Former Congressman Santos Sentenced to 87 Months for Wire Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft
At the federal courthouse in Central Islip, in Suffolk County, New York, former U.S. Representative George Anthony Devolder Santos was sentenced on April 25, 2025, to 87 months in prison. U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert imposed the sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and ordered Santos to pay $373,749.97 in restitution to his victims and $205,002.97 in forfeiture. Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024.
John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said: "Today, George Santos was finally held accountable for the mountain of lies, theft, and fraud he perpetrated. For the defendant, it was judgment day, and for his many victims including campaign donors, political parties, government agencies, elected bodies, his own family members, and his constituents, it is justice." The sentence was announced with Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division; Christopher G. Raia, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's New York Field Office; Harry T. Chavis Jr., Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New York; and Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly.
Prosecutors said the counts of conviction grew out of several schemes. In the "Party Program" scheme, during the 2022 election cycle Santos and his campaign treasurer Nancy Marks filed materially false reports with the Federal Election Commission, falsely reporting contributions from at least 11 family members and loans Santos had not made — including a reported $500,000 loan at a time when Santos had less than $8,000 in his personal and business accounts — to meet a $250,000 fundraising benchmark and qualify his campaign for financial and logistical support from a national party committee. Marks pleaded guilty to related conduct on October 5, 2023.
In a credit card fraud scheme, from about July 2020 to October 2022 Santos stole campaign contributors' personal identity and financial information and repeatedly charged their cards without authorization, falsely reporting some contributions as made by relatives or associates to conceal the source and evade contribution limits; prosecutors said he sought out victims he knew were elderly persons suffering from cognitive impairment or decline. In a fraudulent solicitation scheme beginning in September 2022, donors were falsely told through a limited liability company that their money would buy television advertisements; two donors each transferred $25,000, and the money was moved into Santos's personal accounts and spent on designer clothing, cash withdrawals, personal debts and transfers to associates.
Prosecutors also described unemployment insurance fraud — Santos, employed as a regional director of a Florida investment firm and receiving a salary on a near-continuous basis, falsely claimed from June 2020 to have been unemployed and collected more than $24,000 in benefits through April 2021 — and false statements to the House of Representatives: his September 2022 disclosure falsely claimed $750,000 in salary and between $1,000,001 and $5 million in dividends from the Devolder Organization LLC and inflated bank balances, while omitting about $28,000 in investment-firm income and more than $20,000 in unemployment benefits.
Santos, 36, of Queens, New York, was prosecuted under docket No. 23-CR-197 (S-2) (JS) by the Eastern District's Public Integrity Section and the Criminal Section of its Long Island Division, together with the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section. (Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York)
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：前众议员乔治·桑托斯的美国众议院官方肖像。图：美国众议院摄影办公室，公共领域，via Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Official U.S. House portrait of former Rep. George Santos. Photo: U.S. House Office of Photography, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
