CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican notorious for fabricating key components of his life story, was arrested Wednesday on federal prison costs forward of an anticipated court docket look.
The indictment says Santos induced supporters to donate to an organization below the false pretense that the cash can be used to help his marketing campaign. As an alternative, it says, he used it for private bills, together with luxurious designer garments and to repay his bank cards.
Santos is also accused of mendacity about his funds on congressional disclosure types and making use of for and receiving unemployment advantages whereas he was employed as regional director of an funding agency and working for Congress.
U.S. Legal professional Breon Peace stated the indictment “seeks to carry Santos accountable for varied alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations.”
“Taken collectively, the allegations within the indictment cost Santos with counting on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” Peace stated.
Santos surrendered on Wednesday and was anticipated to make an preliminary court docket look later within the day at a federal courthouse on Lengthy Island.
Reached by The Related Press on Tuesday, Santos stated he was unaware of the fees.
Santos was elected to Congress final fall after a marketing campaign constructed partly on falsehoods. He instructed individuals he was a rich Wall Road dealmaker with a considerable actual property portfolio who had been a star volleyball participant in faculty, amongst different issues. In actuality, he didn’t work on the large monetary corporations he claimed had employed him, didn’t go to varsity and had struggled financially earlier than his run for public workplace.
Questions on his funds additionally surfaced. In regulatory filings, Santos stated he loaned his marketing campaign and associated political motion committees greater than $750,000, nevertheless it was unclear how he would have come into that sort of wealth so rapidly after years during which he struggled to pay his lease and confronted a number of eviction proceedings.
In a monetary disclosure kind, Santos reported making $750,000 a 12 months from a household firm, the Devolder Group, however the costs unsealed Wednesday allege that Santos by no means acquired that sum, nor the $1 million and $5 million in dividends he listed as coming from the agency.
Santos has described the Devolder Group as a dealer for gross sales of luxurious objects like yachts and plane. The enterprise was included in Florida shortly after Santos stopped working as a salesman for a corporation accused by federal authorities of working an unlawful Ponzi scheme.
Lots of Santos’ fellow New York Republicans referred to as on him to resign after his historical past of fabrications was revealed. Some renewed their criticism of him as information of the prison case unfold.
“Pay attention, George Santos ought to have resigned in December. George Santos ought to have resigned in January. George Santos ought to have resigned yesterday. And maybe he’ll resign in the present day. However eventually, whether or not he chooses to or not, each the reality and justice will probably be delivered to him,” stated U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, a Republican representing components of upstate New York.
Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was extra circumspect, saying “I feel in America, you’re harmless until confirmed responsible.”
Santos has confronted prison investigations earlier than.
When he was 19, he was the topic of a prison investigation in Brazil over allegations he used stolen checks to purchase objects at a clothes store. Brazilian authorities stated they’ve reopened the case.
In 2017, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after authorities stated he used 1000’s of {dollars} in fraudulent checks to purchase puppies from canine breeders. That case was dismissed after Santos claimed his checkbook had been stolen, and that another person had taken the canine.
Federal authorities have individually been trying into complaints about Santos work elevating cash for a bunch that purported to assist uncared for and abused pets. One New Jersey veteran accused Santos of failing to ship $3,000 he had raised to assist his pet canine get a wanted surgical procedure.
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Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report from Washington.
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Observe the AP’s protection of U.S. Rep. George Santos at https://apnews.com/hub/george-santos.
