George Santos.Photo: Alex Wong/Getty
CBS Newsreports that while campaigning for the office he currently holds, Santos' team hired an outside firm to investigate his vulnerability as a candidate. The report — which CBS has published in full — found that Santos' background was mired in so much controversy that his aides urged him to drop out of the race. The outlet reports that Santos refused to do so, and many of the aides quit as a result.
Campaign finance reports show that the Santos campaign paid upwards of $16,600 to Capital Research Group, LLC in December 2021. The firm was hired to conduct a vulnerability report, a standard step when it comes to a federal campaign.
From the report: “Santos says his professional experience is working in finance and helping wealth grow, but his personal financial disclosure filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives shows no personal investments or assets.”
One year after the report was released to his campaign, prosecutors would note that Santos had “overstated his income and assets” on his financial disclosure forms.
The vulnerability also flagged some pieces of Santos' personal life, such as a previous marriage to ex-wife Uadla Vieira, who the report said “may not have been a green card holder nor legal to work in the United States around the time of her marriage to Santos.”
Santos, who is the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, has since admitted he was married to a woman in the past — something else that he had previously not disclosed prior to his election.
The13-count indictment, unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charged Santos with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
Nassau County District AttorneyAnne T. Donnelly, who worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate Santos, added that in addition to allegedly collecting unemployment benefits while he was employed and running for Congress, he was believed to have “pocketed campaign contributions and used that money to pay down personal debts and buy designer clothing.”
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The report also pinpointed some of the other controversies that would later surround Santos, such as his earlier claims that he had Baruch College and New York University.
A bombshellNew York Timesreport published in December 2022 (one month after he was elected) found that Santos did not attend either school and that many of the other claims he made on the campaign trail and on his resume were unsubstantiated.
One year prior to theNew York Timesreport, those who wrote the vulnerability report for Santos' own campaign noted that “there was no record of Santos earning any degree from either university.”
Santos himself has acknowledged that he has “embellished” significant portions of his resume, telling theNew York Postthathe lied aboutworking at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he had previously asserted, and had also lied about finishing college.
If Santos is convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the top counts, according to the Justice Department, though recent reports indicate hemay be negotiating a plea deal.
source: people.com
