See ya...
George Santos Faces 13 Felony Charges, Including Fraud and Money Laundering
Republican congressman from Long Island pleads not guilty in federal court
WSJ
Rep. George Santos, accused of fabricating much of his life’s story to secure public office, was indicted Wednesday on federal charges that he embezzled contributions, fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits and filed false federal disclosure forms.
The New York Republican, who was elected last year to represent parts of Long Island and Queens in Congress, surrendered to authorities Wednesday morning and pleaded not guilty in federal court in Central Islip, N.Y., in the afternoon. A 13-count indictment charged Mr. Santos 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.
Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office brought the charges, said the congressman relied on “repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself.”
Standing outside the courthouse, Mr. Santos, wearing a navy blazer over a sweater, said he would fight to clear his name. “I will not resign,” he said, adding he would return to the nation’s capital for planned votes on Thursday.
Rep. George Santos said he would fight to clear his name and wouldn’t resign. PHOTO: JUSTIN LANE/SHUTTERSTOCK
U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields said Mr. Santos would be released on a $500,000 bond, for which she required three cosigners.
Joe Murray, Mr. Santos’s lawyer, told the judge that Mr. Santos needed to travel because he was running for re-election. “Just to have freedom to engage in that election activity,” Mr. Murray said.
Judge Shields restricted his travel to New York City, Long Island and Washington, D.C., but said he could travel throughout the U.S. with prior permission. She ordered him to return to court on June 30.
The 34-year-old lawmaker has acknowledged misleading voters in the past but has said he didn’t commit any crime.
The charges come as Mr. Santos has faced months of mounting accusations that he lied to voters about his personal and professional experience, on issues big and small. Among his alleged falsehoods, Mr. Santos has claimed without evidence that his mother was at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, that he was a star player on his college volleyball team and that he founded a charity that rescued 2,500 dogs and cats.
He has acknowledged lying about whether he graduated from Baruch College, and admitted that he was never an employee of Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, as he previously claimed.
Mr. Santos has defended his experience in the financial-services sector, saying in one interview: “I did work in the industry for a number of years.”
Federal prosecutors alleged that Mr. Santos engaged in three fraudulent schemes. In one, while running for Congress, he directed a political consultant to falsely tell prospective donors that their contributions would help elect Mr. Santos to the House, prosecutors said, when in reality, the money was transferred to Mr. Santos’s personal bank account. He used it to pay personal debts and make non-campaign purchases, including designer clothing, they alleged.
The indictment also accuses Mr. Santos of fraudulently receiving more than $24,000 in unemployment insurance benefits. At the time that Mr. Santos applied for the benefits in New York and claimed he was without a job, he was working for a Florida-based investment company called Harbor City Capital, which paid him a salary of approximately $120,000 a year, prosecutors said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in a 2021 civil lawsuit accused Harbor City Capital of being a Ponzi scheme. As a result of the suit, the company is now in receivership. The receiver, Katherine Donlon, declined to comment.
Finally, prosecutors said, Mr. Santos lied on 2020 and 2022 House disclosure forms, which he filed in connection with two campaigns for office. Mr. Santos overstated his income, failed to disclose his salary from an investment firm and lied about deposits in bank accounts, among other things, according to prosecutors.
In addition to Wednesday’s indictment, Mr. Santos faces scrutiny from local prosecutors and the House Ethics Committee, which has said its wide-ranging investigation includes whether Mr. Santos broke the law by violating federal conflict-of-interest rules and engaging in sexual misconduct with someone who was seeking employment in his office.
Mr. Santos has previously said he was cooperating with the committee probe.
Despite the charges, Mr. Santos is permitted to remain in Congress. Under House GOP conference rules, a lawmaker can stay in office while under investigation or after an indictment, but must resign from committee posts. While he was technically assigned committees, he was never formally placed on them. After several investigations were announced, Mr. Santos said he would not serve on any committees. If lawmakers are convicted, they are expected to resign.
Mr. Santos said in a January podcast that he wouldn’t resign. “I was elected by 142,000 people, and until those same 142,000 people tell me they don’t want me—we’ll find out in two years,” he said.
National Republican leadership has largely backed Mr. Santos’s intention to remain in Congress.
“In America you are innocent until proven guilty,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), who backed Mr. Santos’s campaign in 2022, said the legal process would play itself out.
“Unfortunately this is not the first time a member of Congress from either party has been indicted,” she said.
In New York, many top Republicans have already pulled their support for Mr. Santos. “The writing has been on the wall for months: George Santos will not be a member of the next Congress,” Republican State Committee Chairman Ed Cox said Wednesday.
New York state Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs said he expected Mr. Santos might use his resignation from Congress as a bargaining chip in a plea deal, as was the case with former GOP Rep. Chris Collins. Mr. Collins was re-elected in 2018 while under indictment but resigned a year later—the day before he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to the FBI as part of his role in an insider-trading scheme.
“This starts the clock, because I don’t see how he can last much longer,” Mr. Jacobs said.