Report: Tom Suozzi Gave Himself $37,000 for ‘Office Rent’ from His Congressional Committee

Far-left Long Island Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi (NY) gave himself tens of thousands of dollars for “office rent” from his own Congressional campaign committee since last year, a report shows.

Suozzi’s Federal Election Commission (FEC) report shows he used $37,860 from his Congressional campaign committee to pay himself for “office rent” since 2020, according to a report by the New York Post.

On January 2 of last year, the report showed that Suozzi “dropped $19,500 on “office rent” to a company called Ruvo Realty LLC, in addition to this past January 19, when Suozzi dropped another $18,360 rent payment, according to the Post. This equals “$1,625 a month in 2020 and $1,530 in 2021,” the report showed.

The New Yorker’s 2019 financial disclosure report exposed the Congressman was, in fact, the sole owner of Ruvo Realty. The report showed he had valued Ruvo Realty between $100,000 and $250,000, the report revealed, adding Ruvo Realty started renting in January of last year.

The sole asset that belongs to Ruvo Realty is one single unit, and the report revealed it to be “in the 3 School St. Professional Condo office building in Glen Cove.”

The Post also uncovered the company Suozzi has set up only has one asset listed, which was a single unit in the 3 School St. Professional Condo office building in Glen Cove. A spokeswoman for Suozzi told the Post, “the company was expressly set up for the purpose of housing a Suozzi campaign office there, where staffers regularly work.”

On Thursday, the Post reportedly stopped by the office and saw:

…a sign on the door for unit 305 gives no indication of its affiliation with the Congressman beyond a small white placard bearing the letters TRS — Thomas Richard Suozzi’s initials … lights were off and there was no answer from inside.

The Post figured out the company received the name from a small Italian town called Ruvo del Monte, where Suozzi’s father was allegedly born.

The congressman’s campaign was reportedly able to provide all of the right documents showing the payments were made with the fair market price. However, political observers told the Post the arrangement was “unseemly.”

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, told the Post, “It’s absolutely not good. You shouldn’t use running for office or serving in office to enrich yourself in any form. Trump was a master of this.” Sabato later added, “lots of things are legal that aren’t right.”

In addition, a former chairwoman of the FEC, Ann Ravel, said, “If you actually have set up a campaign group or headquarters or something where it’s really closely related to the campaign, it’s not [illegal].” Ravel told the Post she still found it to be “terribly unseemly.”

A political adviser for Suozzi, Kim Devlin, tried to defend the Congressman by telling the Post, “this is much ado about nothing. This is a straightforward transaction pre-approved by ethics attorneys and fully disclosed. The campaign office lease is below fair market value and fully compliant.”

The Post noted Suozzi will face reelection in 2022 with the rest of the House of Representatives, adding the Suozzi campaign committee still remains active.