Indictment did not include GoFundMe allegations The indictment further alleges Santos falsely claimed he owned a checking account worth between $100,000 and $250,000 and a savings account with deposits totaling between $1 million and $5 million. Santos is accused of falsely stating that he earned a $750,000 salary and between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from a firm he owned. When he successfully ran for Congress two years later, prosecutors say Santos again made false statements on his disclosure forms. The third scheme revolves around House financial disclosures that Santos filed for each of his two congressional campaigns.ĭuring his first, unsuccessful candidacy, prosecutors allege that Santos on a May 2020 disclosure overstated one income source while failing to disclose $25,403 in income from an investment firm. Prosecutors say Santos lied on financial disclosures
That is something new,” said Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program and a former senior counsel at the Federal Elections Commission. “I’m not aware that we have had another situation where a sitting officeholder has been indicted for basically running a fraudulent scam to defraud their own donors. On Wednesday, Santos denied that he used campaign donations to purchase expensive suits. Prosecutors say Santos instead transferred $74,000 from the company to his personal accounts in October and used it for personal benefit, including purchasing luxury designer clothing, making credit card payments and transferring funds to personal associates. Donors were told false information about the company and that their funds would be independent expenditures used to purchase television advertisements to bolster Santos’s campaign, according to the indictment. Legal experts suggest the first scheme, which accuses Santos of misleading political donors for his personal benefit, comprises the bulk of the congressman’s exposure.Īt the direction of Santos, an unnamed political consultant purportedly persuaded donors to make contributions to a company that Santos controlled. Here are five things to know about the indictment: Prosecutors accuse Santos of misleading donors I’m going to take care of clearing my name, and I look forward to doing that,” Santos told reporters outside the courthouse.
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