George Santos, the first-term GOP Congressman from New York who has been the subject of a cascade of news reports revealing substantial lies he has evidently told about his personal, family, business, educational, and work backgrounds, has confessed in a criminal fraud case against him in Brazil. There, as a teenager, he was alleged to have used stolen checks for hundreds of dollars worth of purchases, which the seller later had to financially cover himself.
Under the terms of an arrangement with prosecutors there, Santos is required to pay some financial penalties, which The Washington Post identified as around $2,000 in fines and $2,800 to the victim. Carlos Bruno Simões, the merchant whose establishment was victimized, is evidently the one receiving that latter restitution. He — and Santos, who was connecting virtually, meaning through an evident video call — attended a hearing on Thursday.
Santos has also recently been in court in connection to a criminal case in the United States in which prosecutors allege a slew of financial crimes on his part, from wire fraud and money laundering to theft of public funds. Allegations include that he shepherded money from prospective donors to his campaign into a personal company of his where he used the funds largely for his own benefit and that he received unemployment assistance despite actually maintaining employment at the time. Notably, former GOP Senate candidate in Georgia Herschel Walker has actually been accused of something similar to the first matter, with a recent report from The Daily Beast alleging he had prospective donations to his campaign sent to a personal company of his that the former football player didn’t include in required financial disclosures.
