On Sept. 27, 2023, a user on X (formerly Twitter) made the claim that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., better known as AOC, had become a multi-millionaire after serving in Congress for just over four years.
"I'm more interested in how she became a multimillionaire in 4 years," the user posted (archived).
This post received thousands of likes and appeared as a response under a discussion in which X owner Elon Musk had earlier said (archived) of Ocasio-Cortez, "She's just not that smart."
Many other users repeated the same rumor about her finances in subsequent tweets, not to mention the fact that we've also received reader mail about this subject in the past.
For example, one user replied (archived), "@AOC has become a multi-millionaire since coming to Congress. Can't be too dumb, @elonmusk."
Another person posted (archived) about the congresswoman, "You have done zero good since elected and somehow on a modest politician salary you have become a multi millionaire in 4 years."
Other posts claimed Ocasio-Cortez had around $24 million (archived) or perhaps $29 million (archived) in the bank.
These examples were just a sampling of the numerous other posts (archived) making the same central claim that said Ocasio-Cortez had become a multi-millionaire in just over four years.
However, according to Ocasio-Cortez's own financial disclosures that were posted to the U.S. House website, this rumor was false.
As Reuters previously reported in August 2022, Ocasio-Cortez's financial disclosures showed that she was far from being a millionaire, much less a multi-millionaire. (Her campaign website ocasiocortez.com also mentioned this same article.)
We reviewed Ocasio-Cortez's financial disclosures from 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. (These disclosures on the U.S. House website displayed some data in ranges rather than exact dollar figures.)
According to the most recent disclosure from 2023, Ocasio-Cortez had documented that she had no more than between $1,001 and $15,000 in each of three different bank accounts. The total for these three accounts would land somewhere between $3,003 and $45,000.
She also recorded in the disclosure having between $1,001 and $15,000 in additional funds in a fourth account for a 401k plan.
Further, she noted in the disclosure that she was still paying off student loans, with an "amount of liability" landing somewhere between $15,001 and $50,000.
In other words, Ocasio-Cortez was at least $940,000 short of being a millionaire, with the maximum possible amount of the four accounts totaling $60,000, and that's before even factoring in her student loan debt.
By email, we presented the Reuters article and the financial disclosures to Ocasio-Cortez's press office and asked if they had any further comment or resources. "Nothing to add," they replied.
We previously reported on a similar false rumor that claimed Ocasio-Cortez owned one of the world's most expensive houses.