Santos Indicted for Fake-Donor Scheme Exposed by Mother Jones
On Tuesday evening, federal prosecutors charged already-indicted and disgraced Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) with several new crimes, including campaign finance violations for a fake-donor scheme exposed by Mother Jones earlier this year. These new counts added to the preexisting indictment also include wire fraud and identity theft. The feds claim that Santos used his donors’ credit cards to make unauthorized transactions that ended up transferring funds to his own campaign, the campaigns of other candidates, and his own bank account.
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Earlier this year, Mother Jones broke the news that Santos had reported receiving what appeared to be fake donations during his 2020 and 2022 congressional campaigns—a straightforward violation of federal campaign finance laws. His former treasurer, Nancy Marks, confirmed Mother Jones’ reporting by pleading guilty last week to having helped Santos pull off this scam in order to falsely inflate his campaign’s fundraising totals. Marks is facing a recommended prison sentence of up to four years. In May, Santos pleaded not guilty to 13 other charges.
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When we examined Santos’ campaign finances from his first run for office in 2020, we found that many of his top-dollar donors did not seem to exist. For example, Victoria and Jonathan Regor were each recorded on his campaign’s filings with the Federal Election Commission as having donated the legal maximum of $2,800 in the general election. Public records, though, showed nobody named Victoria Regor or Jonathan Regor anywhere in the United States, and the New Jersey address listed for them did not exist.
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In another case, a retiree named Stephen Berger was listed as living on Brandt Road in Brawley, California. Public records showed that William Brandt was the real resident of that address. A spokesperson for Brandt told us that Brandt had never donated to Santos, that no one named Stephen Berger had ever lived at the address, and that he did not know anyone by that name.
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In other cases, the apparent fraud was comically sloppy. One of the major donors listed at a fake address was Rafael da Silva. That happened to be the name of a Brazilian soccer player who had played near where Santos once lived in the Rio de Janeiro area. Da Silva’s nonexistent address was 15 West 57th Street—another curious coincidence. Sam Miele, Santos’ fundraiser at the time, appeared to have named his company, the One57 Group, after the luxury tower at 157 West 57th Street. (In August, Miele was indicted for impersonating a top aide to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican, while soliciting donations.)
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/10/george-santos-indicted-donor-scheme-credit-cards-mother-jones-scoop/
= new reply since forum marked as read
that ol Spurious doesn't lie about.
TY & Good on Mother jones for taking the Deep Dive into Santos' "finances". 
Nothing about him is “real” he’s just a walking sack of bullshit.
How about some consequences for his dishonesty and crimes — and soon! This fucker should be in a jail cell, not actively serving in office and bolstering the GOP’s corruption schemes.
have been Kicked out of Congress for Lying his head Off to his constituents and for the first set of Indictments if the Red House weren't as Corrupt as he is.
As it is I think they're carrying around a loaded time bomb in ol George Santos.
And, I hope it Explodes Backfire in their Collective Putin Puppet face 
and another GOP conman-crook still walking free.
