New York Rep. George Santos was charged Tuesday with conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft and credit card fraud.
Prosecutors filed a 23-count superseding indictment against the New York Republican in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Here are the charges he faces:
- One count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States
- Two counts of wire fraud
- Two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
- Two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC
- Two counts of aggravated identity theft
- One count of access device fraud
These new counts have been added to the charges in the original indictment against him:
- Seven counts of wire fraud
- Three counts of money laundering
- One count of theft of public funds
- Two counts of making materially false statements to the United States House of Representatives
U.S. Attorney Breon Stacy Peace said in a statement that Santos “is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign.”
“Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen,” Peace said.
Last week, Santos’ ex-campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, admitting she fraudulently reported hundreds of thousands in fake loans that Santos had claimed he made to his campaign.
Marks and Santos, according to prosecutors in Marks’ case, allegedly carried out a fraudulent scheme to “obtain money for the campaign by submitting materially false reports to the FEC on behalf of the campaign.” In those reports, the two allegedly inflated the campaign’s fundraising numbers, saying that Santos had loaned his campaign $500,000 when he hadn’t done so — and lacked the funds to make a contribution of that size.
Santos was originally indicted in May by federal prosecutors.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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