Former Long Island Rep. George Santos has just weeks to shell out $205,000 after a federal judge filed a forfeiture order that requires him to pay up before being sentenced in February.
The order filed Dec. 19 by Judge Joanna Seybert gives Santos 30 days to come up with the full amount.
The former congressman, who represented the northern parts of Nassau County and a sliver of Eastern Queens, was expelled from Congress in December 2023 a month after the House Ethics Committee issued a long-awaited report that found “substantial evidence” that he had violated federal laws. The report was forwarded to the Justice Department.
Santos was initially charged in May 2023 with 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making materially false statements to Congress. In October 2023, a superseding indictment added 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 August 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft in federal court in Central Islip. In exchange for his guilty plea, the 21 other charges from his federal indictment were dropped.
In court, Santos admitted to falsifying campaign fund numbers to meet Federal Election Commission benchmarks to obtain proper funding from the Republican National Committee – something his campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, had already 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, which led to the wire fraud and identity theft charges.
He is facing a mandatory two years in prison, but Seybert said in court he could be facing up to 87 months.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 7.
