The Leader Told You So: US Rep-Elect George Santos is a Fraud - and Wanted Criminal
By Niall Fitzgerald
In a story first broken by the North Shore Leader over four months ago, the national media has suddenly discovered that US Congressman-elect George Santos (R-Queens / Nassau) - dubbed "George Scam-tos" by many local political observers - is a deepfake liar who has falsified his background, assets, and contacts. He is fact a wanted petty criminal in Brazil.
The New York Times published a lengthy expose on Santos this week detailing that virtually everything Santos has said, filed and published about himself is a lie.
Santos claims to be a "wealthy man" in corporate finance, who owns mansions in Oyster Bay and the Hamptons; was a graduate of Baruch College and attended New York University; lost four co-workers in the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub massacre; has millions in cash assets - and even spoke at local Synagogues claiming he is Jewish. All lies.
Instead, Santos is a really just a petty criminal from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is currently wanted in Brazil on criminal charges of committing elder fraud and check forgery. He stole checkbooks from the elderly patients of his late mother - who was a home healthcare nurse - and forged the checks to steal merchandise, according to prosecutors in Brazil.
Santos owns no real estate according to the New York Times - and the Leader's earlier reporting. He claimed to own "a mansion" on Tiffany Lane in Oyster Bay Cove, and "a mansion" on Dune Road in the Hamptons. All lies.
Santos never graduated from Baruch College or NYU. Neither school has any record of him, according to the Times. He is a high school drop-out, who earned a High School equivalency diploma.
He claims to have worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup - neither firm has any record of him.
None of the victims of the Pulse mass shooting had any connection to Santos.
And Santos' mother - who passed away in 2016 - and whom Santos claimed was "Jewish" - was instead a devout Catholic named "Fatima" - named by her allegedly "Jewish" parents after a Catholic pilgrimage site in Portugal. Santos shed tears at local synagogues describing how his family "escaped the Holocaust."
Even more serious are the huge financial claims made by Santos in his Federal Election filings and Personal Disclosures filed with the US government. Many of the reports - including an alleged "$600,000 loan" from Santos to his campaign - appear to be fake.
As do huge "disbursements" to Washington DC "consulting firms" that experienced Washington DC professionals say they have never heard of.
"Santos declared his net worth in 2020 to be 'less than $5,000,' but then made a $600,000 loan just a few months later - and now in 2022 he claims he's worth $11 million... it doesn't add up," stated one Long Island political operative.
Lying on federal financial disclosures is a federal criminal felony, with each violation facing up to five (5) years in federal prison.
According to the NYC Courts, Santos was evicted twice in the past five years from rented apartments in Queens - for non-payment of rent.
He claims to now live in a rented apartment in a row house in Queens, however the Times reports that no one knows him at that address.
More disturbing are the connections that Santos does have. A recent report in the Daily Beast, Santos took some $56,000 from a Russian money man named Andrew Intrater - a cousin of Putin crony Viktor Vekselberg, who is under international sanctions.
After receiving the Russian money, Santos attacked Ukraine, claiming the government of Ukrainian President Zelensky was "fascist" and "totalitarian" and implicitly supporting the invasion by Russia. Under criticism, Santos later backtracked and then claimed he was actually "Jewish" and "Ukrainian."
The Leader has previously described Santos as "a Fabulist - a Fake..." who makes "fantasy claims and lies to everyone."
Local political observers have characterized Santos as being like the pathologically-lying con-artist protagonists from the films "Six Degrees of Separation" starring Will Smith, or "The Talented Mr. Ripley" starring Matt Damon. He fools gullible wealthy people into giving him money - and has now conned himself into the US Congress.
Santos will be sworn-in on January 1st, as the new Congressman for New York's 3rd congressional district, which consists of the Towns of Oyster Bay and North Hempstead, and a small portion of northeast Queens.