New York rep George Santos (R-NY) has been arrested on federal criminal charges, according to the Associated Press. The Republican politician turned himself into the federal courthouse in New York.
He has been charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
What did George Santos do?
About the indictment, the US attorney Breon Peace said, the state “seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations. Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself.”
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According to the charges, Santos applied to receive unemployment insurance benefits through the New York state department of labor In June 2020. Santos “falsely claimed to have been unemployed since the week of March 22, 2020.”
Santos “certified his continuing eligibility for unemployment benefits on a weekly basis, in each case falsely attesting…that he was unemployed…and eligible for benefits.” However, Santos was in fact a regional director at an investment firm, the indictment, beginning on or about February 3, 2020 and continuing through on or about April 15, 2021.
“During that period, with the exception of on or about and between July 5, 2020 and August 30, 2020…Santos received regular deposits into his personal bank accounts as part of his regional director salary of approximately $120,000 per year,” according to the indictment.
During that period, Santos also received approximately $24,744 in unemployment insurance benefits, it added.
The indictment also stated that from September to October 2022, Santos “devised and executed a scheme to defraud supporters of his candidacy for the House and to obtain money from them by fraudulently inducing supporters to contribute funds to an [unnamed company] under the false pretense that the money would be used to support [his] candidacy and then actually spending thousands of dollars on the solicited funds on personal expenses, including luxury designer clothing and credit card payments.”
Santos allegedly told a political consultant to feed his supporters “false information” about the unnamed company. The consult was directed to mislead the supporters into believing that the company was either a social welfare organization or an independent expenditure committee when it was none of these things. Supporters were told that contributions made to the company would be used on independent expenditures in support of his candidacy.
