George Santos.Photo: Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty
For months, freshman U.S. Rep. George Santos has made headlines for various claims made on the campaign trail, on his website and on his personal resumé — many of which turned out to be false.
The fabrications came to light after a bombshellNew York Timesreport revealed that a large portion of Santos' biography could not be substantiated. The allegations that he misled voters about his level of education, previous jobs and family ties to the Holocaust quickly earned bipartisan condemnation for misrepresenting himself.
Some of the mystery surrounding Santos' background — particularly when it comes to his finances — even sparked more serious consequences, leading to a multi-agency criminal investigation and, ultimately, a13-count indictmentunsealed on May 10charging himwith 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.He pleaded not guiltyto each of those charges, but his penchant for embellishing the truth has done little to recover his reputation.
Below, a roundup of some of Santos' claims that have been deemed false since he entered the national spotlight just months ago.
Claim: He worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup
Santos has previously claimed he worked at as an associate asset manager at Citigroup from February 2011 to January 2014, and as a project manager at Goldman Sachs where, according to his resume, he was responsible for “2X revenue growth (300M to 600M)” in roughly seven months.
Neither Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs could verify his employment to theTimes(an employee at Citigroup told the outlet they were unfamiliar with his alleged role at the company, and had previously sold off the division which he claimed to be a part of). What’s more, theTimesreported that in 2012, when he claimed to be working at Citigroup, Santos was working as a call center employee for Dish Network.
Santos told theNew York Postthat he had “embellished” some portions of his resumebut has continued to claim he worked with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup in some capacity.
Saying he “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, Santos told thePosthe served as vice president at a company called LinkBridge Investors, which did business with both financial firms.
“I will be clearer about that,” Santos told the outlet, adding: “It was stated poorly.”
According to theTimes, there is evidence Santos was working for LinkBridge Investors, though it’s unclear exactly how long he worked there, or what title he held.
Claim: He graduated from Baruch College, attended New York University and received an MBA
Santos has said he graduated from Baruch College in 2010, writing in a resume given to the the Nassau County Republican Committee in 2020 that he graduated summa cum laude with a 3.89 GPA.
On a biography on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s website, he alsocited a stint at New York University— a similar claim made on the 2020 resume, where he said he obtained an M.B.A. at the school after scoring 710 on the GMAT.
But Santos told thePosthe had lied about his degrees, noting that he did not attend Baruch College or New York University, as he had earlier claimed.
“I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning,” he told theoutlet. “I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume. I own up to that … we do stupid things in life.”
Claim: He has Jewish heritage
On the campaign trail and on his website, Santos has previouslylaid claim to Jewish heritage, sayinghis grandparents were actually Jewish immigrantswho fled persecution duringWorld War II.
After the Jewish newspaper Forward called those claims into question, Santos told thePost: “I never claimed to be Jewish. I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish backgroundI said I was ‘Jew-ish.'”
Claim: He founded an animal rescue organization
A campaign bioclaimedSantos ran a foundation called Friends of Pets United, which he claimed saved 2,500 dogs and cats between 2013 and 2018. There is some evidence that such a group existed, with theTimesreporting that the organization at one point had a Facebook page and that it held one fundraiser with a rescue group in New Jersey in 2017.
Claim: He “lost four employees” at the Pulse nightclub shooting
Inan interview on WNYCin November, Santos said he “lost four employees” at the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in 2016, drawing a comparison between that event and a 2022 shooting in Colorado.
“I condemn what happened in Colorado, just much like at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, which I happen to, at the time, have people that work for me in the club. My company, at the time, we lost four employees that were at Pulse nightclub,” Santos told WNYC. “This is a deja vu moment for me, not something that is really good even going over because it just brings back such tragic memories.”
According to theTimes, none of the 49 victims of the Pulse shooting appear to have worked at any of the companies mentioned in Santos’ biography and a mother of one of the victims said she didn’t know of anyone who lost more thantwo employees, let alone four,in the tragedy.
Santos, who is the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, also admitted he had been married to a woman in the past — something else that he had previously not disclosed.
Claim: He was a “star” volleyball player in college
The chair of the Nassau County Republican Committee said that, during his first bid for congress in 2020, Santos claimed to be a college volleyball “star” at Baruch University.
“He said he was a star and that they won the championship and he was a striker,” Joseph Cairo, chair of the committee, said in a press conference Wednesday.
As Santos has since admitted, he did not attend the school. And while it’s unclear exactly where his lie about playing volleyball stemmed from, Inside Edition reported that the storybears a striking resemblanceto the resume of his former boss, Pablo Oliveira.
According to the outlet, Oliveira — who was Santos' boss at financial services company LinkBridge Investors — graduated from Baruch University, where he played on the school’s winning volleyball team and was a two-time All-American volleyball player. A LinkedIn profile appears to back up Oliveira’s resume, though little is known about LinkBridge itself.
Claim: He owned 13 different properties
On Twitter, Santos has earlier claimed to be a picture of financial success, writing in Feb. 2021 that he owned “13 properties” for which he claimed he had not received rent in more than a year.
But the truth is murkier. TheTimesreports that Santos' family frequently struggled to pay rent in Queens over the years, and borrowed thousands of dollars from an acquaintance who claimed they were never repaid.
Santos' landlord, Nancy Pothos,told CBSthat the lawmaker moved out in August 2022, just months before being elected.
“George Santos does not own any properties,” Santos said of himself to thePost, when asked about the claims.
Despite his earlier financial struggles, Santosappears to have thrivedsince launching his 2022 campaign.
In campaign documents, Santos further claims to have earned millions of dollars in 2021 and 2022 — from a business he launched in May 2021.
Claim: He worked as a producer on the Broadway musicalSpider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Bloombergreports that during his failed 2021 campaign for Congress, Santos told potential donors that he served as a producer on the Broadway musicalSpider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a production mired in legal and safety issues after several actors were injured on-set.
The show’s actual lead producer, Michael Cohl, told Bloomberg Santos was not involved. The outlet further reports that his name never appeared in any of the show’s playbills.
Claim: He appeared onHannah Montanaand in other film and television roles
Politicoreports that an old Wikipedia entry for Santos (last edited in 2011) claims that he once appeared alongside Miley Cyrus in an episode ofHannah Montanaand also in the 2007 sci-fi filmTheInvasion.
One entry, for instance, claimed that Santos “taped his very first movie startting Uma Turman, Chris Odanald, Melllisa George, and Alicia Silver Stone in the movie “THE INVASION.” " None of those actors — all of whom’s names were misspelled in the entry — appeared in the 2007 filmThe Invasion, which starredNicole KidmanandDaniel Craig.
Claim: His mother died due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
Santos once wrote on Twitter that the 9/11 terrorist attacks “claimed [his] mother’s life,” and at other times has said his mother died of cancer following the attacks.His congressional campaign websitealso includes a reference to her death. “George’s mother was in her office in the South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded. She survived the tragic events on September 11th, but she passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer,” the website reads.
RollingStonereports that no victim advocacy groups could identify his mother among those who entered a victims' compensation claim.
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There are other red flags, in other countries, as well.
According to theTimes, Santos had a criminal history in Brazil that had never been resolved, with court records showing that he had been charged with fraud at one point after writing hot checks. The publication also reported that he confessed to the crime and was charged but authorities were later “unable to locate him” for punishment.
“I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world,” SantostoldThe Post.“Absolutely not. That didn’t happen.”
Brazilian authorities told theTimesthey werereviving their case against Santos, now that they had verified his whereabouts.
Santos has repeatedly said he will not resign.
source: people.com
