Disgraced former Republican Congressman George Santos could be facing 22-years in jail after admitting wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The 36-year-old, of Queens, New York, admitted filing fraudulent FEC reports and embezzling funds from campaign donors. He also charged credit cards without authorization, stole identities, obtained unemployment benefits through fraud, and lied in reports to the House of Representatives.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said:
“As part of his campaign for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, George Santos committed fraud and identity theft, and lied to the American people about his personal finances and campaign supporters.
“In doing so, Santos violated laws designed to ensure that the public has accurate information about the personal finances of individuals who seek to represent them in Congress and how their political campaigns are funded.
“The transparency and accuracy that these laws require are essential to the integrity of the election process, and today’s conviction is proof that the Criminal Division is committed to enforcing them.”
The Party Program Scheme
Santos was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York’s Third Congressional District. Nancy Marks, who admitted offences in 2023, was the treasurer of his campaign committee.
During the election cycle, Santos and Marks devised and executed a fraudulent scheme to obtain money for the campaign. This was by submitting false reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on behalf of the campaign. They inflated the campaign’s fundraising numbers for the purpose of misleading the FEC, a national party committee, and the public.
The specific aim of the scheme was to ensure Santos and his campaign qualified for a program administered by the national party committee. This meant the national party committee would provide financial and logistical support to Santos’s campaign. To qualify, Santos had to demonstrate his campaign had raised at least $250,000 from third-party contributors in a single quarter.
Santos and Marks agreed to falsely report to the FEC at least 10 of their family members had made significant financial contributions to the campaign. In fact, none of these people had made the reported contributions. They had also not given authorization for their personal information to be included in such false public reports.
The national party committee relied on FEC fundraising data to evaluate candidates’ qualification for the program. Santos and Marks agreed to falsely report to the FEC Santos had loaned the campaign significant sums of money.
Santos had not made the reported loans and did not have the money needed to make such loans. The loans included a $500,000 loan, when Santos had less than $8,000 in his personal and business bank accounts.
The scheme ensured Santos met the necessary financial benchmarks to qualify for the program administered by the national party committee. As a result of qualifying for the program, the congressional campaign received significant financial support.
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The Credit Card Fraud Scheme
Between approximately July 2020 and October 2022, Santos carried out another scheme to steal the personal identity and financial information of contributors to his campaign. He then charged contributors’ credit cards repeatedly, without their authorization. The unauthorized transactions meant funds were transferred to Santos’s campaign,. They were also transferred to the campaigns of other candidates for elected office, and to his own bank account.
Santos then falsely claimed in filings with the FEC some of the contributions were made by other people, such as his relatives or associates, rather than the true cardholders. He did not have authorization to use their names in this way.
Fraudulent Political Contribution Solicitation Scheme
This fraud started during Santos’s successful campaign for Congress.
This involved a limited liability company through which he defrauded prospective political supporters. He enlisted a Queens-based political consultant (Person #1) to communicate with prospective donors on Santos’s behalf.
Santos directed Person #1 to falsely tell donors their money would be used to help elect Santos to the House, including by purchasing television advertisements. In reliance on these false statements, two supporters (Contributor #1 and Contributor #2) each transferred $25,000 to Company #1’s bank account, which Santos controlled.
Shortly after the funds were received into Company #1’s bank account, the money was transferred into Santos’s personal bank accounts. This money was laundered through two of Santos’s personal accounts. He then used much of that money for personal expenses.
He used the cash to buy designer clothes, withdraw cash, pay off his debts and pay his associates.
Unemployment Insurance Fraud Scheme
Beginning in approximately February 2020, Santos was employed as a Regional Director of a Florida-based investment firm (Investment Firm #1). By late-March 2020, after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, new legislation was signed into law that provided additional federal funding to assist out-of-work Americans during the pandemic.
Santos was employed and not eligible for unemployment benefits. However, he applied for government assistance through the New York State Department of Labor (NYS DOL). He falsely claimed to have been unemployed since March 2020.
He was claiming until April 2021, despite working and receiving a salary. During his first unsuccessful run for Congress, he claimed he was unemployed and received benefits. He received more than $24,000 during the period.
False Statements to the House of Representatives
Santos, like all candidates for the House, had a legal duty to file a Financial Disclosure Statement (House Disclosures) before each election. In his House Disclosures, Santos was required to give a full and complete accounting of his assets, income, and liabilities, among other things. He certified that his House Disclosures were true, complete, and correct.
In September 2022, in connection with his second campaign for election to the House, Santos filed a House Disclosure, in which he vastly overstated his income and assets.
In this House Disclosure, he falsely certified that during the reporting period:
- He had earned $750,000 in salary from the Devolder Organization LLC, a Florida‑based entity of which Santos was the sole beneficial owner;
- He had received between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000 in dividends from the Devolder Organization LLC;
- He had a checking account with deposits of between $100,001 and $250,000; and
- He had a savings account with deposits of between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000.
These assertions were fake.
He had not received the amounts claimed from the Devolder Organization LLC and did not maintain checking or savings accounts with deposits in the reported amounts. He also failed to disclose that, in 2021, he received approximately $28,000 in income from Investment Firm #1 and more than $20,000 in unemployment insurance benefits from the New York State Department of Labor.
Maximum sentence of 22 years
Santos is scheduled to be sentenced on February 7, 2025. He faces a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of 22 years. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
As part of the guilty plea, Santos will pay restitution of $373, 749.97 and forfeiture of $205, 002.97.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York, said:
“Today, for what may seem like the first time since he started his campaign for Congress, Mr. Santos told the truth about his criminal schemes. He admitted to lying, stealing and conning people.
“By pleading guilty, Mr. Santos has acknowledged that he repeatedly defrauded federal and state government institutions as well as his own family, supporters and constituents. His flagrant and disgraceful conduct has been exposed and will be punished. Mr. Santos’s conviction demonstrates this Office’s enduring commitment to rooting out corruption and grift by public officials.”
