Ethics Committee Findings Spell Doom for George Santos
The House Ethics Committee has issued a report unanimously condemning George Santos, urging the House to take immediate and serious action, and referred some of their findings to the DOJ. Less than an hour after the report was released, Santos announced he would not seek reelection.
This report is about as bad is it could get for Santos. The Committee noted several instances of criminal conduct that Santos is not even presently being prosecuted for. Those allegations make up the substance of their criminal referral to DOJ. Santos has already been indicted on 21 fraud and campaign finance felonies in New York. The report also made several key findings, including that:
1. Santos turned his campaign into an organized fraud operation to enrich himself.
2. Santos stole money from his campaign and pocketed donor money.
3. Reported fictitious loans to his campaign account to make it appear to prospective donors that he was a more viable candidate.
4. Then used his connections to influential donors to create new fraudulent business opportunities for himself.
5. Continued the facade of a serious candidate to deceive donors by creating a fictitious background.
The Committee said they interviewed dozens of witnesses during their investigation and reviewed over 170,000 pages of documents.
The Committee also noted that they made several attempts to get Santos to make corrections on his financial disclosures and campaign finance reports, which he largely ignored. They also said that he refused to cooperate, lied to the Committee, and attempted to shift blame to his treasurer. He also refused to submit to an interview under oath to give his side of the story.
The Committee then took the extraordinary step of referring the report directly to the full House for disciplinary action rather than conduct a trial/hearing before the Committee. They said that kind of hearing would be a waste of time given Santos's demonstrated lack of candor and refusal to cooperate, and that he would likely just use the procedure as another delay tactic.
The Committee made the following factual findings after their investigation:
2. While Santos attempted to blame false financial disclosures on a Treasurer "gone rogue," the Treasurer admitted that she conspired with Santos to make the false reports, that he was aware of each instance of fraud, and directed her to make false filings. The Treasurer has already pled guilty to criminal charges in federal court.
3. He falsely claimed on campaign finance reports that he loaned his campaign a total of nearly $800,000 to deceive future potential donors.
4. Santos then made "loan repayments" to himself from his campaign account totaling $31,200 when he never actually made any loans.
5. In 2022, Santos received payments in three installments totaling $800,000 from an unnamed individual to himself and two businesses he owned. He then made loans to his campaign using these funds totaling $715,000. This was the subject of one of the criminal referrals to DOJ since it appears this may have been done to circumvent campaign finance limits by Santos and this unnamed person.
6. Santos made many illegal transfers of funds from his campaign account to his personal and business accounts. This money included purchases at Ferragamo, $800 cash withdrawal at a casino, cash withdrawals from ATMs, and rent for his apartment.
7. Falsified the names of donors on campaign finance reports. He used real people's names next to fictitious donations to make it appear he had broader support.
8. Spent thousands in campaign funds on travel-related expenses that seemed to be unconnected to his campaign. This included funds spent on trips to Atlantic City, Virtual Skin Spa for Botox, other spas in various locations out of his district, and Las Vegas.
9. Santos set up a company in FL called "Red Strategies," but represented to campaign staff that it was a 3rd party political consulting firm that he had nothing to do with. $110,000 was then paid to Red Strategies for "consulting" out of Santos's campaign account. When confronted about it by a staffer he denied he had any connection to Red Strategies even though he owned it. Santos then transferred over $200,000 from Red Strategies into his personal bank accounts.
10. Santos set up a similar consulting business that he called RedStone. Campaign funds and funds from three wealthy donors were transferred into the RedStone account based on a false representation that it was to used for campaign purposes.
10. Santos used the funds transferred into his personal account from RedStone to make purchases on Only Fans, Sephora, Hermes, and pay down credit cards and other debts. Santos received $176,298 directly from RedStone, despite claiming to others that he had no ownership stake in it.
11. While holding himself out at the beginning of the campaign as a wealthy and successful businessman, he was in debt, had a terrible credit score, had several maxed-out credit cards, and moved large amounts of cash in and out of accounts with no apparent justifications or legitimate sources. His only income initially appeared to be $55,000 salary in 2019 from Linkbridge Investors. However, records indicated even that was false and he only made $27,555 from Linkbridge.
12. In his financial disclosure statement after winning his election, he falsely listed the following assets: an apartment in Rio de Janeiro worth over $500,000, a checking account with over $100,000, a savings account with over $1,000,000, and ownership of Devolder Org worth over $1,000,000. None of these things were true.
13. Santos falsely claimed during his campaign that he owned 13 rental properties in Florida when telling a story of how much he suffered financially from the pandemic. He never owned any property in Florida.
14. He told his campaign staff he owned a Maserati when he owned a Kia Sportage.
You can read the full 56 page report here.