NEW YORK – A new indictment filed Tuesday charged U.S. Rep. George Santos with stealing the identities of donors to his marketing campaign after which the usage of their credit cards to ring up tens of 1000’s of greenbacks in unauthorized charges.
Prosecutors mentioned a few of that stolen cash ended up in his personal checking account.
The 23-count indictment replaces one filed previous in opposition to the New York Republican charging him with embezzling cash from his marketing campaign and mendacity to Congress about his wealth, amongst different offenses.
The new charges come with allegations that he charged greater than $44,000 to his marketing campaign over a duration of months the usage of cards belonging to individuals with out their wisdom. In one case, he charged $12,000 to a contributor’s credit card and transferred the “vast majority” of that cash into his non-public checking account, prosecutors mentioned.
Santos could also be accused of falsely reporting to the Federal Elections Commission that he had loaned $500,000 to his marketing campaign in an try to persuade Republican Party officers that he used to be a significant candidate, when he if truth be told had lower than $8,000 in his non-public accounts.
“As alleged, Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace mentioned in a commentary.
Santos didn’t in an instant go back a textual content and a telephone message in quest of remark. He has up to now maintained his innocence, insisting he is the sufferer of a “witch hunt.”
The new charges deepen the criminal peril for Santos, who most likely faces a long jail time period if convicted. So a ways, he has resisted all calls to renounce, insisting he intends to run for reelection subsequent 12 months.
Santos’ non-public {and professional} biography as a rich businessman started to get to the bottom of quickly after successful election to constitute Long Island and Queens closing 12 months, revealing a tangled internet of deception.
In addition to mendacity to electorate — about his outstanding Wall Street background, Jewish heritage, instructional and athletic achievements, animal rescue paintings, actual property holdings and extra — Santos is accused of sporting out a large number of fraud schemes intended to enrich himself and lie to his donors.
He used to be first of all arrested in May on a 13-count federal indictment, which charged him with the usage of finances earmarked for marketing campaign bills on clothier garments and different non-public bills and improperly acquiring unemployment advantages intended for Americans who misplaced paintings on account of the pandemic.
Free on bail whilst watching for trial, Santos has described his litany of lies as victimless gildings, whilst blaming a few of his monetary irregularities on his former treasurer, Nancy Marks, who he claims “went rogue.”
Last week, Marks, an established Long Island political bookkeeper and shut aide to Santos, pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy charge, telling a pass judgement on that she helped her former boss hoodwink potential donors and Republican birthday celebration officers by way of filing bogus marketing campaign finance experiences.
Tuesday’s indictment mentioned Marks and Santos have been interested by the similar scheme to faux a $500,000 marketing campaign mortgage so as to meet a benchmark that may unencumber further toughen from a Republican Party committee. Santos has now additionally been charged with recording faux donations from no less than 10 other people, all his or Marks’ family members, as a part of the similar effort to make the marketing campaign glance love it hit the ones fundraising targets.
Santos used to be no longer first of all charged within the prison grievance in opposition to Marks, however used to be known in courtroom papers as a “co-conspirator.”
The new indictment alleges a multi-part fraud by Santos, who allegedly duped both his donors and his family members.
In one instance, Santos allegedly swiped the credit card information of one of his contributors, who had already donated $5,800 to the campaign, to give himself an additional $15,800 in payments, the indictment said. Because the unauthorized charges exceeded contribution limits under federal law, Santos listed the additional payments as coming from his own unwitting relatives, prosecutors allege.
Financial questions have continued to swirl around Santos, who claimed to be rich but spent much of his adulthood bouncing between low-paying jobs and unemployment, while fending off eviction cases and two separatecriminal charges touching on to his use of unhealthy assessments.
A separate fundraiser for Santos, Sam Miele, was also previously indicted on federal charges that he impersonated a high-ranking congressional aide while soliciting contributions for the Republican’s campaign.
Prosecutors said Miele, 27, impersonated the former chief of staff to GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who at the time was the House minority leader, by setting up dummy email addresses that resembled the staffer’s name.
Miele’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, up to now predicted his shopper could be exonerated at trial.
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