A联邦大陪审团已经起诉根据法庭文件，纽约州共和党众议员乔治·桑托斯(George Santos)围绕三项指控计划受到13项指控。这位国会议员于今年1月宣誓就职，周三上午在长岛被拘留。
桑托斯被指控犯有五项电信欺诈罪，检察官称这是一项欺诈性的政治献金招标计划。根据起诉书，他被控两项非法货币交易，涉嫌将他收到的政治竞选捐款转移到他控制的账户，然后用于个人购买。
他被指控犯有一项盗窃公款罪和两项电信欺诈罪，因为他涉嫌在疫情期间欺诈性地申请和领取失业救济金。
桑托斯还面临两项指控，即在财务披露报告中向美国众议院做出虚假陈述。
周三下午，他不认罪，并表示将在随后的新闻发布会上为自己辩护。“我要对抗政治迫害。我会努力洗刷自己的罪名，我期待着这样做，”他说。"
政治献金计划
检察官指控桑托斯“设计并实施了一项计划，通过说服支持者向他创建的一家公司捐款来骗取他的众议院候选人资格，并从他们那里获得资金”，该公司以“虚假借口”将用于他的政治竞选。
据检察官称，桑托斯涉嫌将数千美元的募集资金用于个人支出，包括“奢侈品牌服装和信用卡付款”。
2023年1月25日，众议员乔治·桑托斯离开华盛顿特区国会山的众议院共和党会议。
安德鲁·哈尼克/美联社，档案
检察官指控桑托斯向竞选资助者撒谎，告诉他们他建立的公司是一个社会福利组织或超级政治行动委员会。根据检察官的说法，竞选财务法律要求支出委员会在收到捐款或一个日历年内支出超过1000美元的10天内，向联邦选举委员会注册为超级政治行动委员会，但桑托斯据称知道他的公司没有注册。
据称，桑托斯告诉捐助者，捐款数额“没有限制”。起诉书称，至少有一个人向他的竞选活动捐款，超过了竞选财务法规定的上限。
根据起诉书，桑托斯涉嫌向潜在捐助者发送一条或多条短信或电子邮件，要求捐款，声称这些资金将用于电视广告，以支持他竞选众议院议员。
根据起诉书，桑托斯据称从资助者那里收到了两笔25，000美元的捐款，这些资助者错误地认为，根据发送给捐赠者的短信和电子邮件，桑托斯将使用这些资金在电视上投放广告，但这些资金没有用于广告或竞选支出。
根据起诉书，检察官指控这些资金随后被转移到桑托斯控制的银行账户，然后“用于他的个人利益，包括提取现金、个人购买奢侈品牌服装、信用卡付款、汽车付款、个人债务付款以及一次或多次银行转账”给他的个人同事。
失业津贴
桑托斯还被指控欺诈性地申请和接受新冠肺炎·疫情时代的失业救济金根据起诉书，他领取了约24，744美元的失业救济金。
据检察官称，2020年6月17日，桑托斯据称申请领取纽约州失业保险福利，谎称自己自2020年3月22日以来一直失业。
根据检察官的说法，桑托斯据称在2021年4月15日之前每周都证明自己有资格获得失业救济金，每次都错误地证明，尽管他从2020年2月3日到2021年4月15日在一家投资公司担任区域董事，但他仍然失业。
据检察官称，桑托斯据称每年从该公司获得约12万美元的薪酬。
当被问及法庭外的具体指控时，他称该指控“不准确”
对美国众议院的虚假陈述
桑托斯还被指控在他作为候选人提交给众议院的两份财务披露中做出虚假陈述。
根据起诉书，在2020年5月第一次竞选失败期间，桑托斯涉嫌夸大一项收入来源，同时没有披露他从一家投资公司获得的工资。
根据起诉书，当桑托斯在2022年再次竞选公职时，他涉嫌在财务披露表中包含虚假信息。根据起诉书，在2022年的披露中，桑托斯谎称从他的公司Devolder Organization获得了75万美元的工资和100万至500万美元的股息，桑托斯谎称拥有一个存有10万至25万美元的支票账户，以及一个存有100万至500万美元存款的储蓄账户。
Rep. George Santos has been criminally charged. Here's what prosecutors say he did.
Afederal grand jury has indictedRep. George Santos, R-N.Y., on 13 counts centering around three alleged schemes, according to court documents. The congressman, who was sworn into office in January, was taken into custody Wednesday morning on Long Island.
Santos is charged with five counts of wire fraud in what prosecutors allege was a fraudulent political contribution solicitation scheme. He's charged with two counts of unlawful monetary transactions for allegedly transferring donations he received for his political campaign to accounts he controlled before spending them on personal purchases, according to the indictment.
He is charged with one count of theft of public money and two more counts of wire fraud for allegedly fraudulently applying for and receiving unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
Santos is also facing two counts of making false statements to the U.S. House of Representatives in financial disclosure reports.
He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday afternoon and said he would defend himself against the allegations in a press conference afterward. "I'm going to fight the witch hunt. I'm going to take care of clearing my name and I look forward to doing that," he said."
Scheme to solicit political contributions
Prosecutors allege Santos "devised and executed a scheme to defraud supporters of his candidacy for the House and to obtain money from them" by persuading them to contribute funds to a company he created under the "false pretense" that it would be used for his political campaign.
Santos then allegedly spent thousands of dollars of the solicited funds on personal expenses, including "luxury designer clothing and credit card payments," according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors allege Santos lied to campaign funders, telling them the company he set up was a social welfare organization or a super PAC. Campaign finance laws require expenditure committees to register with the Federal Election Commission as super PACs within 10 days of receiving contributions or spending more than $1,000 in a calendar year, but Santos allegedly knew his company was not registered as such, according to prosecutors.
Santos allegedly told donors that there were "no limits" on how much contributions could be. At least one person then made contributions to his campaign that exceeded the limit set by campaign finance laws, according to the indictment.
Santos allegedly sent prospective donors one or more text messages or emails requesting donations, claiming the funds would be used for TV advertisements to support his candidacy for the House of Representatives, according to the indictment.
Santos allegedly received two $25,000 donations from funders who were under the false impression that Santos would use the funds to put his advertisements on TV, based on text messages and emails sent to the donors, but the funds were not used for ads or campaign expenditures, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege the funds were then transferred into bank accounts controlled by Santos before being spent "for his personal benefit, including to make cash withdrawals, personal purchases of luxury designer clothing, credit card payments, a car payment, payments on personal debts, and one or more bank transfers" to his personal associates, according to the indictment.
Unemployment benefits
Santos is also accused of fraudulently applying for and receivingCOVID-19 pandemic-era unemployment benefits, receiving about $24,744 in unemployment benefits, according to the indictment.
On June 17, 2020, Santos allegedly applied to receive New York state unemployment insurance benefits, falsely claiming that he had been unemployed since March 22, 2020, according to prosecutors.
Santos then allegedly certified his eligibility for unemployment benefits on a weekly basis through April 15, 2021, falsely attesting in each instance that he was unemployed despite being a regional director at an investment firm from Feb. 3, 2020, through April 15, 2021, according to prosecutors.
Santos allegedly received a salary of about $120,000 per year from the firm, according to prosecutors.
When asked specifically about the charge outside court, he called the accusation "inaccurate."
False statements to the US House of Representatives
Santos is also accused of making false statements in two financial disclosures to the House of Representatives that he filed as a candidate.
During his first unsuccessful campaign for office in May 2020, Santos allegedly overstated one source of income while failing to disclose a salary he received from an investment firm, according to the indictment.
When he ran for office again in 2022, Santos allegedly included falsehoods in his financial disclosure forms, according to the indictment. In his 2022 disclosure, Santos lied about earning a $750,000 salary and between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from his company, the Devolder Organization, and Santos falsely claimed to have a checking account that held between $100,000 and $250,000, and a savings account with deposits of between $1 and $5 million, according to the indictment.
