Former U.S. Consultant George Anthony Devolder Santos pleaded responsible at the moment to committing wire fraud and aggravated id theft.
In pleading responsible, Santos, 36, of Queens, New York, admitted he filed fraudulent FEC reviews, embezzled funds from marketing campaign donors, charged bank cards with out authorization, stole identities, obtained unemployment advantages by means of fraud, and lied in reviews to the Home of Representatives.
“As a part of his marketing campaign for election to the U.S. Home of Representatives, George Santos dedicated fraud and id theft, and lied to the American individuals about his private funds and marketing campaign supporters,” stated Principal Deputy Assistant Lawyer Normal Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Division’s Felony Division. “In doing so, Santos violated legal guidelines designed to make sure that the general public has correct details about the non-public funds of people who search to signify them in Congress and the way their political campaigns are funded. The transparency and accuracy that these legal guidelines require are important to the integrity of the election course of, and at the moment’s conviction is proof that the Felony Division is dedicated to imposing them.”
“In the present day, for what might appear to be the primary time since he began his marketing campaign for Congress, Mr. Santos advised the reality about his legal schemes. He admitted to mendacity, stealing and conning individuals,” stated U.S. Lawyer Breon Peace for the Jap District of New York. “By pleading responsible, Mr. Santos has acknowledged that he repeatedly defrauded federal and state authorities establishments in addition to his family, supporters and constituents. His flagrant and disgraceful conduct has been uncovered and will probably be punished. Mr. Santos’s conviction demonstrates this Workplace’s enduring dedication to rooting out corruption and grift by public officers.”
“In the present day, George Santos admitted that he did in reality lie, cheat, and steal his option to elected workplace,” stated Appearing Assistant Director in Cost Christie M. Curtis of the FBI’s New York Area Workplace. “When public officers place their self-interests above these they swore an oath to serve, it undermines confidence in our system of presidency and damages the very basis of our democracy. The FBI is dedicated to investigating and eradicating public corruption—irrespective of the shape it takes.”
“George Santos lied to his constituents, cheated his supporters and fairly merely made a mockery of his place in public workplace,” stated Agent in Cost Thomas M. Fattorusso of IRS-Felony Investigations New York. “In the present day’s responsible plea is a step in direction of getting justice for these he has wronged. IRS-CI New York labored intently with the Jap District of New York, the FBI and Nassau County DA’s workplace to make sure that Santos faces the results for his years of fraud and deceit, as a result of corruption is to not be tolerated.”
The Get together Program Scheme
Throughout the 2022 election cycle, Santos was a candidate for the U.S. Home of Representatives in New York’s Third Congressional District. Nancy Marks, who pleaded responsible in October 2023 to associated conduct, was the treasurer for his marketing campaign committee, Devolder-Santos for Congress. Throughout the election cycle, Santos and Marks devised and executed a fraudulent scheme to acquire cash for the marketing campaign by submitting materially false reviews to the Federal Election Fee (FEC) on behalf of the marketing campaign, through which they inflated the marketing campaign’s fundraising numbers for the aim of deceptive the FEC, a nationwide get together committee, and the general public.
Particularly, the aim of the scheme was to make sure that Santos and his marketing campaign certified for a program administered by the nationwide get together committee, pursuant to which the nationwide get together committee would offer monetary and logistical assist to Santos’s marketing campaign. To qualify for this system, Santos needed to display that his congressional marketing campaign had raised at the very least $250,000 from third-party contributors in a single quarter.
To create the general public look that his marketing campaign had met that monetary benchmark and was in any other case financially viable, Santos and Marks agreed to falsely report back to the FEC that at the very least 10 relations of Santos and Marks had made important monetary contributions to the marketing campaign. The truth is, Santos and Marks each knew that these people had neither made the reported contributions nor given authorization for his or her private data to be included in such false public reviews. As well as, understanding that the nationwide get together committee relied on FEC fundraising information to guage candidates’ qualification for this system, Santos and Marks agreed to falsely report back to the FEC that Santos had loaned the marketing campaign important sums of cash, when, in reality, Santos had not made the reported loans and, on the time the loans had been reported, didn’t have the funds essential to make such loans. These false reported loans included a $500,000 mortgage, when in reality Santos had lower than $8,000 in his private and enterprise financial institution accounts.
By way of the execution of this scheme, Santos and Marks ensured that Santos met the mandatory monetary benchmarks to qualify for this system administered by the nationwide get together committee. Because of qualifying for this system, the congressional marketing campaign obtained important monetary assist.
As a part of his plea settlement, Santos stipulated that he had engaged within the beneath further legal conduct, as set forth within the second superseding indictment and different court docket filings, and agreed that this legal conduct will probably be thought-about by the Courtroom on the time of sentencing.
The Credit score Card Fraud Scheme
Between roughly July 2020 and October 2022, Santos devised and executed a fraudulent scheme to steal the non-public id and monetary data of contributors to his marketing campaign. He then charged contributors’ bank cards repeatedly, with out their authorization. Due to these unauthorized transactions, funds had been transferred to Santos’s marketing campaign, to the campaigns of different candidates for elected workplace, and to his personal checking account. To hide the true supply of those funds and to bypass marketing campaign contribution limits, Santos falsely represented in filings with the FEC that a few of the marketing campaign contributions had been made by different individuals, akin to his kinfolk or associates, quite than the true cardholders. Santos didn’t have authorization to make use of their names on this method.
Fraudulent Political Contribution Solicitation Scheme
Starting in September 2022, throughout his profitable marketing campaign for Congress, Santos operated a restricted legal responsibility firm (Firm #1) by means of which he defrauded potential political supporters. Santos enlisted a Queens-based political advisor (Particular person #1) to speak with potential donors on Santos’s behalf. Santos directed Particular person #1 to falsely inform donors that, amongst different issues, their cash can be used to assist elect Santos to the Home, together with by buying tv ads. In reliance on these false statements, two supporters (Contributor #1 and Contributor #2) every transferred $25,000 to Firm #1’s checking account, which Santos managed.
Shortly after the funds had been obtained into Firm #1’s checking account, the cash was transferred into Santos’s private financial institution accounts—in a single occasion laundered by means of two of Santos’s private accounts. Santos then used a lot of that cash for private bills. Amongst different issues, Santos used the funds to make private purchases (together with of designer clothes), to withdraw money, to discharge private money owed, and to switch cash to his associates.
Unemployment Insurance coverage Fraud Scheme
Starting in roughly February 2020, Santos was employed as a Regional Director of a Florida-based funding agency (Funding Agency #1). By late-March 2020, in response to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the USA, new laws was signed into legislation that offered further federal funding to help out-of-work People throughout the pandemic.
In mid-June 2020, though he was employed and was not eligible for unemployment advantages, Santos utilized for presidency help by means of the New York State Division of Labor (NYS DOL), falsely claiming to have been unemployed since March 2020. From that time till April 2021—throughout which period Santos was working and receiving a wage on a near-continuous foundation, and all through his first unsuccessful run for Congress—he falsely affirmed every week that he was eligible for unemployment advantages when he was not. In consequence, Santos fraudulently obtained greater than $24,000 in unemployment insurance coverage advantages.
False Statements to the Home of Representatives
Santos, like all candidates for the Home, had a authorized responsibility to file with the Clerk of the U.S. Home of Representatives a Monetary Disclosure Assertion (Home Disclosures) earlier than every election. In his Home Disclosures, Santos was personally required to present a full and full accounting of his property, revenue, and liabilities, amongst different issues. He licensed that his Home Disclosures had been true, full, and proper.
In September 2022, in connection along with his second marketing campaign for election to the Home, Santos filed a Home Disclosure, through which he vastly overstated his revenue and property. On this Home Disclosure, he falsely licensed that throughout the reporting interval:
- He had earned $750,000 in wage from the Devolder Group LLC, a Florida‑primarily based entity of which Santos was the only useful proprietor;
- He had obtained between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000 in dividends from the Devolder Group LLC;
- He had a checking account with deposits of between $100,001 and $250,000; and
- He had a financial savings account with deposits of between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000.
These assertions had been false. Santos had not obtained from the Devolder Group LLC the reported quantities of wage or dividends and didn’t keep checking or financial savings accounts with deposits within the reported quantities. Additional, Santos didn’t disclose that, in 2021, he obtained roughly $28,000 in revenue from Funding Agency #1 and greater than $20,000 in unemployment insurance coverage advantages from the New York State Division of Labor.
Santos is scheduled to be sentenced on February 7, 2025, and faces a compulsory minimal of two years in jail and a most of twenty-two years in jail. A federal district court docket choose will decide any sentence after contemplating the U.S. Sentencing Pointers and different statutory elements.
As a part of the responsible plea, Santos can pay restitution of $373, 749.97 and forfeiture of $205, 002.97.
Trial Attorneys Jacob Steiner and John Taddei of the Felony Division’s Public Integrity Part, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Harris, Anthony Bagnuola, and Laura Zuckerwise for the Jap District of New York are prosecuting the case. Former Trial Lawyer Jolee Porter and Litigation Counsel Victor R. Salgado offered substantial contributions to the prosecution.
