Washington DC, United States: US Representative, George Santos faces criticism for stealing the identities of the residents, who have donated to his campaign. According to a new indictment filed on Tuesday, Santos used their credit cards to spend tens of thousands of dollars.
The indictment has claimed that the 35-year-old Santos will face ten (10) additional charges. US Rep will be facing – one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the US, one count of access device fraud, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission, two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Additionally, Santos was accused of charging over US$44,000 to his campaign over a period of months. Prosecutors have outlined that he paid this money using the belongings of the contributors, with their permission. Furthermore, he was blamed for charging US$ 12,000 to the credit card of a donor; additionally, he also transferred a “vast majority” of that money to his personal bank account.
Moreover, he was also accused of making false claims that he loaned his campaign worth US$500,000. He reported this to the Federal Election Commission. However, the prosecutors have outlined that he has not given any money to his campaign, as he had just US$8,000 in his bank account.
The indictment mentioned that this fake loan was an effort by Santos to show the officials of the Republican Party that “he was a serious candidate, worth their financial support,” according to the reports by AP.
In this regard, US Attorney – Breon Peace released a statement and outlined, “As alleged, Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign.”
It is a witch hunt, says Santos:
After attending a two-hour-long Republican conference at the US Capitol, Santos interacted with the media personnel. During the engagement, he mentioned that he had no comments. He said, “I was in the conference like everyone else, without my phone, so I have nothing to say,” according to AP.
However, he earlier outlined that he has not done anything and is innocent. Santos further claimed to be a victim of a “witch hunt.”
Despite all the claims, Santos has rubbished the calls to resign, insisting he intends to run for re-election next year.
Santos’ previous indictment
Firstly, Santos was arrested in the month of May on a 13-count federal indictment. At that time, he was blamed for obtaining unemployment benefits meant for Americans who lost their work because of the coronavirus pandemic. He was also accused of using the fund for campaigning for his personal expenses, such as buying designer clothes.
Currently, he is free on bail and has been awaiting trial. He has blamed his former campaign treasurer – Nancy Marks, for all the financial irregularities. In his regard, he claimed that Marks “went rogue.”
It is to be noted that the recent indictment, released on Tuesday, included the names of Marks and Santos. It underscored that both were included in the scheme to fake a US$500,000 campaign loan to gather additional support from a Republican Party Committee.
What’s the matter?
According to the prosecutors, the credit card fraud scheme was started in December 2021. This planned scheme was launched shortly after US Representative Santos was rejected for a Republican Party program. Apparently, the reports mentioned that this program could have granted financial support to his further campaigns.
This new indictment states that Santos was running a multi-part fraud. He was cheating both his donors and his family members.
Reuters shared an example of the same and mentioned that he swiped the credit card information of one of his contributors, who had already donated US$ 5,800 and made a payment of US$ 15,800 but when the contribution limit was exceeded, then he claimed that further payment would be done from his relatives, according to the allegation by prosecutors.