Devolder Santos, commonly known as George Santos, was born on July 22, 1988. He is a prominent American politician representing New York’s 3rd congressional district, a role he has held since 2023.
George Santos is a member of the Republican Party and earned his place in Congress in the 2022 election following an unsuccessful bid in 2020 when he competed against the Democratic incumbent, Thomas Suozzi.
George Santos reached a remarkable milestone by becoming the initial openly LGBT member elected to Congress from the Republican Party.
Santos has faced controversy surrounding several false or questionable claims about his personal background, work history, criminal record, financial status, ethnicity, and religion, both in public and private settings.
Approximately six weeks after his election, numerous media outlets reported that substantial portions of his self-published biography appeared fictitious. These fabricated elements included assertions about his ancestry, educational background, employment history, charitable activities, property ownership, and alleged victimhood in various criminal incidents. Santos did acknowledge fabricating information about his education and employment history.
In 2010, George Santos admitted to having engaged in check fraud in Brazil in 2008. However, he failed to appear in court in 2011, leaving the case unresolved. After his election, Brazilian authorities revived the case in late 2022, and Santos eventually agreed to plead guilty.
In addition, Santos encountered multiple legal issues in the United States, including eviction and personal debt cases. In 2022, he faced allegations of not fulfilling payments for several thousands of dollars in judgments from the 2010s, a situation he acknowledged.
Moreover, charges of theft by deception in the United States were dropped in 2017 and cleared from his record. Currently, Santos is facing two federal indictments in 2023, with a total of 23 fraud-related charges brought against him.
He has entered a plea of not guilty to 13 of these charges. Despite these legal challenges and controversies, Santos has adamantly refused calls for his resignation from the House and remains committed to his plan to seek reelection.
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George Santos’s Early life and education
George Santos left Brazil while facing an ongoing check fraud case and relocated to New York City. From October 2011 to July 2012, he worked as a customer service representative in College Point, Queens.
The New York Times confirmed that, after 2013, Santos found employment with HotelsPro, a subsidiary of MetGlobal headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey. It’s worth noting that HotelsPro has garnered numerous negative online reviews.
In early 2016, George Santos made another move, this time to Orlando, Florida, where he took up residence as HotelsPro was opening an office there. He registered to vote and updated his driver’s license to reflect his Florida address.
Starting in 2017 and operating under the alias “George Devolder,” Santos was affiliated with LinkBridge Investors, a small firm known for hosting exclusive conferences for investors. His 2019 campaign disclosure form and company documents identified him as a vice president.
However, the same year, the company’s President testified in a lawsuit that Santos worked as a freelancer, earning commissions. In a press release for the company, Santos was referred to as its New York regional director.
Harbor City Capital
In mid-January 2020, shortly after initiating his initial campaign for Congress in November 2019, George Santos began employment with Harbor City Capital, an alternative investment firm based in Florida.
Around 18 months later, the Securities and Exchange Commission initiated a civil lawsuit, claiming that the company was engaged in a $17 million Ponzi scheme.
In June, during his initial run for Congress, Santos, under the name George Devolder, set up a Harbor City Capital office at 1345 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan.
The following month, he assumed the position of the firm’s New York regional director. Notably, Santos was not personally named in the lawsuit, nor were his colleagues, and he has publicly denied any knowledge of the fraudulent activities.
In a 2020 interview, Santos claimed that he oversaw $1.5 billion in funds for Harbor City, delivering a consistent yield, an internal rate of return of 26 percent, and an income of 12 percent.
Harbor City continued to compensate Santos at least until April 2021. Afterward, he went on to establish the Devolder Organization, which he has asserted as the source of his wealth.
According to reports, Intrater indicated that Santos informed him he had been let go from Harbor City due to conflicts arising from his political engagements.
However, the company’s founder has stated that Santos was “definitely one of the ones that received notice that all our assets had been frozen.”
Another investor, whom Santos had previously introduced to Harbor City, reported receiving a distressing call from Santos after the SEC lawsuit was filed, during which he expressed his dismay over losing a million dollars of his capital due to the legal action.
Devolder Organization
George Santos must provide consistent explanations regarding the nature of his company’s business. His financial disclosures indicated that he was the exclusive owner and managing member of the enterprise that his campaign website referred to as a family-owned business, managing assets totaling $80 million.
On financial disclosure forms, Santos characterized Devolder as a “capital introduction consulting” firm. Although the company was based in New York, it was registered in Florida, where it faced dissolution in September 2022 due to a failure to file annual reports.
George Santos claimed that the company’s accountant had inadvertently missed the annual filing deadline. During his 2022 congressional campaign, Santos loaned his campaign an amount exceeding $700,000.
He also reported receiving a salary of $750,000 and dividends ranging from $1 to $5 million from Devolder, even though he concurrently listed the company’s estimated value within the same range. It was subsequently reinstated on December 20.
Notably, Santos’s financial disclosure forms did not identify any clients utilizing the company’s services, despite his claims regarding the company’s size.
Three election law experts interviewed by The Times raised concerns about this omission, emphasizing that it “could pose issues if such clients exist.” Dun & Bradstreet estimated Devolder’s revenue to be less than $50,000 in July 2022.
Furthermore, it was reported that Santos listed himself as the registered agent on the paperwork, a role typically reserved for Florida rather than New York residents.
Furthermore, he provided the Merritt Island apartment as the company’s mailing address, a property purchased by a couple in August, and it was noted that this address belonged to Jayson Benoit, the chief technology officer at Harbor City.
George Santos’s Political activities
George Santos served as the President of United for Trump, a small New York state-based organization dedicated to supporting the reelection of Donald Trump.
In July 2019, the group organized a counterprotest in response to an anti-Trump rally in Buffalo, New York. This led to heated exchanges between the two opposing groups and even escalated to a physical altercation between two individuals.
Santos tried to establish a limited liability corporation and sought assistance from group members to raise $20,000 for an intended August rally in Buffalo.
He claimed this rally would feature “credible speakers,” employ an accountant and retain legal counsel. However, some organization members questioned the necessity of raising the requested amount.
Unfortunately, the planned event never materialized, and the funds raised fell far short of the target, with only $645 collected. The disposition of the raised funds remains unknown.
George Santos’s 2020 campaign
George Santos launched his campaign as a Republican contender for the United States House of Representatives in New York’s 3rd congressional district to challenge the Democratic incumbent, Thomas Suozzi.
He formally kicked off his campaign in November 2019. Typically, the Nassau County Republican Committee, recognized for its substantial influence in choosing candidates for competitive nominations, would have discouraged an inexperienced and lesser-known candidate.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic had dampened interest in the race, and Suozzi was widely expected to secure victory regardless. With no other contenders stepping forward, Santos emerged as the party’s nominee for that year.
Queens Republicans, still holding a grudge from Santos’s prior challenge to them the year before, remained unsupportive.
Santos diligently raised campaign funds, addressed donor groups, and even participated in a phone banking session at Mar-a-Lago alongside Donald Trump’s children, which left a favorable impression on party officials. He also purchased entire tables at New York Young Republican events.
However, other candidates making similar rounds observed that George Santos consistently overstated his fundraising achievements, with a substantial disparity between his claims and the amounts reported in his campaign finance disclosure forms.
Suozzi later recounted his confidence in defeating Santos, who was a relative unknown, underfunded, and at the time registered to vote in a Queens area located outside of the district.
When questioned by reporters about residing outside the district, Santos provided an address later revealed to belong to his campaign treasurer. Suozzi noted that during their limited joint campaign appearances, Santos was insincere.
Given George Santos’s low recognition in the district, the Suozzi campaign opted not to invest in opposition research, as they believed that drawing attention to him, even negatively, would ultimately be counterproductive.
As expected, Suozzi emerged victorious with a 55.9 percent to 43.4 percent margin, securing a lead of approximately 46,000 votes. Despite his loss, local Republicans found Santos’s performance surprisingly positive.
Refusal to accept election results
George Santos vehemently refused to accept his defeat in the 2020 election, echoing former President Trump’s unfounded claims of manipulated vote totals.
He embarked on a fundraising campaign and expanded his staff to support a recount effort, persistently asserting that half of the Democratic ballots should be invalidated.
George Santos further resisted leaving the orientation session for new members of Congress even after the certification of his opponent’s victory.
In a controversial move, Santos delivered a speech at a “Stop the Steal” rally on the day preceding the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
During this address, he contended that the election, which he had lost by a 13-point margin in 2020, had been stolen from him. Santos participated in the “Save America” rally at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C.
On January 6, which featured former President Trump. He commended Trump for his passionate speech, characterizing it as “excellent” and noting that the former President was in top form that day.
Following Trump’s speech, a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol, disrupting the formal counting of electoral votes that confirmed Trump’s loss in the 2020 United States presidential election.
Santos subsequently stated that he had never been on Capitol grounds on January 6, characterizing the events as a “sad and dark day.” He also acknowledged Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
George Santos’s 2022 campaign
Shortly after his loss to Suozzi, George Santos wasted no time and established GADS PAC, a Leadership PAC, intending to raise funds for another run.
Nick Langworthy, the former New York state Republican chair (elected to Congress in 2022 alongside Santos), noted that “George never stopped being a candidate” and mentioned Santos’s frequent presence at Mar-a-Lago, where he cultivated support from various circles.
One of Santos’s early supporters was New York Representative Elise Stefanik, who officially endorsed him in August 2021. Nine months later, Stefanik tweeted that she had assisted him in raising over $100,000 during a lunch fundraiser.
However, concerns about George Santos began to emerge among some Republicans. In mid-2021, one of his former advisors uncovered Santos’s connections to Harbor City and certain questionable business practices, but their attempts to garner media coverage were unsuccessful.
Furthermore, after discovering that Santos falsely claimed to have received an endorsement from Trump, a prominent New York Republican donor, unable to verify Santos’s work history, shared her suspicions with close associates of Stefanik.
These associates, “tired of being duped,” requested Santos’s résumé. Santos rejected the request, deeming it “invasive.”
George Santos’s campaign, with his approval, commissioned a vulnerability study on him later that year. The findings, which included issues related to his education, employment history, ancestral claims, and financial discrepancies, left some campaign staff deeply concerned.
They even advised Santos to withdraw from the race. However, he disagreed with some of the study’s conclusions and pledged to show his diplomas, but ultimately failed to do so. When he conveyed his belief that the information was not as damaging as his staff perceived, they resigned.
Unnamed sources reported that Dan Conston, an associate of Kevin McCarthy and the head of the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the main Super PAC for House Republicans, conveyed private concerns regarding the possibility of Santos being exposed as a fraud.
Through Stefanik’s assistance, Santos recruited new staff members and required those who had departed to sign nondisclosure agreements.
While some Republicans had privately discussed doubts about Santos’s alleged employment history and wealth, they assumed he had been thoroughly vetted in 2020. Some Republicans sought to recruit state senator Jack Martins.
When a different candidate showed interest in the race, Santos and his Political Action Committees (PACs) contributed $185,000 to the county Republican committee, which later endorsed him.
The focus for Nassau County Republicans remained on state and local offices, as it was expected that Santos would run against Suozzi once more.
Nevertheless, when Suozzi declared in November 2021 that he wouldn’t run for reelection in Congress, opting to compete against Kathy Hochul for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, the seat became available, enhancing the Republicans’ prospects.
Santos, unopposed for the Republican nomination, ran for the vacant seat against Democratic nominee Robert Zimmerman, who won the nomination after a six-way primary in late August 2022.
Zimmerman’s campaign had access to a 78-page opposition research file on Santos compiled by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which contained political positions that were unpalatable to Democratic voters, as well as issues with Santos’s record.
Some of these issues required further research, such as George Santos’s alleged criminal record. Given the financial cost of such research, Zimmerman allocated campaign resources toward voter outreach and advertising instead.
The North Shore Leader, a local newspaper catering to the affluent communities on the North Shore of Long Island, published a report detailing Santos’s position at Harbor City in September 2022, his financial disclosure forms, and his declarations of personal wealth.
In an October editorial, the newspaper endorsed Zimmerman, characterizing Santos as “bizarre, unprincipled, and sketchy” and likely “just a fabulist—a fake.” No other media outlets reported on these matters until after the election.
Campaign staff later described the organization as “sloppy” with a “toxic” workplace environment. Santos preferred hiring younger, less experienced employees who were less likely to question his decisions.
An ex-staffer characterized Santos as “very high-maintenance” and demanding, and there was an overall sense of paranoia throughout the campaign.
Notably, while George Santos claimed to own property in Nantucket, he was often picked up from a small apartment in Queens, causing confusion among campaign staff.
As the campaign concluded, both political parties acknowledged that the Long Island elections would be highly competitive and could impact the balance of power in the House.
In the 3rd district race, a Democratic political action committee invested $3 million to bolster Zimmerman’s campaign.
In contrast, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) allocated no resources to Santos’s campaign while committing $1.5 million to the adjacent 2nd and 4th district races, both of which were ultimately won by Republicans.
Sources indicated that the CLF’s leadership had been informed of the concerns surrounding Santos. Santos emerged victorious in the November 2022 election, defeating Zimmerman by an 8 percent margin, thus flipping the district in what observers viewed as a “mild upset.”
His election signified a historic moment, as he became the first non-incumbent Republican from the LGBT community to be elected to federal office.
George Santos’s 2024 campaign
In April 2023, when the George Santos campaign announced his intention to seek reelection the following year, their press release called him a “first-generation American.”
When questioned for further clarification, the campaign explained to Vice that they considered him a “first-generation American” because he was born in the United States to immigrant parents.
Upon revealing campaign contributions exceeding $5,000 by the end of January 2023, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) granted him an extension until mid-March to announce his candidacy for the upcoming election officially.
On March 14, Santos submitted a formal statement of candidacy to the commission, signifying his intention to seek reelection. It’s important to note that this filing did not confirm his candidacy but indicated his current intent to do so.
A month later, Santos officially declared his candidacy for the 2024 election. Notably, the Conservative and Republican party chairs of the state declared that they would not provide him with their assistance.
George Santos’s Family
In 2020, George Santos asserted that he had a biracial background, stating that his Brazilian-born father had ancestral ties to Angola, although Jewish Insider could not verify this claim. His religious affiliation was also quite fluid throughout his career.
Santos was raised as a Catholic but presented various claims regarding his religious identity, including identifying as “Jewish,” “Jew-ish,” “half Jewish,” a non-observant Jew, “a proud American Jew,” and even a “Latino Jew.” At other times, Santos described himself as a Catholic.
During a January 2020 appearance on Talking GOP, a cable TV show he co-hosted, Santos shared that his maternal grandfather had initially grown up in the Jewish faith, converted to Catholicism before the Holocaust, and raised his children as Catholics. Santos declared, “I’m Catholic,” clarifying that he wasn’t attempting to assert Jewish heritage.
In an October 2020 radio show appearance, Santos claimed that Democrat Steve Israel, a former representative for parts of Long Island and northeastern Queens from 2001 to 2017, expressed support for him during an event hosted by the Council for a Secure America, a bipartisan group co-chaired by Israel. Santos alleged that Israel told him, “You’re going to be the first Republican I am voting for in my life.”
Furthermore, George Santos had previously said, “I believe we are all connected as one in faith because Jesus Christ is Jewish. And if you believe in Jesus, we are all brothers in Christ.” This video resurfaced in early 2023.
However, Israel denied making such a statement, and Santos did not appear on the guest list for the event.
Although Santos did not emphasize his purported Jewish ancestry during his 2020 campaign, he referred to it more frequently in 2022, especially when all the Democratic candidates vying to replace Suozzi were Jewish.
Approximately a month before his 2022 election, Santos reportedly endeared himself to pro-Israel activists at a meeting of the U.S.-Israel PAC by falsely claiming to be “halakhically Jewish,” as reported by attendees.
A co-chair of the organization mentioned that this assertion created the impression that Santos’s mother was Jewish, eliciting a chuckle from the audience.
George Santos’s former roommate stated that Santos frequently made antisemitic jokes, justifying them by claiming he was Jewish.
Additionally, there were allegations that Santos had previously made inappropriate jokes online regarding Adolf Hitler and his actions against Jewish and Black people.
In media appearances 2023, Santos argued that DNA test kits validated his claim to Jewish ancestry, although he did not disclose the results.
In a podcast interview in May 2023, Santos shared that he was raised as a Catholic but identified himself as a “member of the tribe” due to his assertion that his mother’s ancestry had a significant Jewish heritage.
George Santos also stated that he had numerous Jewish friends among his constituents and attended Shabbat dinners “more often than most.”
George Santos’s Mother
On his campaign website, George Santos provided information regarding his mother’s career, describing her as “the first female executive at a major financial institution.”
He claimed that she worked in the South Tower of the World Trade Center and that she passed away “a few years later” after surviving the September 11 attacks.
However, his mother’s 2003 visa application to return to the U.S. from Brazil contradicted these assertions, as she indicated that she had not been in the country since 1999.
Furthermore, her occupation has been described as a domestic worker or a home care nurse. Following her passing, a Brazilian newspaper referred to her as a cook. Santos’s former roommates and friends attested that she did not speak English.
In July 2021, Santos asserted that “9/11 claimed my mother’s life.” In an October 2021 interview, he recounted that his mother had been “caught up in the ash cloud” during 9/11 but hadn’t applied for relief since the family could manage the medical bills.
In December 2021, he indicated that his mother had passed away five years earlier. However, by December 2022, Santos claimed that his parents had survived the events “down there” at the World Trade Center during 9/11.
A priest from their Catholic church reported that Santos had told him the family couldn’t afford a funeral when his mother passed away in 2016.
The priest remembered that a collection at a memorial Mass generated a “significant” sum for the family, which he then gave to Santos. Additionally, Santos had a friend create a GoFundMe campaign.
During an interview with Piers Morgan, George Santos, she was vehemently maintained that his mother had been present at the World Trade Center on the day of the attack.
He believed in the veracity of these claims, defending her honor and stating, “It’s quite insensitive to try to rehash my mother’s legacy… She wasn’t one to mislead me… I stay convinced that’s the truth.”
George Santos’s Education
In 2019 and 2020, George Santos made assertions about his educational history, stating that he had attended the prestigious Horace Mann School in the Bronx but had to withdraw due to family challenges.
However, the school still needs to record Santos. Later, Santos altered his account, stating that he had attended ninth grade at Horace Mann for six months when he was 14-15, suggesting that he may have used an alternate name.
The school reiterated that they had checked all their records and names and found no record of Santos’s attendance. Santos also fabricated information about his academic credentials.
Santos inaccurately claimed to have earned a finance and economics bachelor’s degree from Baruch College, asserting that he graduated at the top percentile with a 3.89 grade point average.
His friends remembered occasions when he mentioned taking classes at Baruch but didn’t appear to be studying.
In January 2023, Nassau County Republican Party Chairman Joseph Cairo disclosed that Santos had misled him by falsely asserting that he was a “star player” on the Baruch volleyball team and that they had won the league championship.
Santos even suggested that his supposed volleyball career had necessitated both of his knees to be replaced in a pre-election radio interview. Santos has admitted to fabricating his college graduation.
Santos also misrepresented his academic history by falsely claiming to hold a master of business administration from New York University (NYU), reporting a GMAT score of 710, and asserting that he had paid off his alleged student loans by 2020.
He even informed a prospective Harbor City investor that he had declined an offer to attend Harvard Business School.
Gregory Morey-Parker, a former roommate who loaned money to George Santos in 2014 but has yet to receive repayment despite a legal judgment, recalled Santos claiming to be an NYU business school graduate. However, he seemed unaware of the school’s name.
He noted the considerable fluctuations in Santos’s financial situation, remarking, “[He] would frequent bars with bundles of hundred-dollar bills, only to find himself penniless just a few days later.”
During an interview with Piers Morgan, Santos admitted that lying about his educational background was the “biggest regret of his life.”
He explained that societal expectations played a role in his deception, as there is an assumption that one should have a college education in one’s biography.
However, he asserted that he couldn’t afford to attend college. Santos disassociated himself from the GMAT score on his résumé published by the Nassau County Republican committee, stating that he did not provide it, nor did anyone associated with him.
When asked why he thought he could deceive the public about his education in a congressional election, he replied that since no one had questioned those claims during his 2020 campaign, he believed they would not be a significant issue in subsequent campaigns.
Santos also attributed his résumé falsehoods to the local Republican Party, stating in a February 2023 Newsmax interview, “I would have never received the Nassau County GOP nomination if I had not claimed to have completed college.”
Employment
George Santos has employed various aliases, including “Anthony Zabrovsky” and “Anthony Devolder.” A Wikipedia user created in 2011 under the latter name claimed that the account holder had acted in shows like Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Upon returning from Brazil, Santos informed friends he had worked as a journalist for the Brazilian media conglomerate Globo.
Nonetheless, The New York Times needed help finding his name on the organization’s website. In late 2013, Santos also informed a roommate that he worked as a model and had been involved in New York Fashion Week, anticipating an appearance in Vogue.
Nonetheless, neither of these companies had any record of his employment. On his campaign website, he claimed to have worked as an “associate asset manager in the real asset division” of Citigroup.
However, this contradicted the fact that Citigroup had sold its asset management division in 2005, which was before his claimed employment there.
During a 2022 podcast, Santos also asserted that he attended the SALT Conference at Goldman seven years earlier, where he criticized the company for its investments in renewable energy, labeling it a taxpayer-subsidized scam.
However, Anthony Scaramucci, the conference organizer, refuted this, stating that there was no record of George Santos ever attending.
Santos was a customer service representative at a Dish Network call center in College Point, Queens, from October 2011 to July 2012. This overlapped with the period when he claimed to work at Citigroup.
He later admitted that his comment regarding Citigroup was a “regrettable choice of words” and clarified that a subsequent employer had engaged in “limited partnerships” with the mentioned companies.
Santos had also conveyed that his family was affluent and owned extensive real estate in the United States and Brazil.
He repeated this assertion during his 2022 congressional campaign, mentioning that he and his family possessed 13 rental properties in New York.
Nonetheless, his campaign’s financial disclosure forms and public records did not list such properties. George Santos later confessed to the New York Post that this claim was untrue and that he did not own any properties by the end of 2022.
During a November 2022 interview, Santos discussed the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that year, stating that his company had tragically “lost four employees” in the incident.
The New York Times found no connection between the 49 victims who perished in the attack and any company listed in Santos’s biography.
In a subsequent December 2022 interview, Santos altered his story, claiming, “We did lose four people that were going to be coming to work for the company that I was starting up in Orlando.”
During his 2022 congressional campaign, Santos informed potential donors that he had worked as a producer on the musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”
However, Michael Cohl, the lead producer of “Spider-Man,” denied Santos’s involvement with the show, and Santos’s name did not appear in the musical’s playbills. It’s important to note that Santos was living in Brazil in 2011 when the show premiered, and his purported role as a producer coincided with his employment at Dish Network.
In August 2023, Santos played down the significance of the numerous false or exaggerated claims he had made about his employment history.
He argued that he hadn’t published his résumé online during his campaign and pointed out that “studies show that most people lie on their resumes. It’s just, unfortunately, the reality.”
George Santos’s Residence
During his 2020 campaign, George Santos stated that his residence was in Elmhurst, Queens, which fell outside the district he aimed to represent at that time.
Subsequently, Santos and his partner relocated to a rowhouse in Whitestone, Queens, as per the owner, who mentioned that they moved there in July 2020.
In March 2022, Santos informed Newsday that he left Whitestone due to an alleged vandalism incident in January 2021. Despite his registration to vote at the Whitestone address during his congressional campaigns, it appeared that he did not live there.
Santos’s landlord stated that he moved out of the Whitestone residence in August 2022, leaving behind $17,000 in damages. However, records showed he was still registered at that address when he voted in the November election.
He continued to have mail delivered to the Whitestone address, including the certificate of his election victory, as per the landlord, who had discarded most of it.
Santos indicated to reporters that he intended to move to Oyster Bay. Still, it appeared that he and his partner instead moved into a house in Huntington, situated beyond the boundaries of his congressional district, in August 2022.
He told the New York Post that the House belonged to his sister, but The New York Times later discovered that she resided in Elmhurst.
In his 2020 campaign’s online biography, Santos stated that he and his family were engaged in charitable efforts to benefit children born with the rare genetic skin disorder, epidermolysis bullosa (EB).
However, Vice News found that no one associated with the few charities dedicated to EB patients in the U.S. or Brazil had received contributions from him or heard of him or his family’s involvement under any of the names Santos is known to have used.
At some point in 2022, the campaign updated the website, replacing any references to EB with a statement that his family’s charitable efforts were focused on “assisting at-risk children and American veterans.”
George Santos’s Financial disclosures
George Santos submitted his financial disclosure forms required for congressional candidates in early September, 20 months beyond the due date, when he had already raised $5,000 in campaign funds.
A notable contrast emerged when comparing these forms with those he had filed for the 2020 elections. In 2020, he had stated a net worth of $5,000 and claimed his sole income was his $50,000 Harbor City Capital salary.
By 2022, the reported range of his net worth had expanded to between $2.5 million and $11 million, including $1–5 million held in personal bank accounts, a condominium in Rio valued at $500,000 to $1 million, and other business interests making up the remainder.
Notably, he reported no real property in the U.S., contradicting past claims of owning two mansions on Long Island.
One of these mansions, allegedly located in the Hamptons, was supposedly being sold for approximately $10 million; however, it was discovered at the time that someone with no connection to Santos owned it, and its value was assessed at $2 million.
Santos had disclosed a $600,000 loan he provided to his campaign earlier in the year on the mandated campaign financial disclosure forms. Yet, this loan was conspicuously absent as a liability on his financial disclosure forms.
Instead, he had disclosed a $20,000–50,000 car loan for the Nissan he drove. Federal prosecutors later claimed that Marks, his campaign treasurer, had stated that the loan was fictitious. Santos later asserted that the loan was genuine and he had been the source.
He said it was made between September and October of 2022 and couldn’t explain why Marks had recorded the transaction as taking place six months earlier. He claimed no income in his financial disclosure forms.
In July 2023, his campaign revealed that they had repaid Santos $85,000, which constituted over half of the funds he had raised in the second quarter of that year.
They also noted that an outstanding amount of $530,000 was still owed to him. In a later interview, Santos asserted that he had tapped into a network of approximately 15,000 “affluent investors, family offices, ‘institutions,’ and endowments” following his departure from Harbor City Capital and the formation of Devolder Organization LLC, allowing him to secure contracts valued in the millions of dollars.
He discussed referral fees for various deals but did not disclose the identity of his clients when prompted to do so.
In March 2023, reports emerged that Santos had facilitated the sale of a yacht just before the November election in October of the previous year.
He had brokered the sale of the 141-foot (43 m) Namaste, complete with accommodations for 12 guests and seven crew, featuring a waterfall, infinity pool, and outdoor shower, for $19 million.
The seller was a Florida lawyer, and the buyer was a Long Island car dealer who had made significant contributions to Santos’s campaign committees.
Although the transaction itself was not illegal, the timing and participants raised concerns about potential efforts to evade campaign finance limits or condition his services on campaign contributions, both of which would be illegal.
Federal and state authorities launched investigations into the circumstances surrounding the yacht sale. Santos’s attorney later asserted that he had no involvement in the sale.
Following a quarter in which Santos expended more funds than he raised, he reported receiving $133,000 during the second quarter of 2023.
This amount was relatively low for a candidate in a swing district at this point in the election cycle and notably less than other Republican freshman incumbents in the region and his challengers from both parties.
Most donors were from outside the 3rd district, with many residing in California. Some donors with Chinese or Asian surnames explained that they supported Santos due to his stance against the Chinese Communist Party and because they were admirers of exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo, whom Santos had defended. Others claimed they had donated as a joke or appreciated his conservative voting record.
Santos was granted a 90-day extension for the deadline to file his second-quarter financial disclosure. He should have submitted the required information by the time the extension expired in August, which could result in fines from the House Ethics Committee.
When the 30-day grace period concluded in September and Santos hadn’t filed the required documents, he preferred being “late, but accurate, and willing to pay the fine” rather than submitting an inaccurate report on time and facing potential repercussions.
He clarified that he aimed to wait until November to file his amended 2022 income tax return, ensuring that the information on both forms would align accurately.
Nevertheless, the campaign submitted its third-quarter report in mid-October. This report indicated that $17,000 in contributions had been refunded.
At the same time, $674 was received over the 90 days ending September 30, a meager amount for a campaign in a swing district with several challengers actively fundraising a year before the election. Expenditures totaled $42,000, leaving the campaign with $23,000 on hand.
Furthermore, the report disclosed $120,000 in new debt, which the treasurer’s note suggested had preceded the reporting period.
George Santos’s Personal Life
George Santos is openly gay, and despite previously being out, he was married to a woman from 2012 to 2019. However, he lived with men he was involved with from 2013 onwards.
In October 2022, Santos openly discussed his sexual identity with the media, stating, “I am openly gay and have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade.”
Two months later, during another interview, he said, “I got married at a young age to a young woman, and at the time, we were in love.”
Friends, ex-coworkers, and people who lived with Santos during his adult life have said that he always made it clear that he is gay.
Santos didn’t talk about his marriage to this woman, who was from Brazil, until it came out in December 2022.
In that month, he told the New York Post, “I’ve had relationships with women in the past. I was married to a woman,” and he added that he’s OK with his sexual identity and that people change.
Documents show that they tried to end their marriage in May 2013, but they canceled it in December of the same year.
Four months later, Santos asked immigration services to approve his wife’s immigration application based on their family. They said yes in July 2014, which usually means they thought the marriage was real.
Adriana Parizzi said that the marriage was only so she could come to the U.S., and Santos was given $20,000.
The Washington Post talked to three people who lived with Santos before, and they all agreed with what she said. But Santos says it’s not true.
In 2020, Santos said that he was living with a man named Matheus Gerard, who he now calls his husband. Santos has said that they got married in November 2021.
In popular culture
In early 2023, numerous late-night shows lampooned Santos following extensive media coverage of his fictitious biographical claims.
Bowen Yang, on Saturday Night Live, portrayed Santos, featuring in both the cold open and Weekend Update segments of the January 21, 2023, episode.
Yang returned as Santos for the March 11 episode in a cold open that playfully parodied the 2023 Oscars’ red carpet, humorously impersonating Tom Cruise.
Yang made his third appearance on the October 21 episode, participating in a cold open sketch centered on Rep. Jim Jordan’s unsuccessful bid to become the Speaker of the House, succeeding McCarthy.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, comedian Jon Lovitz humorously impersonated Santos, igniting a lighthearted Twitter feud between them.
Additionally, Santos was parodied by Harvey Guillén and Nelson Franklin on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
As the host of the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, 2023, Jimmy Kimmel delivered a witty remark, jesting that Santos was the “last directing team ever to win an Oscar.”
References
- Official website of George Santos: George Santos – Official Website
- Wikipedia page about George Santos: George Santos – Wikipedia
- Information on George Santos from Wiki2: George Santos on Wiki2
- Astrological insights on George Santos: Astrology of George Santos
- News article about financial fraud charges: Six Charged with Bilking Investors in Phony Movies
- Timeline of George Santos’s life: George Santos – Timeline
- Article discussing a criminal court judge’s perspective: Stockard on the Stump: Criminal Court Judge Balks at State’s Supervision Plan
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