Former New York Rep. George Santos pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Long Island to committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Santos, a Republican, had been set to begin trial next month on a 23-count superseding indictment accused him of wire fraud, identity theft, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
The 36-year-old disgraced ex-congressman, whose audacious lies about his personal and professional background were exposed a month before he first took office in January 2023, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 7.
He faces a minimum possible sentence of two years in prison and a maximum of 22 years behind bars for his crimes, which involved filing fraudulent FEC reports, embezzling funds from campaign donors, charging credit cards without authorization, stealing identities and obtaining unemployment benefits he was not entitled to, prosecutors said.
As part of his guilty plea, Santos must pay nearly $373,750 in restitution and forfeit more than $205,000.
“I deeply regret my conduct, I fully accept responsibility for my actions, and I understand my actions have betrayed the trust of my supporters,” Santos said during his plea hearing.
“I made misrepresentations so that the NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee] would spend money on my campaign,” Santos said.
Assistant US Attorney Ryan Harris during the hearing said that Santos’ victims included donors, members of his family, as well as state and federal officials.
A former fundraiser for Santos and the former treasurer for his congressional campaign separately pleaded guilty last fall to federal criminal charges related to Santos.
“Today, for what may seem like the first time since he started his campaign for Congress, Mr. Santos told the truth about his criminal schemes. He admitted to lying, stealing and conning people,” said Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office prosecuted Santos.
Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives last December by a vote of 311 to 114.
Santos, who had been elected in 2022, was the first member of the House in modern history to be expelled by that chamber without having first been convicted of a federal crime.
He had announced a month earlier that he would not seek reelection to represent New York’s Third Congressional District in 2024.
Santos’ decision came after a damning House Ethics report found “substantial evidence” that he had committed campaign fraud and other violations.
That report found Santos “blatantly stole from his campaign” and “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
Among other things, Santos used $4,000 in donor funds from his campaign to make a purchase at the luxury clothing store Hermes, and to make smaller purchases at OnlyFans, the online site known for adult content.
Santos was under fire shortly after his election in November 2022.
In December of that year, The New York Times published an article with the headline: “Who Is Rep.-Elect George Santos? His Résumé May Be Largely Fiction.”
The Times’ story detailed how neither Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs, two major firms where Santos claimed to have worked, had no record of ever employing him, and how a number of other claims he made were not backed up when reporters checked on them.
Santos’ lawyer, Joe Murray, in a statement to The Times for that article, said that it was “no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at The New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.”
Last October, Santos’ ex-campaign treasurer Nancy Marks pleaded guilty to conspiring with him to commit wire fraud, making materially false statements to the FEC, and aggravated identity theft.
A month later, Samuel Miele, who had raised money for Santos’ campaign, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with impersonating a top aid to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy while soliciting donations for Santos. Miele also admitted to charging the credit cards of donors for personal expenses.
– Additional reporting by Adam Reiss of NBC News
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