George Santos is one of Washington's most enigmatic political figures. 95% of what he says is a lie and can be disproven. For example, in 2016, he said four people he worked with died at the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando. After a later media investigation, this statement turned out to be a lie.
I. The Pulse Night Club Lie
II. The Brazilian Lie
III. Here are the alleged lies found in the Santos indictment.
The FBI is seeking civil asset forfeiture and restitution for his crimes.
I. The Pulse Night Club Lie
- In the wake of the shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, George Santos claimed that four of his employees died in the shooting.
- The New York Times did a deep dive into Santos's backstory, and it turned out that most, if not all, of what he said was a lie.
II. The Brazilian Lie
- In 2011, 19-year-old George Santos stole two checks from his mother's former employer and used them to buy goods totaling over USD 1,000.
- In 2013, after refusing to respond to multiple requests from the Brazilian government, the government closed the case because it could not find Santos.
- Brazilian prosecutors reopened the case when Santos resurfaced to run for the United States Congress.
- Santos eventually signed a non-prosecution agreement in 2023 involving the payment of USD 5,000 in restitution to the shopkeeper who processed the check, and the rest of the money would go to charity.
III. Here are the alleged lies found in the Santos indictment.
- He said "Company 1," was registered as a Super PAC. It was not.
- He said that his company, "Company 1," was registered as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. It was not.
- George Santos told "Person 1" to solicit contributions to "Company 1" based on information that Santos provided to "Person 1." The information Santos provided was false.
- "Person 1" solicited contributions to Santos' "Company 1," claiming that there were no limits on campaign contributions used for television advertisements for Santos' campaign. Santos told "Person 1" that there was no contribution limit and that the 501(c)(4) was only for his campaign. Using reassurances that the funds were solely for his campaign and the organization would be only for his re-election. Santos received money from two donors. He did not use the funds for his campaign but for himself. For these lies, he faces five counts of wire fraud, primarily because the text messages he sent his second contributor and the emails he sent the first contributor were full of false information.
- George Santos also received two contributions from his donors, which resulted in three wire fraud charges. There was one charge for each donation, plus a charge for transferring one of the donations from one of Santos's bank accounts to the other. Since he spent the funds for personal gain, the FBI charged him with theft of public money. Five lies resulted in nine charges.
- Santos allegedly applied to receive unemployment benefits from the CARES Act. He was, in fact, the regional director at Investment Firm #1. This fraudulent application netted Santos two charges of wire fraud, one for each time that the New York State Department of Labor gave him unemployment money due to his fraudulent application.
- He lied about his income twice when reporting his finances to Congress. He did not make what he claimed, which would have made him a millionaire. He failed to disclose information about his income from Investment Firm #1 and the ill-gotten unemployment benefits claim! He also claimed that he made more money from some companies and less money than he did from others.
The FBI is seeking civil asset forfeiture and restitution for his crimes.
