The story of George Santos is a political saga filled with audacious deception and brazen fraud. The former congressman, once a rising Republican star from New York, saw a swift downfall from the halls of power to a federal prison cell, only to be released early after a controversial intervention. His journey exposes a web of criminality built on lies, stolen identities, and a relentless pursuit of personal gain at the public’s expense.
Santos’s eventual guilty plea to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft was the culmination of multiple interconnected schemes that targeted campaign donors, government assistance programs, and the American public’s trust. He was sentenced to 87 months in prison and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution and forfeiture for a “mountain of lies, theft, and fraud he perpetrated.” Although he began serving his sentence in July 2025, President Donald Trump commuted his sentence in October 2025, leading to his immediate release from prison.
A Pattern of Fraud and Deception
At the heart of George Santos’s criminal activity was a scheme to defraud his political supporters. During his 2022 campaign, he enlisted a political consultant to solicit donations by falsely claiming the money would be used for television ads and other campaign expenses. Relying on these lies, two donors each transferred $25,000 to a company Santos controlled. Instead of using the funds to get elected, Santos quickly transferred the money into his personal bank accounts, using it for designer clothes, cash withdrawals, and paying off his personal debts.
Former Congressman George Santos has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for fraud and identity theft. pic.twitter.com/pH0YDDhSpR
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) April 25, 2025
In another credit card fraud scheme, he stole the personal and financial information of his contributors. He then repeatedly charged their credit cards without authorization, funneling the money to his campaign, to other politicians, and directly into his own pocket. To hide these crimes and bypass campaign donation limits, he falsely reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that the contributions came from his relatives and associates.
Santos’s dishonesty extended to exploiting a public benefits program designed to help Americans during a national crisis. While he was gainfully employed as a regional director at an investment firm with a $120,000 annual salary, he applied for and received unemployment benefits from the state of New York. For nearly a year, from June 2020 to April 2021, he falsely certified each week that he was unemployed and eligible for assistance, fraudulently collecting more than $24,000 in insurance benefits that should have gone to those truly in need.
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Lies to Secure a Seat in Congress
George Santos also engaged in a conspiracy to lie to government institutions to qualify for a national party program that would provide his campaign with crucial financial and logistical support. To meet the program’s requirement of raising $250,000 from third-party donors, Santos and his campaign treasurer agreed to file false reports with the FEC.
They inflated his campaign’s fundraising numbers by claiming that at least 11 of their family members had made large contributions, when in fact those individuals had not donated nor given permission for their names to be used. They also falsely reported that Santos had personally loaned his campaign $500,000, a staggering sum given that he had less than $8,000 in his personal and business bank accounts at the time.
BREAKING: President Trump commutes George Santos’ sentence, sending him home from prison immediately.
“I signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!” pic.twitter.com/3FxipT10c4
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 17, 2025
Finally, like all congressional candidates, Santos was legally required to file truthful financial disclosures with the House of Representatives. In his September 2022 filing, he certified a series of outrageous lies about his wealth. He claimed to have earned a $750,000 salary from his company, the Devolder Organization LLC, and to have received between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from it. He also asserted he had a checking account holding up to $250,000 and a savings account with between $1 million and $5 million. All of these statements were fabricated; he had not received the reported income and did not possess the bank accounts with the balances he claimed.
The extensive evidence of his crimes led to a damning report from the House Ethics Committee, and in December 2023, he was expelled from Congress, becoming only the sixth member in history to be removed by their colleagues. While President Trump’s commutation cut his prison time short, the detailed court records and guilty pleas stand as a permanent testament to the extensive fraud that defined his brief and tumultuous political career.
