A criminal case in Brazil over new Republican Congressman George Santos using a stolen checkbook and false representations about his identity to make hundreds of dollars in purchases in 2008 will resume now that his location is known to prosecutors there.
The New York Times reports that a judge in that country approved a fraud charge against Santos in September 2011, but available details indicate he was working in New York City the very next month. Although Santos admitted to the gist of the allegations against him in this case in past comments on Orkut, which is a social media site widely used in Brazil, he more recently seemed to deny or at least gloss over the substance of the case. “I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world,” he told the New York Post. A lawyer for Santos wouldn’t even conclusively acknowledge the reality of the case, instead referring apparently to its very existence as “alleged.” “I am in the process of engaging local counsel to address this alleged complaint against my client,” attorney Joe Murray said.
The case can move forward whether or not Santos participates in proceedings, although he will be receiving formal notification and a push for his response through the U.S. Justice Department. The push for Santos to respond will be provided to U.S. federal prosecutors by the national Justice Ministry in Brazil. In that country, the allegations he is facing carry up to five years in prison and potential financial penalties. He is also facing investigations at the local, state, and federal levels in the United States in connection to the staggeringly expansive breadth of deception in which he has been caught. Evidence shows he lied about attending college and working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, but the problems don’t end there. He also loaned his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars he tied to a high-dollar investment services company he leads, although a past estimate of that company’s revenue put it at under $50,000.
Four clients of Santos’s company identified by The Daily Beast were all connected to individuals who financially supported his campaign. Were they pouring money into his company to further support his campaign and get around federal donation limits? The Times also notes reported rent payments made by the Santos campaign that trace to an address where he himself at least previously has stayed. Using campaign funds for personal expenses isn’t allowed. There were also $40,000 in flight expenses — which seems odd for a campaign that doesn’t even cover that much area geographically. It’s not like this guy was running for president! He was angling to represent a single Congressional district in southern New York.
