Whenever we think we’ve heard everything about George Santos’s dishonesty, something new and unexpectedly bizarre pops up.

Few of us have ever spent $199.99 at a restaurant. George Santos has spent that exact amount at Il Bacco in Queens on multiple occasions.

Santos’ loyalty to the restaurant is well documented. He’s posted about it fawningly on his Instagram page over the years. He appointed Joe Oppedisano, the owner of Il Bacco, as well as Oppedisano’s daughter Tina, the restaurant manager, plus Tina’s fiancé, to his “Small Businesses for Santos Coalition.” He made Tina its chair.

And he’s eaten there a lot. Or at least, that’s what his campaign finance records show.

According to documents filed to the Federal Election Committee, Santos has spent $25,640.26 in campaign money at Il Bacco since he first ran for the Long Island/Queens congressional seat in 2020, a number made even more astonishing by the fact that the coronavirus hobbled indoor dining for most of 2020 in New York City, and the restaurant was shut down for part of 2021. Santos’ campaign also reported owing Il Bacco $18,773.54 for its election night party in November this year. A political action committee called Rise NY, run by Santos’ sister, Tiffany, spent another $4,722 there, according to the New York Times.

Okay, so he likes Il Bacco – never mind that he still owes them over $18,000. But the source of this money obviously wasn’t from the non-existent job he had on Wall Street.

Santos made numerous purchases other than at Il Bacco which were also just 1¢ short of $200.

Santos, it should be said, is really good at spending just $199.99 almost everywhere he goes—his financial disclosure forms show him spending that exact amount at a Hyatt Orlando (in July 2021), on Delta Airlines and at BJ’s Wholesale (August 2021), at Target and on “Uber” (October 2021), and at many other establishments or services including W Hotel South Beach, JFK Parking, Best Buy, Walgreens, and the TSA line-skipping company Clear.

Yes, there’s a clear reason for this.

This is a really specific skill! So specific that the nonprofit watchdog group Campaign Legal Center has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Committee that zeroes in on the $199.99 spends in particular, stating that “there is reason to believe Santos’s campaign deliberately falsified its disbursement reporting, among numerous other reporting violations.”

“The sheer number of these just-under-$200 disbursements is implausible,” the complaint states. “And some payments appear to be impossible given the nature of the item or service covered.”

There’s no end to the Santos controversy. Here are just three articles published on Friday.

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Meet the Holocaust artist who fundraised for George Santos — and regrets it