From the article:

Of all of the revelations to emerge from the federal prosecution of Representative George Santos’s treasurer, the most outrageous is the existence of a $500,000 loan that did not in fact exist.

The fictional loan goes to the heart of one of the most vexing questions surrounding Mr. Santos since he was elected to Congress last year: How did a man of seemingly modest means suddenly accrue enough money to lend his campaign a half-million dollars?

The answer, it turns out, is simple: He did not. And that fact could have serious ramifications for his case.

In May, Mr. Santos, a New York Republican, was charged with 13 felonies in three unrelated financial schemes, to which he has pleaded not guilty. On Thursday, his campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy related to her oversight of Mr. Santos’s finances.

It is clear that prosecutors see a link between Ms. Marks’s criminal activity and Mr. Santos. The same team of U.S. attorneys handled their cases; the proceedings share the same court docket number and were overseen by the same judge, Joanna Seybert.

Mr. Santos has not been charged with falsifying the loan or with other campaign finance violations, and Ms. Marks’s lawyer has said that she is not cooperating with prosecutors. But Mr. Santos’s proximity to the criminal activity admitted by Ms. Marks would seem to leave him vulnerable to additional charges.