Rep. George Santos Arrested on Charges of Fraud, Money Laundering, Theft of Public Funds and False Statements
A 13-count indictment was unsealed Wednesday morning revealing the charges against the freshman representative from New York. He is due to be arraigned on Long Island in New York on Wednesday afternoon
Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos was arrested Wednesday morning after federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against the New York lawmaker following an investigation into his financial disclosures and alleged false claims.
The 13-count indictment, unsealed Wednesday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charges Santos with 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.
If Santos is convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
"This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations," United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement announcing the arrest. "Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself."
Peace continued: "He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives."
Related:George Santos Is Facing Criminal Charges in Federal Investigation, Expected in Court on Wednesday
Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, who worked with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate Santos, added that in addition to allegedly collecting unemployment benefits while he was employed and running for Congress, he was believed to have "pocketed campaign contributions and used that money to pay down personal debts and buy designer clothing."
"As we allege, Congressman Santos committed federal crimes, and he will now be forced to face the consequences of his actions," added FBI assistant director-in-charge Michael J. Driscoll.
Santos will be arraigned at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, on Wednesday afternoon to answer to the charges. Sources tell ABC News that Santos is expected to plead not guilty.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told CNN on Tuesday that he will examine the charges before deciding on whether to remove Santos from Congress. PEOPLE's requests for comment Wednesday from Santos and McCarthy were not immediately returned.
Related:Embattled Rep. George Santos Has Ties to a Powerful Russian Oligarch, Campaign Filings Reveal
Santos has generated substantial controversy since his election to Congress in November, particularly after a bombshell New York Times report found that many of the claims he made on the campaign trail and on his resume were unsubstantiated.
The outlet said Santos misled voters about his level of education, previous jobs and family ties to the Holocaust, news that earned him bipartisan condemnation for misrepresenting himself.
Santos himself acknowledged that he has "embellished" significant portions of his resume, telling the New York Post that he lied about working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he had previously asserted, and about attending Baruch College and New York University (he did not graduate from college).
Related:Rep. George Santos Appears to Have Ripped Off His Former Boss's Resume in Crafting His Backstory
But in the weeks and months that followed, more mysteries cropped up, like the source of his income, which has seemingly grown by hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.
In 2020, when he launched his first run for the House, Santos stated in a financial disclosure that he had no assets and no earned income. But his financial situation appeared to have markedly improved by the time he decided to launch a second run for the House in 2022, with Federal Election Commission filings showing he lent at least $700,000 to his campaign, and $27,000 to his political action committee.
Santos has said the funds given to his campaign came from his company, the Devolder Organization, which The Washington Post has reported was organized just one month before the Republican declared his latest candidacy in 2021.
Other allegations have also cropped up, such as claims that Santos once scammed a Navy veteran out of $3,000 meant for his ailing service dog. CNN and Politico reported in February that federal investigators were looking into those claims.
But other investigations also cropped up, including those by the House Ethics Committee, the Nassau County District Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice. It now appears that multiple prosecutorial entities worked together to compile the indictment, though the House Ethics Committee has yet to reveal any of its findings.
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In January, Santos told colleagues he would temporarily resign from his assignments on the Small Business and Science Committees while various investigations into his past play out.
Despite the ongoing investigations, the freshman lawmaker filed paperwork for his 2024 reelection campaign in March to keep his District 3 seat, according to the Federal Election Commission website. The district is made up of parts of Long Island and Queens.
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