(AFP) – Disgraced former Republican lawmaker George Santos, who was expelled from the US Congress for using stolen donor cash to bankroll a lavish lifestyle, was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday. Republican Santos, 36, had faced at least two years in prison and a maximum of 22 years after pleading guilty to wire fraud and identity theft for his elaborate grifting while a lawmaker.
“He admitted to engaging in a brazen crime spree that took place over a period of years. He stole personal identities and financial information from campaign contributors, made unauthorized transfers of money to his campaign, and to himself personally,” said prosecutor John Durham. “He went so far as to seek out elderly people with cognitive impairment and dementia.”
Judge Joanna Seybert in Federal District Court in Central Islip sentenced Santos to seven years and three months. In August 2024, she had ordered Santos to pay more than $370,000 in restitution, which prosecutors say has gone unpaid.
He emerged from the courthouse flanked by his lawyers, tugging at his collar, but did not speak to reporters. “Stop the deception,” shouted a crowd of local activists as Santos climbed into a white SUV to leave. Earlier, well-wishers put their arms around Santos, who wore a charcoal suit and sunglasses, as he arrived at the courthouse for sentencing.
Ahead of his sentencing, Santos suspended his Cameo account on which users had been able to pay to request custom videos. “I have disabled the ability to make new requests as I am unsure if I will be able to fulfill them in recent days,” he wrote on X. He has said that he has no plans to request a pardon from US President Donald Trump and is resigned to prison. Despite his guilty plea, federal prosecutors have insisted that Santos’s social media shows his claims of remorse “ring hollow.”
“As of this writing, despite years of actively courting media attention and capitalizing on his infamy, Santos has forfeited nothing of his ill-gotten gains and has not repaid one cent to any of the victims of his financial crimes,” prosecutors wrote.
– Spectacular downfall –
The downfall of the congressman from Long Island came after it was revealed he had fabricated almost his entire backstory including his education, religion, and work history. Santos was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2022 and indicted the following year for stealing from campaign donors and engaging in credit card fraud, money laundering, and identity theft.
Santos used donor money for Botox treatments and the OnlyFans porn website, as well as luxury Italian goods and vacations to the Hamptons and Las Vegas, according to an investigation by a congressional ethics committee. He had been scheduled to go on trial on September 9 on some two dozen charges but opted instead to enter a guilty plea to wire fraud and identity theft.
Santos’s bizarre biographical fabrications included claiming to have worked for Goldman Sachs, being Jewish, and having been a college volleyball star. He was ultimately doomed by the congressional probe that found overwhelming evidence of misconduct and accused him of seeking to “fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy.”
Santos was expelled from the House in 2023, becoming only the third person to be ejected as a US lawmaker since the Civil War, a rebuke previously reserved for traitors and convicted criminals. In February 2024, voters in his suburban New York district picked Democrat Tom Suozzi to replace him.
– Gregory WALTON
© 2024 AFP
