Queens congressman indicted on federal fraud charges
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Queens and Long Island Congressman George Santos was indicted on fraud charges on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. AP file photo by Andrew Harnik
By Ryan Schwach
Queens and Long Island Congressman George Santos fraudulently told campaign contributors that the money they were donating to him was going toward his bid for election when instead he used the funds to line his own pockets, federal prosecutors said in a 13-count criminal indictment unveiled on Wednesday.
Santos, who surrendered to federal prosecutors in Long Island on Wednesday morning, faces charges of fraud and making false statements, months after dozens of claims he made on the campaign trail about his personal and professional life began to unravel.
But it wasn’t the reportedly false claims the 34-year-old Republican made about his mother’s death, his Jewish ancestry, his employment at Goldman Sachs or his pet charity that landed Santos before a federal judge in Central Islip this week.
Santos, who has represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District since January, was 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, according to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace, who painted Santos as a serial fraudster who ran for office in a bid to funnel campaign donations to his own personal bank accounts.
“This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace in a statement. “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.”
“He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives,” he added.
The 20-page indictment alleges that beginning in September of last year, an unnamed Queens-based consultant solicited campaign contributions from voters on behalf of Santos, and told contributors that the money was to be used to purchase television ads and other campaign-related work.
Instead, that money allegedly went to Santos’ personal account and was used for purchasing designer clothing and to make car and credit card payments, among other personal expenditures.
The indictment directly sites two contributions from two individuals in October 2022, each totalling $25,000.
Santos also allegedly lied about the nature of the company which received the contributions, saying in October emails it was a social welfare organization, when it was not.
Counts one through five of the indictment pertain to wire fraud and the misleading of the contributors via email, and counts six through eight relate to unlawful monetary transactions over $10,000.
The indictment includes other alleged scams organized by Santos, who has already been found to have lied about where he went to college, where he has worked and his own ethnic background.
The indictment also alleges Santos took advantage of federal relief funds for unemployed Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the indictment, Santos falsely claimed to the New York State Department of Labor that he was unemployed, and accepted over $24,000 in unemployment insurance benefits that he was not eligible for. Santos was employed by a Florida-based company making $120,000 a year when he applied for the unemployment funds, prosectors said.
“At the height of the pandemic in 2020, George Santos allegedly applied for and received unemployment benefits while he was employed and running for Congress,” said Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly, who is aiding federal prosecutors in the case.
On top of that, Santos’ reputation for allegedly misleading others about his finances followed him to Washington.
Counts 12 and 13 of the indictment claim that Santos illegally and knowingly reported false financial reports to the House of Representatives during his two campaigns for election in 2020 and 2022, massively deflating his income one year, and inflating it two years later.
Since his ascension to Congress, Santos has admitted to some of the fabrications he made in his pitch to voters, but not all of them. He chalked his fibs up to being “human.”
“Did I embellish my resume? Yes, I did, and I’m sorry,” Santos told City & State in December. “Words can’t express 100 percent how I feel but I’m still the same guy, I’m not a fraud, I’m not a cartoon character, I’m not some mythical creature that was invented, I’m no Russian puppet.”
Calls for Santos to resign poured in shortly after the earliest allegations that he had falsified his resume broke. Not only did the calls for resignation come from Democrats, but from members of his own party, as well.
The Nassau County GOP has called for his resignation as well as Queens City Councilmember Joann Ariola, who called Santos a “distraction” in January.
“Long before George Santos had to surrender to federal court, my position on him was clear – I felt that he had defrauded the public’s trust, and that he should resign,” Ariola said on Wednesday in a statement to the Eagle. “This matter is now in the hands of federal prosecutors, and I trust that justice will prevail once this is all over.”
GOP Councilmember Vickie Paladino, who’s councilmanic district overlaps Santos' congressional one, has stopped short of calling for his resignation. Her office did not respond to phone calls on Wednesday.
Tony Nunziato, the head of the Queens GOP, has also thus far avoided calling for Santos to step down. That didn’t change on Wednesday. Nunziato told the Eagle that if Santos is convicted, he should resign, but added that until he is found guilty of criminal conduct, he should remain in office.
Nunziato said he had yet to read through the indictment when contacted by the Eagle on Wednesday morning.
“If it's true, how he misled the people and everyone else, I am going to read up on this. It is a terrible time for him if all these are true,” Nunziato said over the phone on Wednesday. “I don’t like prejudging, show the proof…show me the proof that he is doing it, and he should definitely step down.”
Nunziato said that Santos’ fabricated resume was “wrong” but not “against the law”
“I don’t like any kind of lies, it's totally disgraceful,” he added.
“If the courts find out then something that is convicted..if it's real, then it's definitely punishable,” Nunziato said. “I believe in the system..innocent until proven guilty.”
