serial liar George Santos appeared on Capitol Hill on his first day as an elected congressman Tuesday, amid new accusations of dishonesty. Looks like a freshman Republic Can’t get through the first day without lying.
On Wednesday morning, Santos’ website announced that he voted “no” on the House of Commons multiple spending bill.
The problem: the vote took place on December 23 – weeks before Santos took office.
He also submitted a false statement on his first day that he was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives. (To be fair, even though the messaging appears to have been automated and several other freshman legislators have done the same—perhaps not expecting the fight for the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Republicans will last.)
It’s been a rough few weeks for Santos, 34—a flamboyant Republican candidate elected to represent Nassau County and parts of Queens in November 2022.
Investigate the explosion The New York Times last month began a wave of accusations against Santos for blatant lies. He has been caught lying about everything from his ancestry, family background, education, work history, finances, and philanthropic efforts.
Daily Beast previously revealed that Santos’ most recent employer was accused by federal prosecutors of a Ponzi scheme.
When Santos took office, he under investigation by Nassau district attorney Ann Donnelly, who said his fabrications were “nothing surprising.” New York Attorney General Letitia James also said her office is looking into Santos.
While we wait to see what Santos has in store for us next, here’s a roundup of all the biggest lies Santos allegedly told.
New York congressman-elect George Santos.
David Becker
That he is a biracial descendant of Ukrainian Jews
Santos, who was born to Brazilian immigrant parents in Queens, has repeatedly said that although he is Catholic, he identifies himself as a non-Christian Jew.
In his campaign biography, Santos writes that his maternal grandparents were Jewish who fled persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, fled again during World War II, and eventually settled in Brazil. He said the family changed their original name – that of Zabrovsky – in a February interview with Fox News.
This story has become a key part of his political sales package. He was elected in a county that includes the North Shore of Long Island and parts of Queens, which is 20% Jewish.
“I’ve seen how socialism destroys people’s lives because my grandparents survived the Holocaust,” Santos said in a 2021 campaign video.
Santos also wrote an article about views shared with pro-Israel groups, including the Israeli-American Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which he identifies as an “American Jew.” proud”.
Several stores, including striker and CNN, examined the legacy of Santos’ mother and found no evidence of Jewish ancestry. Santos’ maternal grandparents were born in Brazil and have no Ukrainian or Jewish roots, according to genealogy websites reviewed by striker.
“I never identified myself as a Jew,” Mr. Santos said New York Post Office. “I am a Catholic. Because I knew my maternal family was of Jewish origin, I said I was ‘Jew’.
Elsewhere, Santos claims to be of Angolan origin, and in tweets from 2020 are identified as “two races.”
That he attended the elite private school Horace Mann and Baruch College
In his 2019 campaign bio, Santos claims he attended Horace Mann, a private school in the Bronx, but was forced to withdraw due to family financial difficulties.
“They sent me to a good prep school, which is Horace Mann Prep in the Bronx. And, in my senior year of prep school, unfortunately, my parents fell on hard times, what would later become known as the 2008 recession,” Santos said in a YouTube interview in 2009. 2020, and stated that he had to drop out of school 4 months earlier. graduating.
A spokesman told CNN that the school found no evidence that Santos had ever attended.
Santos also claims to have graduated from Baruch College in 2010 and had a stint at New York University. Again, officials could find no records of him. Santos later admitted New York Post Office that he has not graduated from Baruch or any other university.
That his mother died from 9/11
Santos testified that his mother, Fatima Devolder, was “the first female CEO of a major financial institution” and worked at the World Trade Center.
“September 11 took my mother’s life,” Santos wrote on Twitter in July 2021.
“George’s mother was in her office in the South Tower on September 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded,” Santos’ biography posted on the website of the Party’s National Assembly Committee National Republic writes. “She survived the tragic events of September 11, but she passed away a few years later battling cancer.”
In fact, Devolder works as a housekeeper, cook, and nurse. She speaks Portuguese, but not English, as reported by New York Times. In 2008, while living in Brazil at the age of 19, Santos stole the checkbook from a man his mother was caring for and used it to buy shoes. He later confessed and was charged, according to Brazilian court records seen by the newspaper. Santos left the country before the case was resolved.
Santos’ mother died on December 23, 2016—15 years after the 9/11 attacks, according to her obituary.
That he’s a big guy on Wall Street
After allegedly “grading” from college, Santos claimed to have worked at Citigroup as an assistant wealth manager in the real estate division, according to the investigative agency. time. A Citigroup spokesperson told the newspaper that not only did Santos not work there, but that job title also did not exist.
Next, Santos said he left Citigroup for Goldman Sachs, where he said he broke the company culture, but ultimately didn’t find the job “satisfying.”
“Have you ever heard of a Goldman Sachs employee taking the stage at the largest private equity conference in the world – SALT, run by Anthony Scaramucci – and berating their boss? Well, I did it,” Santos said to a audio files in the summer of 2022. “And I did it in terms of renewable energy and global warming. This is the panel I joined. And they’re all talking about solar, wind, and this was back, what, seven years ago? And I said, you know what, this is a scam. It’s subsidized taxpayer money.”
A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs told time Santos never worked there. Anthony Scarmucci told CNN that not only did Santos not attend the panel at his conference, but he never even attended.
Santos admits New York Post Office that he had never worked directly for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, saying instead that he had worked at Link Bridge, a company that had a business relationship with those two companies.
“My sin here is to fabricate my résumé. I’m sorry,” Santos said to Parcel.
That he runs a charity organization save thousands of dogs
After his supposed Wall Street career, Santos claims to have turned to philanthropy. In an online bio, he claims to have founded Friends of Pets United, a non-profit animal rescue organization, in 2013. Over five years, the group has been “effectively rescuing 2,400 dogs and 280 cats, and successfully conducted TNR (trapping, spaying and releasing) of over 3000 cats,” he said. Written.
In 2017, Santos hosted a fundraiser for the nonprofit, charging $50 a person to enter an event complete with drinks, a live band, and a raffle, according to reports. Time. But the person Santos claimed to be donating the money had never received the money, she told the newspaper.
Neither the IRS nor the New York or New Jersey attorney general’s office could find any records of Friends of Pets United being registered as a charity. time establish.
Four of his employees died in the Pulse . nightclub shooting
While being interviewed by WNYC in November, Santos announced that his company lost four employees in the Pulse LGBTQ nightclub massacre in Orlando in 2016. time reviewed obituaries and bulletins about the shooting, and found that none of the 49 victims appeared to work for Santos.
Congressman-elect George Devolder Santos in November.
Newsday Co., Ltd
That he was always ‘openly gay’
Santos’ identity as a proud gay man is central to his campaign. He is the first openly gay non-incumbent GOP candidate elected to Congress and claims that he has “never experienced discrimination within the Republican Party.” Even so, he did support Florida’s so-called “Gay No Proposition” signed into law this year by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Now it seems that Santos may not have been completely open about his sexuality. The Daily Beast found him not to mention that he was married to a woman and the divorce was completed only 12 days before he launched his first congressional campaign in 2020, in which he described himself as a Communist. pride harmony.
That he runs a family business worth millions
Santos’s mysterious financial hub lies with the Devolder Foundation, a family real estate company that Santos claims to have managed $80 million in assets. Santos paid $700,000 from Devolder for his campaign, a payment campaign finance experts say may add to an illegal corporate contribution.
In a year 2021 campaign biography, Santos identified himself as a “Management Member” of a company he described as a “capital referral consulting firm” in congressional financial disclosures. However, the company does not have a website or LinkedIn page, and Santos does not list any of the company’s clients in its disclosures.
Santos reportedly received a $750,000 salary and $1 million in dividends from Devolder, according to the report. Time.
That he manages a real estate empire
In tweets From February 2021, Santos also claims to be the owner of at least 13 properties and complains of being adversely affected by New York’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium.
“Will our landlord ever be able to regain ownership of his property?” Santos wrote. “Me and my family are celebrating 1 year without rent on 13 properties!!! The state is collecting their taxes, but we don’t get any help from the government. We worked hard to acquire these properties.”
Neither Santos nor the Devolder Foundation appear to own any properties in New York City or Nassau County, according to a review of his financial disclosures and city property records. time.
In fact time was found, Santos himself was twice evicted from apartments in Queens. In 2015, he was evicted after owed $2,250 in unpaid rent. Santos claims that he was robbed on the streets of New York while on his way to pay this rent, according to Gothamist. The NYPD found no records of the incident.
Two years later, he was evicted again by another landlord, this time because he owed more than $10,000 in five-month rent.
