George Santos scored donations from Russian oligarch’s cousin

Controversial Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., reportedly scored big bucks donations from a New York real estate kingpin who is a cousin of a Russian oligarch and was once accused of being a go-between in the Stormy Daniels hush money deal.

Santos, who admits lying about much of his life story, won $5,800 donations from Andrew Intrater and his wife, along with tens of thousands in donations to political action committees that backed his upset victory in a Long Island congressional district, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Intrater, 60, is a cousin and close business associate of Russian oil billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, a crony of strongman Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Intrater, an American citizen, also had major business ties to Michael Cohen, the onetime fixer for former President Donald Trump who did federal prison time for his role in paying porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump.

Intrater was accused of funneling $500,000 to Cohen as a way of reimbursing him for the hush money payments. His financial firm, Nova Columbus, made several payments in 2017 to the same bank account that Cohen used to pay Daniels on Trump’s behalf.

Intrater’s spigot of big money assistance may help explain the meteoric rise of Santos, who was making just $55,000 a year as a call center worker as recently as 2020.

Santos, a Brazilian immigrant who framed himself as a trailblazing gay conservative, won a huge upset by winning a Democratic-leaning district on the North Shore.

He claimed Jewish heritage, and falsely said his maternal grandparents fled the Holocaust.

The newly minted lawmaker shocked the nation by admitting he made myriad false claims about supposedly working for big-time investment banks and graduating from New York University.