George Santos Lost His Job. Here Are the Lies, Charges and Questions Left.

 

 

 By Michael Gold, Grace Ashford, Nicholas Fandos and Ed Shanahan

Representative George Santos of New York was forcibly expelled from office by a two-thirds vote of Congress on Friday, making him the first person in more than a century to be expelled without a criminal conviction. The move came after a report from the House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that he had violated federal criminal laws. Mr. Santos, a Republican, is also facing 23 federal felony counts and is scheduled to go to trial in September.

Almost immediately after his election in November 2022, The New York Times began scrutinizing Mr. Santos’s background, discovering that he had misled, exaggerated to or lied to voters about much of his life, including his education; his career; his check fraud case in Brazil; his animal charity; being a landlord; the 2020 election results; and his ties to the Holocaust and Judaism, the Sept. 11 attacks and the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Mr. Santos has admitted to some lies but he pleaded not guilty to the federal criminal charges. He has also broadly denied criminal wrongdoing. But, even after the release of the House ethics report and two federal indictments, questions persist about his personal finances, his campaign fund-raising and spending, and his role at a company accused of running a Ponzi scheme, among other issues.

Charges Santos Is Facing

In May, federal prosecutors charged Mr. Santos on 13 felony counts largely tied to financial fraud. That indictment focused on three schemes identified by prosecutors; Mr. Santos pleaded not guilty. In October, prosecutors accused Mr. Santos of new criminal schemes related to his 2022 campaign; he pleaded not guilty again. He has also repeatedly denied any criminal activity, including after the House Ethics report’s release.

May

Fraudulent Political Contribution Solicitation Scheme

Prosecutors said that Mr. Santos and an unnamed consultant solicited tens of thousands in donations for a fake political fund called RedStone Strategies. According to the House Ethics report, Mr. Santos was able to pocket over $200,000 this way, which he spent on designer clothes, illicit websites and other personal expenses.

Charged With Wire Fraud

Prosecutors pointed to five different emails and text messages in total in which Mr. Santos or the consultant told donors that their money would be used to support his House campaign or to buy television ads.

Charged With Unlawful Monetary Transactions

Prosecutors have charged Mr. Santos with transferring $50,000 from two different contributors into two different personal bank accounts. He then moved money between those accounts.

May

Making False Statements to the House of Representatives

That indictment said that Mr. Santos knowingly gave false information on required financial disclosure forms he filed with the House of Representatives. House Ethics investigators came to a similar conclusion.

Charged With Making False Statements

In May 2020, Mr. Santos reported $55,000 from one company as his sole income. Prosecutors said he overstated that number and failed to disclose his salary from another job he held at the time.

Charged With Making False Statements

Prosecutors said that in September 2022, Mr. Santos falsely claimed a salary of $750,000 and millions of dollars in dividends from his personal company. They also said that he lied about the amounts in his checking and savings accounts and did not disclose the unemployment benefits that they say he fraudulently obtained.

 

October

Credit Card Fraud Scheme

In this indictment, prosecutors said that Mr. Santos had charged donors’ credit cards “repeatedly, without their authorization,” distributing the money to his and other candidates’ campaigns and to his own bank account.

Charged With Access Device Fraud

This indictment said that Mr. Santos fraudulently made transactions between December 2021 and August 2022 of $1,000 or more.

Charged With Aggravated Identity Theft

Mr. Santos, prosecutors said, stole the identities of his donors, a serious charge that carries a minimum sentence of two years.

May

Unemployment Insurance Fraud Scheme

Prosecutors accused Mr. Santos of illegally applying for and receiving more than $24,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits between June 2020 and April 2021, while he was employed at a Florida-based investment firm and making $120,000 a year.

Charged With Theft of Public Funds

That indictment said that Mr. Santos fraudulently received unemployment benefits that were federally funded.

Charged With Wire Fraud

Prosecutors pointed to two payments in January 2021, for $564 each, that passed through “interstate wires” and “computer servers located outside New York” on their way to Mr. Santos’s bank account.

 

October

Party Program Scheme

In this indictment, prosecutors charged Mr. Santos with falsifying 2022 campaign reports so as to qualify for a party program that would let him gain financial and logistical support from the national Republicans.

Charged With Wire Fraud

Mr. Santos was charged with falsely reporting donations from family members that prosecutors said they never made, in order to inflate his fund-raising totals.

Charged With Falsification of Document or Record

Filing a false report with the Federal Election Commission is a crime. Prosecutors said that reports filed in December 2021 and in April 2022 were falsified as a part of the scheme.

Charged With False Statements

Mr. Santos was charged with “knowingly and willfully” lying to the government about making a $500,000 loan to his campaign in March 2022. Prosecutors said that the loan was not made when it was reported.

Charged With Conspiracy to Commit Offenses Against U.S.

Mr. Santos was charged with conspiring to file fraudulent campaign reports that made the campaign appear more wealthy than it was, as was Nancy Marks, his former treasurer and confidante. She pleaded guilty for her role in helping to falsify his campaign finance reports, including a $500,000 loan that prosecutors said had not been made when it was reported.

 

Lies We Know He Has Told

Mr. Santos has admitted to fabricating some stories, and he has shifted the details of others over time.

Education

Mr. Santos has admitted to falsifying much of the education section of his résumé. The schools he claimed to have attended said they had no such records.

Mr. Santos previously said he attended Horace Mann, a prep school in the Bronx, telling one podcast that he left four months before graduation.

Shifted

Mr. Santos told Piers Morgan in February that he “was there for six months of ninth grade” but did not address the lack of records of his attendance.

He said he graduated from Baruch College and, on a résumé sent to Nassau County Republican leaders, that he earned an M.B.A. in international business from New York University.

Admitted False

“I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning,” he told The New York Post in December 2022. “I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my résumé.”

He told a radio show he went to Baruch on a volleyball scholarship. “Look, I sacrificed both my knees and got very nice knee replacements,” he said.

Partly Addressed

Though he told Piers Morgan in February that he “did not attain” a college education, Mr. Santos has not specifically responded to questions about his volleyball claims and the related knee replacements.

Career

Mr. Santos claimed extensive Wall Street experience, citing employment at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Neither has a record of his working there.

He told a judge in 2017 that he was working for Goldman Sachs, Politico reported. A 2019 campaign biography made the same claim and said that he worked at Citigroup as an “associate asset manager.”

Shifted

He told The New York Post in December 2022 he “never worked directly” with either firm but worked with them while he was at LinkBridge Investors, another company. He also told Tulsi Gabbard on Fox News that he “worked extensively” with the firms. Neither firm would comment on whether it worked with LinkBridge, whose principal business seems to be holding conferences. LinkBridge has not responded to requests for comment.

Unaddressed

Mr. Santos also told WABC radio in December 2022 that he worked with Blackstone in his time at LinkBridge Investors. The Washington Post reported in January that he once claimed in a meeting that he “flipped a table” on Blackstone’s chief executive. A Blackstone spokesman told The Post that it had no record of a business relationship with him.

Ties to Holocaust and Judaism

During his 2022 campaign, Mr. Santos claimed his maternal grandparents were Jews who fled and survived the Holocaust. But his mother’s immigration paperwork said her parents were born in Brazil. Genealogists have cast doubt on his claims.

“I’ve seen how socialism destroys people’s lives because my grandparents survived the Holocaust,” he said in a campaign video in June 2021.

Shifted

“I never said they survived the Holocaust, per se,” Mr. Santos told One America News in February. He added: “They escaped the Holocaust. And if there was ever a time and place that I might have say ‘survived’ versus ‘they escaped,’ I, you know, bad word choices.”

He said his grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine” and in a position paper said he was a “proud American Jew.”

Shifted

In December 2022, Mr. Santos told The New York Post he “never claimed to be Jewish,” but joked that his background made him “Jew-ish.” By February 2023, he was pushing back against records and paperwork that suggested his grandparents were born in Brazil, telling One America News and Piers Morgan that they “forged documents” to say those things, though he did not provide proof.

Ties to Sept. 11 Attacks

Mr. Santos has said that his mother was working in finance at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and has linked her death to the attacks. But in immigration paperwork she said that she was not in the United States between 1999 and 2003, and that she worked as a housekeeper and home aide.

Mr. Santos posted on Twitter: “9/11 claimed my mothers life.”

Disproven But Partly Addressed

He told One America News in February that his mother became ill from “toxic dust that permeated throughout Manhattan,” but acknowledged that his family was “never able to prove” the connection.

He told a podcast in December 2021 that his mother “was in the South Tower” on Sept. 11 “and she made it out.” In a 2022 campaign biography, he said that his mother “worked her way up to be the first female executive at a major financial institution” and was in her office in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Disproven But Still Claimed

When asked by Piers Morgan in February about the lack of evidence for these claims, Mr. Santos said that his mother told him she was at the World Trade Center on that day and that he remained “convinced that that’s the truth.” He also said, “I won’t debate my mother’s life, as she’s passed, in ’16, and I think it’s quite unsensitive for everybody to want to rehash my mother’s legacy.”

Ties to Pulse Nightclub Shooting

After his election, Mr. Santos said that his company lost four employees at the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in June 2016. A Times review published in mid-December 2022 found that none of those who perished worked at any company he had ties to.

Mr. Santos told WNYC in November 2022 that he happened to “at the time have people that worked for me in the club.” He added, “My company, at the time, we lost four employees that were, that were at Pulse nightclub.”

Shifted

He told WABC radio in December 2022 that the four employees were in the process of being hired at MetGlobal, where he worked at the time. To One America News in February, he said, “It was presented that four of the, you know, agreed-upon hires that would be onboarded to the company had perished that day.” These claims are difficult to verify.

Check Fraud Case in Brazil

Mr. Santos has denied any criminal history or wrongdoing in general, telling City & State in December 2022: “I committed absolutely no crimes. I’m not a wanted criminal in any jurisdiction.” He has not been convicted of any crime. He has admitted responsibility for check fraud in Brazil but will not have a crime on his record.

In December 2022, Mr. Santos initially denied involvement in a criminal check fraud case in Brazil from 2008, when he was 19 years old. He left the country before the case could be concluded, but prosecutors reopened it in January.

Disproven

Court documents showed that he admitted guilt more than a decade ago, saying “I know I screwed up, but I want to pay” to the shop owner he was accused of defrauding in 2009. He again admitted to the crime to the police the next year. This year Mr. Santos accepted responsibility and agreed to pay about $4,850 in restitution.

2020 Election Results

In addition to casting doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election, Mr. Santos said his own race that year had been stolen, without evidence. He raised and spent roughly $260,000 for a 2020 recount fund, but no recount occurred.

“If you’re from New York, you know what they did to me,” he said at a rally in Washington the day before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “They did to me what they did to Donald J. Trump. They stole my election.”

Partly Admitted

Regarding his own race, Mr. Santos had already conceded before giving this speech. In a television appearance in October 2022, he denied ever falsely claiming he won.

Unaddressed

As recently as March 2021, Mr. Santos was suggesting that Mr. Trump won the 2020 election, saying in a since-deleted tweet that his campaign hired people who pushed the former president over the finish line “TWICE, yes I said TWICE.”

Being a Landlord

Mr. Santos claimed that tenants at one of his many properties owed him back rent. But there is no record that he or his immediate family members own property, and he himself has been brought to court repeatedly for failing to pay rent.

“My family and I nearing a 1 year anniversary of not receiving rent on 13 properties,” he said on Twitter in February 2021, later adding, “I have tenants working and just flat out taking advantage.”

Shifted

He told The New York Post in December 2022 that “George Santos does not own any properties,” but also told City & State “my family has property” without offering any specifics.

Career

Mr. Santos claimed extensive Wall Street experience, citing employment at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Neither has a record of his working there.

He told a judge in 2017 that he was working for Goldman Sachs, Politico reported. A 2019 campaign biography made the same claim and said that he worked at Citigroup as an “associate asset manager.”

Shifted

He told The New York Post in December 2022 he “never worked directly” with either firm but worked with them while he was at LinkBridge Investors, another company. He also told Tulsi Gabbard on Fox News that he “worked extensively” with the firms. Neither firm would comment on whether it worked with LinkBridge, whose principal business seems to be holding conferences. LinkBridge has not responded to requests for comment.

Unaddressed

Mr. Santos also told WABC radio in December 2022 that he worked with Blackstone in his time at LinkBridge Investors. The Washington Post reported in January that he once claimed in a meeting that he “flipped a table” on Blackstone’s chief executive. A Blackstone spokesman told The Post that it had no record of a business relationship with him.

 

Ties to Sept. 11 Attacks

Mr. Santos has said that his mother was working in finance at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and has linked her death to the attacks. But in immigration paperwork she said that she was not in the United States between 1999 and 2003, and that she worked as a housekeeper and home aide.

Mr. Santos posted on Twitter: “9/11 claimed my mothers life.”

Disproven But Partly Addressed

He told One America News in February that his mother became ill from “toxic dust that permeated throughout Manhattan,” but acknowledged that his family was “never able to prove” the connection.

He told a podcast in December 2021 that his mother “was in the South Tower” on Sept. 11 “and she made it out.” In a 2022 campaign biography, he said that his mother “worked her way up to be the first female executive at a major financial institution” and was in her office in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Disproven But Still Claimed

When asked by Piers Morgan in February about the lack of evidence for these claims, Mr. Santos said that his mother told him she was at the World Trade Center on that day and that he remained “convinced that that’s the truth.” He also said, “I won’t debate my mother’s life, as she’s passed, in ’16, and I think it’s quite unsensitive for everybody to want to rehash my mother’s legacy.”

 

Check Fraud Case in Brazil

Mr. Santos has denied any criminal history or wrongdoing in general, telling City & State in December 2022: “I committed absolutely no crimes. I’m not a wanted criminal in any jurisdiction.” He has not been convicted of any crime. He has admitted responsibility for check fraud in Brazil but will not have a crime on his record.

In December 2022, Mr. Santos initially denied involvement in a criminal check fraud case in Brazil from 2008, when he was 19 years old. He left the country before the case could be concluded, but prosecutors reopened it in January.

Disproven

Court documents showed that he admitted guilt more than a decade ago, saying “I know I screwed up, but I want to pay” to the shop owner he was accused of defrauding in 2009. He again admitted to the crime to the police the next year. This year Mr. Santos accepted responsibility and agreed to pay about $4,850 in restitution.

 

Animal Charity

Mr. Santos claimed to have founded and run a 501(c)(3) animal charity called Friends of Pets United, but there was no evidence it was ever registered with the Internal Revenue Service. Claims about its operations seem to have been exaggerated, and he has been accused of stealing money belonging to the charity.

On his campaign biography as recently as April 2022, he said he “founded and ran a nonprofit” that “was able to effectively rescue 2,400 dogs and 280 cats.”

Shifted

Mr. Santos told City & State in December 2022 that he was not the charity’s sole owner, and that he “was the guy picking up poop, cleaning, getting people, doing campaigns online.” He told One America News in February that he “never handled the finances” of Friends of Pets United. Since those claims, The Times has reported on old social media messages in which he told people he ran the charity and solicited donations.

He has been accused of funneling money intended for the charity into his own pocket. A disabled veteran told Patch that Mr. Santos took money from a GoFundMe he created to help the veteran’s dog.

Denied

Mr. Santos has denied all accusations of theft. On the veteran’s allegations, he texted Semafor: “Fake. No clue.” But The Times has reviewed communications between Mr. Santos and the veteran and spoken with another person involved in their dispute. A spokesman for GoFundMe said that the site received complaints about Mr. Santos’s page and asked him for “proof of the delivery of funds.” When he did not respond, the site removed the fund-raiser and blocked the email associated with it from being used on GoFundMe in the future.

 

Questions That Remain

Many other potential legal and ethical concerns arose after subsequent reporting into Mr. Santos by The Times and other publications.

What will become of Santos’s seat in Congress?

Unclear

New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, will schedule a special election to fill Mr. Santos’s seat in the House now that he has been expelled. The district, which President Biden won in 2020, is a prime target for Democrats, including Thomas Suozzi, who held the seat before Mr. Santos.

Where did his personal finances come from?

Under Investigation

Mr. Santos reported earning only $55,000 in 2020. Two years later, he reported a $750,000 salary and over $1 million in dividends from his company, the Devolder Organization. Prosecutors and ethics investigators now say that both reports were false, making it even more unclear how wealthy Mr. Santos might be. For example, when Mr. Santos said he made a $500,000 loan to his campaign, prosecutors say he had less than $8,000 in his personal and business accounts.

Under Investigation

Mr. Santos has described his company as doing “capital introduction” and has said it brokered deals between high-net-worth clients. But he has not identified any clients on congressional disclosures.

Where did his campaign funds come from?

Denied Wrongdoing

Federal prosecutors and House Ethics investigators have accused the Santos campaign of repeatedly doctoring fund-raising records in 2020 and 2022 to make it look more robust. Their findings include evidence that Mr. Santos falsified information about loans he made to the campaign, reported false donations from relatives and stole money from other contributors to fund those fake donations. Mr. Santos has blamed Ms. Marks, his treasurer, for any reporting issues, saying “the fiduciary went rogue.” But congressional investigators found extensive records showing he was heavily involved in his campaign's finances. Mr. Santos broadly dismissed the report without substantively discussing specific findings.

Unaddressed

Mr. Santos reported lending his 2020 campaign more than $80,000, despite financial disclosures filed that year showing he earned just $55,000 annually and had no savings. House Ethics investigators say that in reality Mr. Santos lent just $3,500 to his campaign, not $80,000. Even so, they say, he repaid himself for a portion of it, collecting tens of thousands in profit. Mr. Santos has declined to respond to any of the specific allegations in the ethics report.

Denied Wrongdoing

In 2022, Mr. Santos reported over $700,000 in loans to his campaign. But federal and congressional investigators say those loans were also not what they seemed. They said those loans came in months after they were initially reported, and Mr. Santos has been charged with falsely reporting a $500,000 loan before it was made. Congressional investigators also raised questions about the provenance of the money Mr. Santos did eventually lend the campaign, noting that the timing, source and other circumstances suggested that the loans might in fact be unlawful campaign contributions. Mr. Santos has said in the past that all the money was earned legitimately, but he has not weighed in on specifics from the report.

Denied Wrongdoing

In indictments, federal prosecutors cited text messages and emails that showed Mr. Santos and Ms. Marks, his treasurer, conspired to file F.E.C. reports that included $53,000 in fake contributions from relatives who never actually donated. Prosecutors say that some of those funds were in fact stolen from other contributors’ credit cards, but the fake contributions helped Mr. Santos achieve his objective: qualifying for an official Republican program that boosted his campaign. Ms. Marks has admitted her role in falsifying the records, but Mr. Santos has pleaded not guilty.

How did the Santos campaign spend its money?

Denied Wrongdoing

Mr. Santos’s campaign filings are riddled with suspicious expenditures and omissions, from dozens of unusual expenses pegged at $199.99 — one cent below the threshold that requires receipts — to hundreds of thousands of dollars in spending that was simply never accounted for. After months of scrutiny, many of the expenditures remain a mystery. But House Ethics investigators published financial records that showed how Mr. Santos fraudulently used campaign contributions to fund a lavish personal lifestyle, from a trip to the Hamptons to Botox treatments and his own rent payments. Mr. Santos broadly dismissed the report without discussing specific findings.

Partly Addressed

Mr. Santos spent campaign money extravagantly. Some of the expenses, like visiting five-star hotels in other states and charging for lunch at the upscale department store Bergdorf Goodman, were reported on official campaign filings. Mr. Santos’s lawyer has previously argued they were justified, but the Ethics Committee concluded that many were actually improper personal expenses. Mr. Santos has not responded specifically to that finding.

Unaddressed

The House Ethics Committee also turned up scores of other purchases on luxury goods and spa treatments funded by Santos campaign donors that were never reported to the F.E.C. In one case, in November 2022, the campaign wired $20,000 to Mr. Santos's bank account, funding he used at Ferragamo and at Atlantic City casinos as well as for other cash purchases. Mr. Santos also pocketed at least $200,000 from donors through RedStone Strategies and used the funds to pay off credit card bills, buy $4,127.80 in designer goods from Hermès and make purchases on OnlyFans, a platform best known for explicit content. Mr. Santos has not responded specifically to this finding.

Partly Addressed

The campaign reported paying for what it described as an “apartment rental” at an address where neighbors said Mr. Santos and his husband had been living, a possible violation of federal rules. Mr. Santos’s lawyer has said the apartment was used for campaign staff and was a legitimate expense. But congressional ethics investigators found bank records that showed Mr. Santos also used campaign funds to pay his personal rent as recently as November 2022 without reporting the expenditure to the F.E.C. He has not weighed in on the committee’s finding.

What was his role at a company accused of running a Ponzi scheme by the S.E.C.?

Denied Wrongdoing

Mr. Santos worked as a regional director for the company, Harbor City Capital, but he has since minimized his role there. He has denied knowledge of any wrongdoing and has not been named in any court proceedings, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has interviewed at least two people about his involvement.

Declined to Comment

Mr. Santos told one investor he had raised $100 million for the Harbor City funds accused of being used in a Ponzi scheme. But the S.E.C. said the funds only raised $17 million total. Mr. Santos’s lawyer declined to comment on a continuing investigation, and Harbor City’s chief executive has denied any wrongdoing.

Declined to Comment

Mr. Santos said he and his family invested almost $4 million in Harbor City. A lawyer overseeing its assets said she did not recognize their names as investors.

What happened with the bad checks to puppy breeders?

Declined to Comment

In 2017, Mr. Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after $15,000 worth of checks to dog breeders bounced. Mr. Santos denied writing the checks, saying that his checkbook had been stolen. The charges were later dropped and expunged, according to a lawyer friend who acted on his behalf. Mr. Santos’s current lawyer has declined to comment.

THE NEW YORK TIMES