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In an indictment filed on Tuesday, October 10, Republican Congressman George Anthony Devolder Santos, popularly known as George Santos, was hit with an onslaught of charges, all based around his 2022 election into Congress. He was charged with Conspiracy, Wire Fraud, False Statements, Falsification of Records, Aggravated Identity Theft, and Credit Card Fraud.
Although a few netizens talked about the sheer number of charges the freshman congressman was hit with, people were not surprised to see yet another congressman indicted with corruption and financial fraud charges. On a rather weird tangent, many people were more interested in talking about his photograph. One X user commented:
Netizens applaud charges against George Santos
A lot of netizens were not surprised by the charges against George Santos. Most X users treated the indictment like an everyday occurrence. The comments on the platform were remarkably against the congressman, with some even pointing out that it was "good" that he was charged.
The comments section under Pop Crave's tweet about the subject, which amassed over 9.5 million views, was much more interested in talking about the picture of George Santos that they had used in their tweet. Some users humorously commented that the photograph convinced them that he was guilty.
George Santos stole from his campaign donors
George Anthony Devolder Santos is a Republican politician who serves as the representative for New York's 3rd congressional district. He had previously unsuccessfully competed in elections in 2020, but in 2022, he successfully replaced the incumbent, Thomas Richard Suozzi. He is also the first openly LGBTQ+ Republican congressman.
On October 10, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York released a press release detailing that a 23-count superseding indictment had been filed against George Santos. According to the press release, Santos was charged with:
"one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of access device fraud."
This was in addition to the earlier charges against him, made in a previous indictment in May of this year. He was previously charged with three counts of money laundering, seven counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the United States House of Representatives, and one count of theft of public funds.
Santos and his campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, allegedly conspired, devised, and executed a scheme to submit false reports to the FEC on behalf of Santos' 2022 election campaign to obtain funds for his campaign. They allegedly inflated their figures in the report submitted to the FEC.
This fraudulent scheme was allegedly committed for Santos' campaign to qualify for a National Party Committee program that would endow their campaign with logistical and financial support. Santos' campaign had to raise a minimum of $250,000 in a single quarter from third-party contributors to qualify for this program.
They falsely reported to the FEC that these financial benchmarks were met by claiming that around 10 of their family members had made significant contributions to the campaign. In reality, these people did not provide such contributions or authorization for their details to be used in the false reports.
Furthermore, they falsely reported to the FEC that Santos had loaned the campaign $500,000 when he had $8,000 in all his accounts. This was allegedly done with the realization that candidate qualifications for the program were judged based on FEC fundraising data.
Apart from this, both George Santos and Nancy Marks also engaged in a credit card fraud scheme where they allegedly stole their campaign donors' identity and financial information. Santos, without authorization, repeatedly charged these credit cards to his campaign, other candidates' campaigns, and his personal bank account.
Santos once again falsely reported that the funds came from associates and family to bypass campaign contribution limits and hide the original source of the funds. Yet again, these people did not authorize their identities to be used in these false reports. Santos is set to appear in Federal court on October 27.
