Lying NY Rep. George Santos hit with federal charges, will surrender Wednesday
Lying Long Island GOP Rep. George Santos has been hit with federal charges and will surrender to authorities Wednesday, The Post has learned.
Santos, 34, who made national headlines late last year by confessing to a series of spectacular fabrications about his background and work experience, is expected to turn himself in early in the morning and will appear in Central Islip federal court, according to a law enforcement source.
The indictment of Santos was first reported by CNN.
The exact charges the Republican lawmaker faces were not immediately clear because the indictment is sealed. However, Santos had been under scrutiny for fundraising practices during his successful 2022 House campaign.
Investigators reportedly were taking a close look at Santos’ financial disclosure filings, on which he reported earning $750,000 from his Devolder Organization consulting firm along with dividends valued between $1 million and $5 million.
As recently as 2020, however, Santos reported making just $55,000 in annual salary.
The filings also show that Santos loaned his campaign to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District more than $700,000.
However, he did not disclose any clients of the Devolder Organization giving him business of more than $5,000 — fueling speculation about how he got the money for the loans.
Santos told the news outlet Semafor in late December, at the time the federal probe was opened, that he earned his wealth through “capital introduction” and “deal making” for “high net worth individuals.”
The congressman’s background was called into question earlier that month after the New York Times reported that he misrepresented a number of biographical details, including where he attended college and his alleged employment history with high-profile Wall Street firms.
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On Dec. 26, Santos came clean to The Post, admitting that he “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he had previously stated.
He also fessed up to never graduating from college, despite previously claiming to have received a degree from Baruch in 2010.
Most shockingly, Santos also admitted to fabricating claims about his heritage after his campaign website stated that his mother was Jewish and his grandparents escaped the Nazis during World War II.
Santos told The Post that he was “clearly Catholic,” but claimed his grandmother told stories about being Jewish and later converting to Catholicism.
“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos said. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”
Santos also not only admitted to lying when he claimed that he owned 13 different properties but acknowledged being a deadbeat tenant in Sunnyside, Queens.
The Times had reported he was ordered by a judge to pay more than $12,000 to a former landlord who claimed non-payment of rent — as well as that Santos had tried to pass a check that bounced.
The lawmaker claimed to The Post that at the time of the lawsuit, his family was deep in medical debt from his mother’s cancer battle.
“We had issues paying rent at the time,” he said.
“It’s the vulnerability of being human. I am not embarrassed by it.”
Asked if he ever actually paid the arrears, Santos admitted: “We didn’t pay it off. I completely forgot about it.”
“I am not a criminal,” Santos told The Post at one point during his December interview.
“This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”
The Brooklyn US Attorney’s office declined to comment when contacted by The Post Tuesday evening.
Santos did not immediately respond to phone calls from The Post on Tuesday evening, but told an Associated Press reporter who contacted him that the charges were “news to me.”
With Carl Campanile
