George Santos accused of swindling donors in shocking new criminal charges

New York, New York - Beleaguered New York Representative George Santos was hit with new serious charges on Tuesday, adding to his long list of legal issues.

New York Representative George Santos has been hit with new charges in a new superseding indictment adding to his legal woes.
New York Representative George Santos has been hit with new charges in a new superseding indictment adding to his legal woes.  © REUTERS

In the latest twist in the surreal series of scandals enveloping the freshman politician, he was accused of hitting unsuspecting donors with tens of thousands of dollars in phony credit card charges.

The allegations were laid out in a new superseding indictment against the New York politician, coming a week after his campaign manager Nancy Marks pleaded guilty to one of the schemes alleged by the government.

Marks admitted she conspired with Santos to falsify Federal Election Commission filings to make it look like he got enough donor cash to qualify for financial and logistics support from an unnamed national campaign committee.

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She admitted that 10 donations attributed to her and Santos' respective family members didn’t really happen. Another fabrication she confessed to was a fake $500,000 loan from Santos to his campaign, according to court documents.

He actually had less than $8,000 in his personal business account at the time of the phony transaction, prosecutors allege.

What are the new charges against George Santos?

Santos stands accused of hitting unsuspecting donors with tens of thousands of dollars in phony credit card charges.
Santos stands accused of hitting unsuspecting donors with tens of thousands of dollars in phony credit card charges.  © REUTERS

New charges revealed Tuesday accuse Santos of participating in the scheme and, further, repeatedly charged his contributors' credit cards without their authorization from December 2021 to August 2022. He also allegedly lied about where the influx of campaign cash was coming from.

One contributor was hit with at least $44,800 in unauthorized charges – including a single, $12,000 charge that mostly went into Santos’ personal bank account – federal prosecutors said.

The Republican hid what he was doing by listing himself, his relatives and other people as the sources of the contributions, according to the new indictment.

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Santos was initially indicted in May on 13 criminal counts, including wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to Congress.

He faces 10 new criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, making false statements, and submitting false records to the FEC, aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.

Santos due back in court this month

Santos is due back in Long Island Federal Court on October 27. His lawyer, Joe Murray, declined to comment Tuesday.

The congressman was previously accused of collecting Covid-related unemployment funds while working as an investment firm director, running a bogus political action committee and using campaign donor money to buy designer clothes and pay his personal debts, plus a string of lies to Congress about his assets and income.

A staffer, Sam Miele, was also indicted on charges he impersonated former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s now-retired chief of staff to dupe donors into giving Santos money during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles.

Cover photo: REUTERS

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