By MICHAEL BALSAMO and JAKE OFFENHARTZ (Associated Press)
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 legal expenses forward of an anticipated courtroom look.
The indictment says Santos induced supporters to donate to an organization beneath the false pretense that the cash can be used to help his marketing campaign. Instead, 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 kinds 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. Attorney Breon Peace stated the indictment “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,” Peace stated.
Santos was taken into custody Wednesday and was anticipated to make an preliminary courtroom look later within the day at a federal courthouse on Long Island.
Reached by the AP on Tuesday, Santos stated he was unaware of the costs.
Santos was elected to Congress final fall after a marketing campaign constructed partly on falsehoods. He instructed folks he was a rich Wall Street dealmaker with a considerable actual property portfolio who had been a star volleyball participant in school, amongst different issues. In actuality, he didn’t work on the huge monetary companies he claimed had employed him, didn’t go to school and had struggled financially earlier than his run for public workplace.
Questions about his funds additionally surfaced. In regulatory filings, Santos stated he loaned his marketing campaign and associated political motion committees greater than $750,000, but it surely was unclear how he would have come into that type of wealth so shortly after years through which he struggled to pay his hire 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 Organization, however the expenses unsealed Wednesday allege that Santos by no means obtained that sum, nor the $1 million and $5 million in dividends he listed as coming from the agency.
Santos has described the Devolder Organization as a dealer for gross sales of luxurious objects like yachts and plane. The enterprise was integrated in Florida shortly after Santos stopped working as a salesman for an organization accused by federal authorities of working an unlawful Ponzi scheme.
Many of Santos’ fellow New York Republicans known as on him to resign after his historical past of fabrications was revealed. Some renewed their criticism of him as information of the legal case unfold.
“Listen, George Santos should have resigned in December. George Santos should have resigned in January. George Santos should have resigned yesterday. And perhaps he’ll resign today. But sooner or later, whether he chooses to or not, both the truth and justice will be delivered to him,” stated U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, a Republican representing components of upstate New York.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was extra circumspect, saying “I think in America, you’re innocent till proven guilty.”
Santos has confronted legal investigations earlier than.
When he was 19, he was the topic of a legal 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 canines.
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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Follow the AP’s protection of U.S. Rep. George Santos at https://apnews.com/hub/george-santos.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”