Rep. George Santos faces new federal fraud charges

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday accused Rep. George Santos of engaging in multiple fraud schemes including identity theft, wire fraud and making false statements as part of a conspiracy to mislead donors, the Federal Election Commission and his constituents.

The set of 10 new criminal charges were included in a superseding indictment filed on Tuesday by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York and come on top of the 13 charges Santos already faced in May. At the time, he pleaded not guilty to those charges.

The new indictment also comes less than a week after Nancy Marks, his former campaign treasurer, accepted a plea deal where she admitted to working with Santos to make his campaign appear to be more successful at raising money than it actually was.

“As alleged, 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,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement. “Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen. This Office will relentlessly pursue criminal charges against anyone who uses the electoral process as an opportunity to defraud the public and our government institutions.”

Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His attorney, Joseph Murray, declined to comment.

In the new indictment, prosecutors alleged that Santos engaged in two distinct fraud schemes.

The first involved Santos and Marks agreeing to file documents with the FEC that purported to show that 10 of their family members made donations to the campaign, even though those individuals did not make the contributions, prosecutors alleged.

The goal was to secure additional funding for the Santos campaign from a program administered by the national party committee by falsely showing the campaign had raised more than $250,000 from third-party donors, the indictment alleged. Santos and Marks also filed fraudulent statements with the FEC that showed that Santos loaned himself $500,000. Prosecutors alleged at the time that Santos only had $8,000 in his bank account.

In the second scheme, Santos was accused of stealing the identities and financial information of contributors to his campaign and then repeatedly charging their credit cards without their permission. Prosecutors cited one instance where Santos allegedly attempted to rack up more than $44,000 in charges on one contributor's card, and then masked the donations as contributions from himself and family members.

In another instance, prosecutors alleged Santos ran up $12,000 on a contributor’s card and funneled that money into his own personal bank account.

He is due back in a Long Island court on Oct. 27.

As the case continues to work through judicial proceedings, candidates seeking to oust Santos from his seat are entering the race.

On Tuesday, former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi announced he would run for reelection to the district he represented for three terms. Other Democrats include former state Sen. Anna Kaplan, Nassau County legislator Josh Lafazan, organizer and activist Zak Malamed and William Murphy, a lawyer and St. John’s University professor.

On the Republican side, a handful of candidates have announced they will seek the nomination. Among those are Air Force veteran Kellen Curry and former NYPD detective Mike Sapraicone.