EXCLUSIVE: GOP Candidate Pays Back Mystery $200,000 Loan, Admits He Had No Idea His Finance Reports Were Wrong
Weird look to pay yourself $200,000 in the final days of your own campaign
New York’s primaries are fast-approaching, and one failed candidate is making serious updates to his financial disclosures after we first reported on a mystery $459,395.83 that he donated to himself despite saying in an interview that he lacks such disposable income.
Republican Mario Fratto, who was convincingly defeated by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) in a primary last cycle, is back for round two this year. But he seems to have failed to have learned any lessons from his first campaign about the importance of proper book-keeping. Most notably, he reimbursed a $200,000 loan, despite previously saying in an interview “I don’t have $300,000, period” to loan to his campaign.
According to Fratto’s pre-primary report, he raised less than $2,000 in recent weeks, despite previously pulling in donations from people like notorious “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli. But he did reimburse himself $200,000 in a “loan repayment,” which is curious to do when campaigns should be spending as much money as possible in the home stretch on winning elections. He additionally shelled out $50,000 to a consulting company that appears to be based in Wisconsin.
According to the report, filed last week, Fratto’s campaign committee is drowning in debt, with only $219,795.36 cash on hand compared to an additional $300,000 in debts and obligations.
In the final days of the race, the Buffalo News finally covered “Fratto’s faulty filings,” finding that he is still making rookie mistakes. Most of what the site reports on was previously reported in our earlier coverage:
Federal candidates are required by law to file personal financial disclosure statements with the House clerk’s office, but Fratto’s 2022 financial disclosure never got filed.
Asked for an explanation, Fratto said: “So we filed one and paid a late fee, like a $200 fee, and they did cash the check. But I have no idea, like, what happened there. I thought that we mailed that one in and, apparently, they don’t have it.”
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In November, he filed a financial disclosure for 2023 that showed his only earned income to be $23,877 from his family business, Geneva Granite Co. Fratto’s campaign website indicates that after practicing law for five years, “he took over the day-to-day operations of his family business, Geneva Granite.”
Yes, that is a low salary for someone running a company – and Fratto later acknowledged an error in that filing, fixing it in an amended disclosure last month that boosted his 2023 income to $38,127.
“I grossed more than that (original figure) because I put like $14,000 or $15,000 deferred into my retirement, so it was not taxed,” Fratto said, adding that he filed the amended disclosure adding in that income because “I think that’s supposed to be on there.”
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His latest financial disclosure statement shows assets worth as much as $1.036 million. But Fratto’s debts – which included credit card debt dating to 2014, student loans and two recent loans he took out to fund his campaign – total upward of $1.05 million.
And that doesn’t include two liens that the Tenney campaign highlighted. In January, the City of Geneva listed a lien on the Fratto family home, which is owned by his wife, Mariah Maher, because of an unpaid $311.03 water bill.
“We were late on the water bill payment and we just paid it the next month,” Fratto said prior to texting a reporter a receipt to prove the bill had been paid.
Then there is the lien New York State placed on Fratto Entertainment Inc., a company Fratto briefly operated, for $1,550 in unpaid corporate taxes from 2016. State tax records show that bill remains unpaid, meaning Fratto Entertainment now owes New York $3,114.18 in taxes and penalties.
Fratto Entertainment never had any income and has since been dissolved, but Fratto said he believes the tax bill comes from a corporate filing fee that was never paid.
Asked why he hadn’t paid it, Fratto said: “I honestly only became aware of it from her (Tenney) – and we will.”
Not a good look for the closing days of this race.