Scandal-plagued Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) now faces another challenge as Brazilian authorities announced they would reopen their 2008 fraud case against him.
Despite admitting to lying about much of his biography, Santos has repeatedly said he won’t step down. But as he takes office on Tuesday, he has yet another problem to worry about: being the target of an active investigation by a foreign government. His fraud case in Brazil was closed after Brazilian authorities were unable to find out his whereabouts, but with him now in the spotlight, they intend to reopen the case, the New York Times reported.
OUTGOING GOP LAWMAKERS CONDEMN SCANDAL-PLAGUED REP.-ELECT GEORGE SANTOS
The charges stem from a 2008 incident when Santos was 19, in which he allegedly used a stolen checkbook and fake name to make $700 in purchases at a clothes store. Despite his apparent confession on the Brazilian social media outlet Orkut, Santos insists he didn’t steal anything.
“I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world,” Santos said when asked about the case by the New York Post.
Nathaly Ducoulombier, a spokeswoman for the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor’s office, confirmed to the New York Times that Brazilian authorities would go through with reviving the case now that they have Santos’s “whereabouts identified.” The next step will be to notify Santos through the United States Department of Justice so he can give a response. If he refuses to respond and defend himself, he will be tried in absentia, with a maximum punishment of five years in prison. However, he would likely only serve that sentence in the unlikely scenario that the U.S. hands him over.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
An investigation from the New York Times in December found Santos had deliberately lied about numerous parts of his life, including claims that his grandparents were Ukrainian Jewish Holocaust survivors, that he worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and that he was Jewish, among many other things. Soon after, he admitted to lying on several parts of his resume in an interview with the New York Post, and he said other falsehoods were the result of miscommunication. Despite heavy criticism from all sides, he has refused to step down from his congressional seat.
