Who is George Santos?, the congressman who made a lie with his life

Who is George Santos? That’s the question many Americans have been asking themselves for months, when endless castle of lies which the Republican congressman built for years and which enabled him to reach the House of Representatives began to collapse.

This Wednesday, the falsehoods of the politician of Brazilian origin finally brought him to justice, accused of thirteen counts of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and perjury, for which he faces up to twenty years in prison.

Santos arrived in Washington presenting himself as a perfect example of the American dream: the humble son of immigrants that he managed to achieve a successful career on Wall Street and then jump into politics. In addition, he would be the first Republican openly gay elected to Congress.

The problem is that most of his biography turned out to be falsewhich became known in the months after his unexpected electoral triumph in the parliamentary elections last year.

More than an embellished curriculum

In December, one month after the mid-term parliamentary elections, The New York Times He published a devastating investigation that questioned virtually his entire curriculum.

He did not work for the banks Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, as he claimed; there was no trace of his time at university nor about his alleged real estate business; not even that the animal rescue NGO he claimed to have founded was actually a charity.

“My sins here embellish my resume. I’m sorry,” Santos apologized after these untruths came to light and admitted that, indeed, I did not have a completed higher education nor was he an employee of those important financial institutions.

But as soon as the media began to investigate, it quickly became known that the lies of the 34-year-old legislator – elected in Dugo Island Districteast of New York- went much further and that, besides, might be covering up some crimes

Among other things, it became known that a few years ago he was accused of fraud in Brazila crime he allegedly confessed to, but was not punished for because the state judiciary could not find him.

Doubts also arose as to how he went from a person reported for non-payment of rent in 2015 and 2017 to the alleged owner of several properties in 2021, despite the fact that in the meantime he had reported modest wages and had not filed accounts. authority of none of them.

In 2019, Santos launched an unsuccessful first campaign for Congress presenting himself as big fan of donald trump and went through several failed deals that year and the next, including an investment firm that authorities accused of orchestrating a pyramid scheme.

When preparations for the next election arrived, Santos he obviously had money to spare that he lends his campaign significant amounts of money and counts on large revenues from his company, the Devolder Organization, a company of which there is almost no public trace and whose clients are unknown.

During the campaign, in addition, he left behavior that is less financially suspicious, for example, highlighting among his election expenses up to 37 charges of the exact same amount, $199.99for all kinds of services, from office supplies to hotels and Uber rides.

The amount is precise a dime less the one that obliges the candidates to submit a payment certificate to the election monitoring body.

lies of all kinds

Santos’ falsehoods, however, were never limited to professionals, as he made a series of statements in interviews and other appearances that turned out to be fully manufactured.

Seemingly innocuous lies, like the one when he gave numerous details about his successes in volleyball team from a university which it later became known that he did not even attend, or when he repeatedly assured that he did his mother worked on the twin towers during the September 11 attacks, while in reality he was living in Brazil during those years.

But others with multiple motives, such as the fact that he lied claiming to be of Jewish origin who escaped the holocaust just as he was seeking election in a district with an important community of that origin.

All this eventually led to the local part of the Republican Party distancing itself from him, but in Washington his co-religionists they did nothing to drive him out of the place in which Santos promised to continue.

So far, even after his arrest and indictment on Wednesday, Republicans have made it clear they plan to take no action.