A report on Monday asked if the resume of new Republican congressman George Santos — who was elected last month to serve a typically suburban Democratic neighborhood northeast of New York City – may be largely fictional.
According to a New York Times analysis, the biographical sketch offered by the 34-year-old first-generation Brazilian American, who presented himself as a member of a “new generation of Republican leaders” as “the complete embodiment of the American dream”may not have worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, graduated from New York University, or run an animal rescue charity, as he claimed.
Additionally, Santos said his family had a portfolio of 13 properties, but the Times found only one – an apartment in Rio de Janeiro. And his claims that he owns a company that pays him an annual salary of $750,000 (£616,000) and millions in dividends don’t seem to hold up.
What the newspaper found on Santos’ behalf were records of a 2010 accusation in his native Brazil for using a stolen checkbook to buy shoes, and two deportation proceedings against him in New York in the past few years. last seven years.
Claims that the career of the new representative of the United States House may not be as indicated go further. He claimed in a maintenance that his company, the Devolder Organization, “lost four employees” in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. But a victim check revealed that none of the 49 victims were linked to the company.
In a statement to The Times, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs said they had no record of Santos working there. Baruch College also found no record of Santos studying there, as it claimed. The Internal Revenue Service said it was unable to locate a file for an animal rescue group, Friends of Pets United, which it said it ran for five years from 2013.
The daily beast reported In April, Santos, who has identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and has come out as a “walking, living, breathing contradiction,” had been a director of a Florida investment firm, Harbor City Capital, which the SEC accused of operation a $17m (£14m) Ponzi – or pyramid – scheme.
Santos was not named in the lawsuit and denied knowledge of the alleged fraud.
During his campaign for Congress, in which he successfully ran to replace incumbent Democrat Tom Suozzi, Santos has often spoken about the draining of the swamp. He seemed to be on board with Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again candidate, taking advantage in the midterm election of suburban voters’ fear of a city-centric crime wave.
Disclosures of Santos’ campaign expenses show he spent lavishly as a candidate, including buying shirts for his staff at Brooks Brothers, spent around $40,000 (£32,864) on flights and more than 17 $000 (£13,967) in Florida, including a stay at The Breakers, a luxury hotel and resort near the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Santos, who predicted over the summer that “We will be remembered as the most barbaric generation that has ever existed.” Due to the legality of abortion in many states, he appeared at a conservative gala in Manhattan earlier this month alongside white nationalists, right-wing civility theorists and European party representatives. far right, according to the Times.
The event included an appearance by Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican Representative from Georgia, who recently said she would have ensured the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters were all armed. He also insisted that the failure of a previous election campaign was the result of electoral fraud.
In a statement to The Times on final questions for him, his attorney, Joe Murray, said in a statement that it’s “not surprising that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies in the New York Times who are trying to tarnish his good reputation. . with these defamatory claims. »
A statement to the Washington Post from defeated Democratic Santos opponent Robert Zimmerman said the Times article was “not a shock”.
“We always knew he was running a scam against voters, and we raised many of those issues, but we were drowned out” by a concurrent gubernatorial election, among other things, according to Zimmerman’s statement.
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