2023 was a difficult year for former Rep. George Santos, which ended with his ousting from the House of Representatives after a year-long battle following an expose of his fictionalized background and a 23-count federal indictment falling upon him.
But 2024 proved to be another difficult year for Santos as he continued to deal with legal challenges in his federal fraud indictment, which he ultimately pleaded guilty to in August.
Santos, a representative criticized and indicted for his various forms of dishonesty, came clean about his dishonesty once and for all this year.
In August, Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft. In exchange for his guilty plea, the 21 other charges from his indictment were dropped.
“To my family, friends and supporters of New York’s Third Congressional district, I offer my deepest apology,” Santos said. “It has been the proudest achievement of my life to represent you, and I believe I did so to the best of my abilities, but you also trusted me to represent you with honor and to uphold the values that are essential to our democracy, and in that regard, I failed you. I know that my actions have caused disappointment, frustration and a loss of faith in me, and for that, I’m truly sorry. I understand that there are consequences to my actions. I accept them. I acknowledge I need to be held accountable, like any American who breaks the law. I want to be a part of restoring the integrity that I helped diminish.”
Santos was indicted in May of 2023 on 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making materially false statements to Congress. In October of 2023, he was handed an additional 10 charges of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, lying to the Federal Election Commission, falsifying records, aggravated identify theft and device fraud.
In court, Santos admitted to falsifying campaign fund numbers to meet Federal Election Commission benchmarks get proper funding from the Republican National Committee – something his campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty to. Santos admitted to applying for unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic despite not being unemployed. He also admitted to using the names of friends and family members to do this – hence the wire fraud and identity theft charges.
He is facing a mandatory two years in prison, but Judge Joanna Seybert said in court he could be facing up to 87 months.
Santos agreed to pay $373,749.97 in restitution to various entities. These included donors whose credit cards he used without authorization and the state unemployment fund he fraudulently received benefits from.
He will be required to forfeit another $205,002.97 before his sentencing scheduled for Feb. 7.
