Tom Suozzi financial disclosure: Nearly $700,000 in income in 2023

Former Rep. Tom Suozzi, the Democratic candidate in the 3rd Congressional District special election, earned nearly $700,000 in salary and consulting fees in the private sector in 2023, according to his new House financial disclosure form.

Suozzi, who faces Republican candidate Mazi Melesa Pilip in the Feb. 13 special election to replace expelled GOP Rep. George Santos, filed his 2023 disclosure with the House clerk’s office late Friday, his campaign said. The report was not available online as of Saturday afternoon, but the campaign provided Newsday with a copy.

The bulk of Suozzi’s compensation — $535,000 — came from consulting fees listed under “Suozzi Consulting.” He disclosed clients such as the New York Community Bank, local engineering and development companies such as the LiRo Group of Syosset and Woodbury based E & A Construction and Manhattan-based Actum LLC, where he served as a co-director.

Suozzi also reported $35,000 in salary from Hercules Pharmaceuticals, a Port Washington-based wholesaler, and $82,500 in board fees from Global Industrial Corp., a New York-based supplier of industrial maintenance, repair and operations supplies. The company announced last year Suozzi would be an “independent member” of its board of directors.

As with disclosures Suozzi filed annually as a member of the House, from 2017 to 2022, the new form listed a large portfolio of assets and investments, with an approximate total value of between $4 million and $6 million. House financial disclosures only require that assets and liabilities be reported in broad ranges. Suozzi listed no liabilities.

Suozzi’s filing comes two days after Pilip filed her House disclosure. Pilip, a Nassau County legislator from Great Neck and a registered Democrat, reported $80,000 in legislative salary and $50,000 from husband Adalbert Pilip’s Smithtown medical practice, New York Comprehensive Medical Care, where she worked as operations director.

Pilip and her husband also reported assets of as much as $150,000 in bitcoin investments. They valued the medical practice at between $1 million and $5 million, reporting the business yielded between $100,001 and $1 million in unearned income in each of the last two years.

The couple also disclosed a federal income tax liability of between $100,001 and $250,000 as of last April. The Pilip campaign told Newsday that debt had been paid.

Suozzi's disclosure shows the former Nassau County executive and Glen Cove mayor earned significantly more in private sector income in 2023 than in the year before he first went to Congress. On his 2016 disclosure, Suozzi reported about $578,000 in salary, commissions and consulting fees, associated primarily with his of counsel role at the Harris Beach law firm in Uniondale, whose partners include prominent Nassau County Democrats such as Thomas Garry, vice chairman of the Nassau Democratic Committee.

The value of Suozzi's assets and investments has remained largely the same since his years as a congressman representing the 3rd District. They include a minority ownership interest in summer camp companies and properties owned by Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, who nominated Suozzi to run in the special election, and Suozzi's Ruvo Realty LLC, which owns office space in Glen Cove.

Suozzi's congressional campaign paid rent to Suozzi, via Ruvo, in 2020 and 2021, records show. The campaign has said it received a legal opinion on the transaction from an ethics attorney who handles compliance issues, and that it was “fully disclosed and fully compliant.”

Suozzi worked for Hercules Pharmaceuticals after the company's owner, Timothy Ward, had made more than $21,000 in contributions to Suozzi's congressional campaigns between 2016 and 2021, Federal Election Commission records show.

The Suozzi campaign declined to comment Saturday about the new disclosure.

By Paul LaRocco

paul.larocco@newsday.com@paullarocco

Paul LaRocco is a reporter on the investigations desk. Since starting at Newsday in late 2010, he has also covered Nassau and Suffolk county politics and government and the Town of Oyster Bay.