Mystery surrounding Republican Rep.-elect George Santos who flipped a House seat on Long Island: There are ‘no records’ at big banks where he said he worked, college he said he attended, or of properties ‘wealthy’ candidate says he owns
- Republican Rep.-elect George Santos comes to Congress in January saying he’s a graduate from Baruch College and worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs
- But a New York Times investigation revealed Monday that nobody by Santos’ name, or a deviation of it, graduated in 2010 from Baruch
- Nobody at Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs had a record of Santos working at their offices
- The Times’ reporters couldn’t even track down the Long Island Republican where he said he lives, with a resident living at his voting address not knowing him
- On Monday evening, Santos’ lawyer accused the paper of launching ‘this shotgun blast of attacks’ at him right before his swearing-in
Republican Rep.-elect George Santos comes to Congress in January with a degree from Baruch College and stints at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, according to his campaign biography.
But a New York Times investigation revealed Monday that nobody by Santos’ name, or a deviation of it, graduated in 2010 from Baruch.
Nobody at Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs had a record of Santos working at their offices.
The Times’ reporters couldn’t even track down the Long Island Republican where he said he lives.
Journalists went to where Santos is registered to vote and the address associated with a campaign donation he made in October, but the woman living at that address said Sunday she was not familiar with Santos.
Republican Rep.-elect George Santos comes to Congress in January with a degree from Baruch College and stints at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, according to his campaign biography, but a New York Times investigation suggests those could be false claims
George Santos (right) poses with his then fiancé at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve. Santos was the first out gay Republican elected to the U.S. Congress
On Monday night, Santos’ lawyer Joseph Murray put out a statement attacking The New York Times for ‘launch[ing] this shotgun blast of attacks’
Santos, 34, is the first out gay Republican to be elected to Congress.
He had run originally for New York’s Third Congressional seat in 2020, but was defeated by incumbent Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi.
This time, Suozzi decided against running for reelection, vying for governor instead – failing to Kathy Hochul in the state’s Democratic primary.
Santos was on the ballot against Democratic businessman Robert Zimmerman, who is also gay, and beat him by eight points in November.
On his campaign website, Santos boasts about being the son of Brazilian immigrants, having to drop out of preparatory school, but getting his GED and going on to get an economics and finance degree from Baruch College.
‘After graduating, George Anthony began working at Citigroup as an associate and quickly advanced to become an associate asset manager in the real asset division of the firm,’ the campaign website says.
George Santos (left) shakes the hand of Rudy Giuliani (right). The New York Times found out Santos may have lied about where he went to school and working for big financial institutions like Citigroup and Goldman Sachs
Santos (left) poses with Repubilcan Rep. Lee Zeldin (right), who lost to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for the governor’s mansion in 2022
A Citigroup spokeswoman, Danielle Romero-Apsilos, said the company could not confirm Santos’ employement.
She was also unfamiliar with Santos’ supposed job title, pointing out that Citi had sold off its asset management operations in 2005, five years before Santos said he graduated from college.
Santos also said he worked at MetGlobal and ‘was then offered an exciting opportunity with Goldman Sachs but what he thought would be the pinnacle of his career was not as fulfilling as he had anticipated.’
The Times was unable to reach anyone at MetGlobal for comment, while Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Abbey Collins told The Times she could not find any record of Santos working for the company.
The next company Santos says he worked, called LinkBridge Investors, did have a paper trail for him.
A company document listed Santos as a vice president and his May 2020 campaign disclosure form said he was bringing in $55,000 in salary, commission and bonuses.
While running for Congress Santos took a job at Harbor City Capital, a Florida-based investment firm sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly running a $17 million Ponzi scheme.
Santos was not named in the lawsuit.
Harbor City’s executives also created a company called Red Strategies USA that did political work for one client, Tina Forte, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Republican challenger.
Santos is pictured voting in the November election. He first ran for Congress in 2020 and lost to incumbent Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi
Santos (right) poses for a picture at the U.S. Capitol Building. His lawyer called into question The Times’ timing, noting how Santos had been in the public eye for four years – ‘and on the verge of being sworn in as a member of the Republican led 118th Congress’ – before questions about his biography were raised
Santos then went to work for his family’s firm, Devolder Organization, and put on his financial disclosure forms that he makes a salary of $750,000 – that’s nearly 14 times what he was making in 2020 at LinkBridge.
The Times found that Devolder Organization had been dissolved over failure to file an annual report.
Santos also claimed that his family owned 13 properties – but there are no records of those either.
‘We worked hard to acquire these assets,’ he said in a February 2021 post, complaining about how tenants couldn’t be evicted during the pandemic.
But The Times found evidence that Santos had been sued for eviction from properties he rented – once in November 2015 and again in May 2017.
The first landlord, Maria Tulumba, told The Times Santos was a ‘nice guy’ and a ‘respectful’ tenant, but had financial problems that led to the eviction case.
As a teenager in Brazil, Santos got in legal trouble for stealing the checkbook of the man his mother was working for and writing checks for purchases, including a pair of shoes, The Times also reported.
On his campaign website, Santos said he founded a non-profit called Friends of Pets United, however the Internal Revenue Service had no record of its existence.
The group held at least one fundraiser with a New Jersey animal rescue group in 2017, in which tickets cost $50.
The event’s beneficiary anonymously told The Times she never received any of the money – repeatedly receiving excuses from Santos.
The Times’ story was met with attacks from Santos’ lawyer Joseph Murray Monday evening.
‘George Santos represents the kind of progress that the Left is so threatened by – a gay, Latino, first generation American and Republican who won a Biden district in overwhelming fashion by showing everyday voters that there is a better option than the broken promises and failed policies of the Democratic Party,’ Murray said in a statement tweeted out by Santos.
‘After four years in the public eye, and on the verge of being sworn in as a member of the Republican led 118th Congress, The New York Times launches this shotgun blast of attacks,’ it continued.
‘It is 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,’ Murray said.
Murray went on to misattribute a Victor Hugo quote to Winston Churchill.
A request for comment from DailyMail.com went unreturned.
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