GLEN COVE, NY (TIP): In the special election to replace George Santos, Conservative and Republican candidate Mazi Pilip is continuing to face questions and scrutiny around transparency regarding her personal finances.
Newsday, on January 24, built on recent reporting from The New York Times and revealed that Pilip disclosed substantial discrepancies between her federal and local financial disclosures, including investments around her husband’s multiple medical start-ups, as well as the salary she made from her husband’s medical practice.
Suozzi Senior Advisor Kim Devlin released the following statement in response:
“This raises serious questions about the lack of vetting the Republican Party bosses conduct in naming their candidates. First George Santos and now Mazi Pilip with the murky personal finances. No wonder Mazi Pilip is refusing to meet with voters. The more we learn about her the more questions it raises.”
“Pilip, in the county filing last May, detailed investments with her husband such as a co-op and medical startups. Her campaign said disclosure of the holdings was not required on the federal report Pilip submitted recently to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, disputing the opinion of an ethics watchdog.
On both the county and federal disclosures, Pilip also reported income earned from her husband Dr. Adalbert Pilip’s medical practice, New York Comprehensive Medical Care, despite her campaign having said she stopped working there in 2021.
Pilip initially had reported to the House clerk earnings of $50,000 in each of the last two years from the medical practice, where she said she worked as operations director. Pilip spokesman Brian Devine has said the House disclosure was a draft filed in error. In a revised version filed days later, Pilip reported no income from the practice in 2023 and $13,472 in 2022.
The federal disclosures said Pilip and her husband owed the Internal Revenue Service between $100,000 and $250,000 in income tax as of April 2023. The campaign has said the debt has been paid.
The May 2023 county disclosure also listed a debt to the IRS but didn’t specify an amount or date.
In the Nassau disclosure, Pilip said her husband was an owner or partner in three businesses besides his main medical companies listed on the federal forms. The ventures include Infuse Chi, described in a 2022 news release as “an all-natural electrolyte hydration” powder.
Devine said in a statement the businesses “have not taken off and have no value. As such, it is not appropriate for these entities to be reported in [the federal] disclosure.”
The county form also listed Mazi and Adalbert Pilip as owners of a co-op in addition to their home in Great Neck. Devine said Mazi Pilip’s in laws reside at the co-op, it yielded no rental income and that lawyers with knowledge of federal reporting guidelines advised the campaign that it was not subject to disclosure.
The property was listed on the county form under the investments category, and Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit watchdog in Washington, D.C., said “federal financial disclosure laws require disclosure of investment property even if it did not generate rental income.”
What is Pilip hiding?