Republican Criminal Theft Scandals

Stole a traffic camera even after he was specifically warned that he'd face criminal charges if he removed it

Stole $120k from a family friend with dementia, pocketed $275k from a jail commissary fund and dodged paying taxes on $214k of his ill-gotten income

Directed her government staff to work on her campaign and personal events while on the clock

Used a state vehicle for personal and political errands in violation of state law

Embezzled money while living in Mississippi and was arrested by police at his residence in Florida

Illegally charged taxpayers $2,776.95 for mileage reimbursement he wasn't entitled to since he routinely used a county-owned vehicle for work travel

Illegally spent a total of $12,500 in campaign funds to pay for his lodging at a home owned by fellow Rep. Darrell Issa [R-CA] in violation of federal law

Stole $5,950 from his campaign by improperly charging it for "staff lodging" at his personal home even though no staff actually lodged there

Stole at least nine cows and branded them as his own after being hired to transport them by a cattle auction facility

Stole more than $30 million from at least 150 foreign investors over a yearslong period by falsely promising them green cards and a pathway to US citizenship and used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle and pay for illegal campaign contributions to Republican politicians

Lied about his income on an application for state government benefits so he could get taxpayers to pay for things he could've paid for himself

Illegally claimed three different homes as his primary address which allowed him to save tens of thousands of dollars he otherwise would have had to pay had he not lied on his paperwork

Bilked his 300 clients out of over $140 million by operating a Ponzi scheme that funneled nearly $20 million to his personal accounts which he spent on jewelry, rare coins and luxury vacations while grossly mismanaging his firm's books at the same time, yet the DOJ only brought a CIVIL lawsuit against him

Decreased his home’s assessed value in an apparent attempt to illegally lower his taxes by taking advantage of his position as town assessor

Stole $80k from local taxpayers by keeping money that was supposed to pay for the community's utility bills

Stole over $58,000 from taxpayers by falsifying cash slips and checks drawn from county bank accounts she managed to make it appear that lower amounts of taxes and other revenue were received

Forced his way into an elderly woman's house and stole her late husband's handgun as she hid in the bedroom

Created a fictitious consulting company along with state reps. Glen Casada and Robin Smith where they charged taxpayers $51,947 for official mailing services and hid his involvement in the scheme by submitting fake invoices to state officials and also paid Casada and Smith a bribe in exchange for their help in securing government approval for the fake consulting company to operate as an official state vendor

Created a fictitious consulting company along with state rep. Robin Smith and his chief of staff where they charged taxpayers $51,947 for official mailing services and hid his involvement in the scheme by submitting fake invoices to state officials and also accepted bribes from his chief of staff in exchange for his help in securing government approval for the fake consulting company to operate as an official state vendor

Embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money meant for a development he never intended to build and used the money to purchase four vehicles, gold, silver and platinum bars, and to pay off personal debts

Illegally put pressure on a government official to reassess their decision on a property appraisal she had an interest in

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

Fraudulently inflated his assets by tens of millions of dollars and grossly underreported his liabilities by millions more to financial institutions on multiple loan applications which led to him being approved for loans totaling $172 million that otherwise wouldn't have been approved and then lied to authorities when they confronted him

Robbed a gas station at knifepoint & threatened to kill the employee if they didn't comply with his demands

Stole over $2.1 million from clients whose property he managed over a series of at least 19 wire transfers, checks and in-person withdrawals and deposited the money into two bank accounts he owned

Stole money from a donation envelope at a local church

Rushed to give his close friend and former business associate $170k in taxpayer dollars for contract work by skipping the public bidding process that is required by state law and was penalized by his peers with a lifetime ban from the state senate floor

Stole $15,940 from taxpayers by charging thousands in personal expenses on her government credit card and falsifying records to get paid for work she didn't do

Stole $4k in ad revenue from a calendar for the Sheriff's department that he led

Fraudulently received $30,120 in COVID unemployment benefits while he was still employed and concealed $54,700 in consulting fees he earned and "thousands of dollars in income" from the IRS when he filed his 2021 federal income taxes

Illegally obtained license plates without paying the required $758 fee and then altered public records to make it appear she paid it

Illegally obtained $122,000 in COVID relief funds for two of her businesses by falsifying documents about their total revenues, number of employees and whether the businesses were legally incorporated to begin with

Illegally operated his private business out of the mayor's office where he utilized public resources and personnel to improperly obtain government permits that enriched him personally and then encouraged at least one witness to lie to investigators if they were questioned

Used government funds to purchase a UTV for the sheriff's department that he had previously owned and falsely claimed the vehicle was new so he could evade rules that were in place to deter exactly what he did

Stole $14,400 from the county GOP bank account he oversaw by writing checks to himself

Trespassed on a constituent's front porch and stole a campaign mailer sent by his political opponent and was caught laughing about his actions on the victim's doorbell camera

Fraudulently spent $188,474 in COVID relief funds on three luxury sports cars and other expenses after he lied about his company's earnings by nearly 1M in order to increase his chances of getting more grant money

Fraudulently charged over $5 million on personal expenses including more than 130 luxury and classic cars which he then sold and pocketed the proceeds from, $60k worth of airline tickets for a woman he was having an extramarital affair with and other family members including his wife, vacations, designer clothes and a multitude of other expenses using fire department credit cards funded and paid for by the public

Stole over $70,000 worth of donations she raised for the statue of a Las Vegas police officer shot and killed in the line of duty and spent it on personal items including plastic surgery and her daughter's wedding

Stole at least $36,000 from city taxpayers by falsifying time sheets for poll-workers who didn't show up to their assigned shift and diverted the money to her personal bank account over a yearslong period

Conspired with his wife Anne to steal $525,000 from social welfare charities and political action committees they had close access to because of their work relationship with then-state house speaker Lee Chatfield through erroneous reimbursements, double billing, false expenditures and record manipulation

Conspired with her husband Rob to steal $525,000 from social welfare charities and political action committees they had close access to because of their work relationship with then-state house speaker Lee Chatfield through erroneous reimbursements, double billing, false expenditures and record manipulation

Stole $52,300 from a local Rotary Club Foundation over a series of 11 checks written to himself from the foundation's account while he was their treasurer

Illegally transferred $61,591 from a local GOP chapter's bank account to his personal accounts over 147 wire transfers in a five-year period and covered it up by falsifying reports he submitted to the local chapter

Stole over $132,000 from multiple political accounts to pay for vacations with his family, housing costs and personal credit card statements by siphoning money from a loosely regulated political account that prosecutors alleged he used as his own "unregulated slush fund" into his own pocket

Stole over $59k from a local Republican committee and spent it on personal expenses including mortgage payments, wine trips, luxury candies and everyday expenses like groceries

Stole $9,657 in proceeds from an online auction of old government-owned vehicles

Stole a total of $728.61 worth of items from a local Target during seven visits over a 26-day period by not scanning some of the more expensive items in her cart at the self-checkout line

Pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from QAnon supporters who donated to his legal defense fund instead of giving them money back to them once his case was over

Forged his ex-wife’s name on multiple home refinancing documents and a deed and also forged his colleague's signature on a financial statement he submitted to a court overseeing his divorce proceedings in an act so egregious the judge sentencing him called his actions "malfeasance that almost defies description"

Stole $267,80 from a political Super PAC whose finances he oversaw as its Treasurer

Illegally obtained over $45,000 in Small Business Covid-Relief Funds out of $150,000 he applied for by claiming that dormant companies he owned with no employees actually had 6 employees and revenue of $800k and then lied to federal agents when they questioned him about it

Funneled at least $107,885 worth of campaign contributions into his personal accounts which he used to fund trips to Las Vegas, Napa Valley and other locations by creating a sham charity called the “United Latino Foundation” and enlisting his mother and close friend to help him transfer the money

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" and was ordered to pay a $464 million fine and prohibited from conducting business in New York state for three years

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

Illegally transferred $91,000 from his campaign fund and a nonprofit organization to a PAC supporting his candidacy to help his failed 2016 bid for US Congress and then hid the transactions from the FEC

Stole roughly $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

Led a group that illegally seized five voting machines used in the 2020 election and performed unsanctioned experiments on the equipment which election security experts warn compromised the machines and could have altered the votes cast on them

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

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

Violated federal law by asserting he had upwards of $5 million in assets that didn't actually exist and falsely reported he loaned his campaign $500,000 on financial disclosure forms he submitted during his 2022 run for Congress because it helped him qualify for financial help from the RNC

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”

Stole $159k from his election campaign and spent it on personal expenses by routing funds through a political consulting firm that in turn paid him over a series of transactions

Stole $32,000 from the Veterans Administration Hospital in Montgomery, $4,800 from a local Alabama city hall and more than $2,500 worth of flooring materials and construction materials from his previous employer over a yearslong period

Loaded his truck with stolen large scrap metal objects including an air conditioner, furnace and water heater (the latter of which a police officer caught him loading into his truck) from the dumpster area of a heating and cooling company which had signs posted in multiple areas explicitly warning people against taking anything

Funneled over $1.5 million in taxpayer funds and from a charity he managed to his personal accounts which he then used to make multiple "large cash withdrawals," pay his personal credit card bills, make political donations and gamble

Refused to disclose what he did with the nearly $25k he raised from a GoFundMe he set up ostensibly to build a to create a burial garden for stillborn babies but never built even though he withdrew all the money that was raised

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

Fraudulently received $296,574 in taxpayer dollars to provide COVID-19 testing at three medical clinics she owned, but the clinics were closed and didn't conduct any tests

Stole over $600 worth of groceries by not scanning items in the self-checkout on three separate occasions

Moved tens of thousands of campaign dollars into an account to fund a recount that he never actually sought after his 2022 election loss in an apparent attempt to hold on to the cash instead of giving it back to donors as required by law

Purchased four golden retriever puppies from an Amish breeder with fraudulent checks that later bounced and left the owner of the puppies out of nearly $5,000 in lost income

Illegally spent over $100,000 in campaign contributions on personal expenses and then tried to cover it up by filing numerous false tax returns

Stole a large amount of electronics and other goods from at least four different retail stores with a group of criminals who acted as a "smash-and-grab" burglary crew

Pocketed $3,000 from a GoFundMe fundraiser meant to save a homeless veteran's dying service dog who later died

Stole a checkbook from a dying man his mother was caring for and used the stolen checks to purchase clothing and shoes while living in Brazil

Collected $50 per person at a fundraiser he hosted for animal rescue charity Friends of Pets United that did not appear to exist which makes you wonder where that money went

Stole prescription drugs from senior citizens residing in an assisted living community he managed by entering their apartments when they were not home and was caught in the act by police who had been tipped off by residents who reported their missing prescriptions to the authorities

Illegally obtained over $30 million in loans by lying to numerous financial institutions about their assets and then failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal taxes on the ill-gotten money

Stole $1 million in donations from a "We Build the Wall" GoFundMe campaign using fake invoices and accounts

Purchased a diary stolen from Joe Biden's granddaughter for $40,000 and soon after leaked it to a reporter at another rightwing outlet who posted the private material days before the 2020 Presidential election

Illegally paid $92,800 in taxpayer funds to his legislative aide's relatives to pay for rent at two cottages located well outside his district by falsely declaring that one cottage was his district office which entitled him to a taxpayer funded stipend

Stole a lawn sign that belonged to a political opponent of his while driving in a truck owned by county taxpayers mere months after being caught on video stealing the same opponent's sign from the parking lot of a private business

Engineered an illegal $233,647 taxpayer funded payment to himself from the Maryland Environmental Service by lying that then Maryland Governor Larry Hogan approved it as his severance

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

Spent roughly $100,000 in campaign donations on personal expenses that included a down payment on a home, luxury cars and childcare expenses

Stole valuable parts from vehicles that belonged to a local church, Habitat for Humanity and at least two residences before getting caught by the police

Stole an unknown amount from parking meters that was supposed to be deposited into a government bank account and sold government office furniture through a social media account with the intention of keeping the money he made from the sale

Stole a trailer's worth of his competitor's campaign signs and was caught red-handed by two of them who witnessed it

Didn't scan an item at two separate self-checkout registers at a local Walmart and claimed it was done "inadvertently" when confronted by store security, but presumably from guilt later resigned from his city council position

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

Used his stature as the second highest-ranking member of the state senate to push through legislation that he knew would have a direct positive impact on his wife's finances she otherwise would not have been able to pursue if the law weren't changed

Stole a $6,000 golf cart with the help of an accomplice and then sold it to him for $1,000

Committed a robbery with a weapon while falsely identifying as a police officer

Illegally collected Social Security Disability and retirement benefits from the government by neglecting to inform them about the more than $132,000 he earned working on political campaigns which would have drastically reduced the number of benefits he would have been eligible for

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

Gave her boyfriend full control over the police K-9 department she was in charge of which he then used to transfer charitable donations given to the unit into his personal bank accounts to pay for personal expenses including boarding services and medicine for his dog

Used $30,000 in county funds to repair the private road he lived on that wasn't supposed to be maintained by the county

Swindled multiple unsuspecting victims out of at least $46,654 by posing as a lawyer and providing them legal advice he wasn't credentialed to give by falsely claiming he earned a law degree from NYU and a finance degree from UPenn and had 15 years of experience in corporate and patent law under his belt

Embezzled $400k in taxpayer money by using a government issued credit card on personal purchases including cryptocurrency and professional sports memorabilia