Financial Fraud Scandals

bought luxury clothing, erotic adult content online, luxury skin care products, meals, and paid off personal debts with more than $50,000 in campaign contributions he told donors would be used to support his bid for Congress

defrauded banks in New York by vastly overinflating the value of his assets by as much as $3.6 billion dollars in order to obtain more favorable loan terms in a scheme a judge overseeing his case described as "persistent and repeated fraud"

impersonated a top aide to then Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in fundraising emails that tricked more than a dozen donors into giving money to George Santos's political campaign and received a 15% commission on each contribution

stole nearly $1 million from a NYC police officers union by filing falsified expense reports for personal items including lavish meals and luxury clothing and over-inflating the amount he should be reimbursed for countless other expenses for over four years to such a degree that prosecutors described it as a "personal piggy bank" and then lied to federal officials when they confronted him

lied to financial institutions on multiple loan applications by vastly overstating his assets -- by nearly $18 million on just one application alone -- and grossly underreporting his liabilities by millions of dollars which led to him being approved for loans totaling $172 million that he otherwise wouldn't have been granted

violated federal law by asserting he had upwards of $5 million in assets that didn't actually exist on financial disclosure forms he submitted during his 2022 run for Congress which makes you wonder why someone would falsely report having assets that didn't actually exist

illegally received over $24,000 in COVID unemployment benefits from New York while he was still employed making a $120,000 salary at his job in Florida and then later hypocritically signed on as a top cosigner of a House bill meant to recover these ill-gotten funds

defrauded a donor who gave him $535,200 to use on his campaign which he diverted to his personal business accounts instead and broke campaign finance laws by not disclosing it in a scheme multiple campaign finance experts called “unprecedented,” “stunning,” and “jaw-dropping”

allegedly paid an accomplice $100 per day to illegally tamper with ATM machines in order to sell customer credit and debit card data online

funneled more than $202,000 in state funds earmarked for legislative mailers to personal accounts using a fictitious consulting company called Phoenix Solutions

raked in over $600,000 in kickbacks from a health insurance fraud scheme that charged providers with over $2.5 million worth of unnecessary tests that were ordered from doctors and conducted by a pharmaceutical company who were all involved in the conspiracy

defrauded 25+ people out of $6.8 million through a Ponzi scheme they thought was being invested on their behalf but was used to fund his lavish lifestyle instead

tricked a financial lender into giving him a $1 million loan to purchase and renovate a family home which he falsely represented as an investment property through a fake company

illegally took $355,550 in state and federal COVID relief by falsely claiming the money would go to pay nonexistent employee's salaries

raked in $191,815 by selling fake stem-cell treatments to unsuspecting patients she told would help combat COVID-19, but in reality all she administered was amniotic fluid that had no known medical benefits

forged her own brother's signature on a land deed in an attempt to transfer the title to her family without having to pay for the property

stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from victims including his own god mother, family members, and former classmates by convincing them to invest in various schemes he concocted that promised massive returns, but instead kept the money for himself and didn't repay the investors

convinced numerous people into investing $840,000 in a technology company that he secretly earned commissions on while giving the false impression he was actually an investor

fraudulently concealed $35,000 he received working for the 2012 campaign of Republican congressional candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley by creating a fake third-party contract with her husband's business to disguise the fact that a convicted criminal was providing them campaign advice

tricked NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg's aides into giving him $1.1 million in campaign funds that he said would be used to set up a ballot-security operation but was instead diverted to a personal account which he used to purchase a new home