Republican George Santos accused of impersonating voters and using their credit cards | International

Like his predecessor, Donald Trump, New York Republican Congressman George Santos is on the verge of a massive indictment. Santos, who already faces fraud and money laundering charges, was accused Tuesday of stealing the identities of donors to his campaign and then using their credit cards to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges. Prosecutors say some of the stolen money ended up in his own bank account. The new 23-count indictment replaces another indictment previously filed against the Republican, which accused him of embezzling campaign funds and lying to Congress about his assets, among other crimes.

Santos, 35, was elected to represent Long Island and the Queens (New York) district in last November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans swept the state’s Democratic Party by picking up four traditional seats. Thanks to journalist Andrew Silverstein’s investigation, it immediately resonated The New York Times, shortly after the hoaxes around which he built his biography and his personal biography began to be known. The new charges filed Tuesday are in addition to charges brought against him in May, which accused him of stealing public funds and lying on federal information forms. The lawmaker, who has proven his lies and has not resigned despite planning to run for re-election next year, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges, wire fraud and money laundering. The money, at the time, was provided by the office of Brooklyn federal prosecutor Brian Pease.

Although he has admitted that he fabricated entire chapters of his biography, Santos has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has repeatedly rejected calls to resign from Democrats and some of his fellow Republicans. He has only temporarily stepped down from two House of Representatives committees he was appointed to serve after taking over his minutes in January. He did that, he later promised, and the investigation into his controversial lies, which had already been widely proven, lasted.

The new charges include allegations that he charged his campaign more than $44,000 over several months using cards belonging to contributors without their knowledge. On one occasion, he spent $12,000 on the taxpayer’s credit card and transferred “most” of that money to his personal bank account, prosecutors said.

Santos is also accused of falsely telling the Federal Election Commission that he loaned his campaign $500,000 in an effort to convince Republican Party officials that he was a serious and creditable candidate, when he actually had less than $8,000 in the bank. Although he boasted of a comfortable social and financial situation during the campaign, with the ownership of several properties and accounts, press inquiries demolished his facade of success and revealed that he shared a house with his mother and brothers and other tenants. Enclave in New York. The same can be said about his supposed university degree and the first steps of his career on Wall Street: all are the result of his fiction.

“Allegedly, Santos stole people’s identities and lied to the FEC about charging his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization. [Comisión Electoral Federal, en sus siglas inglesas] and, by extension, to the public about the financial status of his campaign,” attorney Pease said in a statement.

In addition to lying to voters about a successful career on Wall Street, his academic and athletic achievements, animal rescue and his Jewish heritage — he did so in a district home to descendants of Holocaust victims — it was immediately unraveled. Silverstein -, the web of pathological imaginations he weaves into politics is one of the worst sins a public figure in America, and a politician in particular, can commit.

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