Federal prosecutors hit Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., with 23 additional charges Tuesday, including allegations of identity theft and that he charged a supporter's credit card in excess of their contribution and then transferred the money to his personal bank account.
Prosecutors said Santos faces “one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of access device fraud” in a superseding indictment filed Tuesday.
“As alleged, Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign. Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
Santos declined comment to NBC News at the Capitol late Tuesday, saying “I have not had access to my phone.”
In a press release, prosecutors said the scheme included falsely claiming that relatives of Santos and his then-campaign treasurer Nancy Marks had donated big bucks to his campaign to make it appear that he was raising more money than he actually had in order to qualify for assistance from the national party.
"To create the public appearance that his campaign had met that financial benchmark" for additional funds from the Republican Party "and was otherwise financially viable, Santos and Marks agreed to falsely report to the FEC that at least 10 family members of Santos and Marks had made significant financial contributions to the campaign when Santos and Marks both knew that these individuals had neither made the reported contributions nor given authorization for their personal information to be included in such false public reports."
He's also alleged to have been involved in a credit card scheme where the campaign would charge contributors’ credit cards repeatedly and above FEC individual contribution limits.
“For example, in December 2021, one contributor (the 'Contributor') texted Santos and others to make a contribution to his campaign, providing billing information for two credit cards,” prosecutors said.
“In the days after he received the billing information, Santos used the credit card information to make numerous contributions to his campaign and affiliated political committees in amounts exceeding applicable contribution limits, without the Contributor’s knowledge or authorization,” they said.
On another occasion, he allegedly “charged $12,000 to the Contributor’s credit card, ultimately transferring the vast majority of that money into his personal bank account.”
With his campaign's treasurer turning state's evidence only last Friday, she must have spilled the entire East India Trading Company's stock of tea for this superseding indictment to come down just a few days later. "Santos" is in real and considerable legal peril at this point, as he should be.
Say what you will about Republicans (and more than a few Democrats) being con artists, but this crook takes the cake. And your cake. And everyone's cake.
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