reported. 

Perini said the judge did the "fair thing" in sentencing his client to probation.

"She's giving Nancy another shot at life," he said.

Marks left the courthouse with her adult children and declined to comment.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.