Embattled Rep. George Santos Slapped With Additional Charges for Wire Fraud and Identity Theft
George Santos faces new charges related to his campaign.
Oct. 10 2023, Published 7:15 p.m. ET
Embattled Congressman George Santos was hit with additional criminal charges that included wire fraud and identity theft, RadarOnline.com has learned.
A new indictment filed by the Justice Department on Tuesday accused the first-term lawmaker of stealing the identities of congressional campaign donors and using their credit cards for thousands of unauthorized charges.
Santos was indicted for a second time on Tuesday.
Tuesday's filing came five months after Santos was indicted on 13 counts related to his campaign in May.
The New York rep previously was charged with "seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives," according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
In Santos' latest charges, prosecutors alleged that a portion of the stolen donor funds ended up in the lawmaker's personal bank account.
The New York congressman is accused of identity theft and wire fraud.
According to reporting from the AP, Santos is accused of charging more than $44,000 to his campaign over several months. The charges were allegedly made using campaign donor's credit cards without their knowledge.
Prosecutors said that in one incident, Santos charged $12,000 to a donor's card and then transferred a "vast majority" of those funds to his personal bank account.
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Santos faced calls to resign following his first indictment.
Other charges centered on Santos allegedly making a false report to the Federal Elections Commission, in which he was accused of falsely claiming to make a $500,000 loan to his campaign in an attempt to look like a serious candidate to Republican party officials when in reality he had less than $8,000 to his name.
"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," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement regarding the latest indictment.
Santos was hit with 13 charges back in May.
Santos previously denied defrauding anyone when he was indicted back in May. Despite an onslaught of bipartisan calls to resign, the congressman insisted that he intends to remain in office and even plans to run for reelection next cycle, though it's unclear how his latest charges affect that decision, if at all.
According to the Justice Department, if Santos was convicted of his May charges alone, he faces "a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the top counts."
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