It turns out the congressman who engaged in a bunch of easily disprovable biographical lies might also have engaged in a bunch of easily provable financial crimes.
Santos was indicted on 13 counts: eight related to an allegedly fraudulent campaign finance scheme, three related to alleged unemployment fraud and two for allegedly fraudulent statements to Congress on his personal financial disclosures. The Justice Department says he faces “a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the top counts.”
The charges laid out are perhaps a little smaller-scale than some of the big questions about Santos’s finances might have suggested. But the speed at which Justice Department investigators were able to assemble this case — four months after Santos was sworn in to Congress and less than five months after his many lies were first brought to the nation’s attention — suggests that it wasn’t that difficult to piece together.
As important, the charges indicate a compelling paper trail. The seemingly damning case will also apply pressure on Republicans who, recognizing the importance of Santos’s vote in a closely divided House, have largely shrugged off his lies, despite their helping him get elected, and urged patience as legal matters against him progress.
Here’s a look at the charges.
Counts 1 through 8: A campaign fundraising scheme and money laundering
The indictment describes Santos’s personal communications instructing an associate to falsely tell prospective donors that Santos’s company was a 501(c)(4) nonprofit or an independent expenditure committee that was solely devoted to electing him to Congress and would help run TV ads.
Two $25,000 contributions to the company were then transferred to Santos’s bank accounts, the indictment says, and he used the money for personal debts and “luxury designer clothing.” It says the money was not used for TV ads or any other independent expenditures.
Among the Santos communications cited? In a September 2022 text, he told the associate that the company was “a small C4,” which existed “just to help this race.” In addition, a solicitation to a donor in October 2022 included an attachment saying that the company was created for the “singular purpose, to support that candidate, George Santos” and was “dedicating all its resources” to the campaign. The indictment says Santos “personally approved” the attachment. Later, Santos allegedly texted the donor directly while claiming that the money would be spent “on TV” ads.
Maximum sentence: 20 years in prison for wire fraud (counts 1 through 5), 10 years for unlawful monetary transactions (counts 6 through 8)
Counts 9 through 11: Unemployment fraud
Santos allegedly applied for and received about $25,000 in unemployment insurance benefits under the pandemic-era Cares Act. For 10 months in 2020 and 2021, he claimed to have been unemployed since March 2020, the indictment says.
In fact, the indictment alleges, he was drawing an estimated $120,000 salary as a regional director of a Florida-based investment firm. It says his bank account shows regular deposits from the firm except for one two-month period.
Maximum sentence: 1 year for theft of public money (count 9), 20 years for wire fraud (counts 10 and 11)
Counts 12 and 13: False statements to Congress
The indictment cites both of Santos’s 2020 and 2022 personal financial disclosures to the House (he was also a candidate in 2020) as being fraudulent.
In 2020, he claimed $55,000 in earned income from a company. But records allegedly show he received only $27,555 from that company. He also allegedly failed to report more than $25,000 in income from the investment firm, a separate company.
In 2022, he claimed significantly more income — $750,000 from his company, the Devolder Organization LLC — and an additional $1 million to $5 million in unearned dividends. This, combined with Santos’s extensive self-funding of his campaign, has led to theories about where that money might have suddenly come from for a man who previously earned so little. (Questions certainly remain.)
But the indictment says he didn’t receive those amounts at all and had no bank accounts showing those figures. He also failed to disclose his unemployment insurance income and money from his salary with the investment firm.
Maximum sentence: 5 years for false statements