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CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican notorious for fabricating key components of his life story, has been indicted on expenses that he embezzled cash from his marketing campaign, lied to Congress about his revenue and cheated his approach into undeserved unemployment advantages, prosecutors mentioned Wednesday.
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 to purchase designer garments and to pay his bank cards and automobile funds.
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 that the federal government shut down in 2021 over allegations that it was a Ponzi scheme.
U.S. Legal professional Breon Peace mentioned the indictment “seeks to carry Santos accountable for numerous 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 mentioned.
Santos surrendered Wednesday and was taken to a federal courthouse on Lengthy Island, the place he was anticipated to make an preliminary court docket look later within the day on expenses of wire fraud, cash laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to Congress.
Reached by The Related Press on Tuesday, Santos mentioned he was unaware of the fees.Santos, 34, was elected to Congress final fall after a marketing campaign constructed partly on falsehoods. He advised folks 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, Santos didn’t work on the massive monetary companies he claimed had employed him, didn’t go to school and struggled financially earlier than his run for public workplace. He claimed he fueled his run largely with self-made riches, earned from brokering offers on costly toys for rich shoppers, however the indictment alleges these boasts had been additionally exaggerated.
In regulatory filings, Santos claimed 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 form of wealth so rapidly after years by 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 Group, however the expenses 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 gadgets like yachts and plane. The enterprise was included in Florida shortly after Santos stopped working as a salesman for Harbor Metropolis Capital, the corporate accused by federal authorities of working an unlawful Ponzi scheme.
In November 2021, Santos shaped Redstone Methods, a Florida firm that federal prosecutors say he used to dupe donors into financing his life-style. In accordance with the indictment, Santos advised an affiliate to solicit contributions to the corporate by way of emails, textual content message and telephone calls and offered the particular person with contact data for potential contributors.
Emails to potential donors falsely claimed that the corporate was shaped “solely” to assist Santos’ election bid and that there can be no limits on how a lot they may contribute, the indictment mentioned. Santos falsely claimed that the cash can be spent on tv advertisements and different marketing campaign bills, it mentioned.
Final October, a month earlier than his election, Santos transferred about $74,000 from firm coffers to financial institution accounts he maintained, the indictment mentioned. He additionally transferred cash to a few of his associates, it mentioned.
Lots 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 felony case unfold.
“Hear, 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 right this moment. However ultimately, whether or not he chooses to or not, each the reality and justice will probably be delivered to him,” mentioned 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.”
When he was 19, he was the topic of a felony investigation in Brazil over allegations he used stolen checks to purchase gadgets at a clothes store. Brazilian authorities mentioned they’ve reopened the case.
In 2017, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after authorities mentioned 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 wanting 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 in Washington and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.
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Observe the AP’s protection of U.S. Rep. George Santos at https://apnews.com/hub/george-santos.
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