He told City and State NY that after different jobs, he opened his own firm and “it just worked because I had the relationships and I began making a whole lot of money. And I fundamentally starting constructing wealth.” With that, he added, “I made a decision I’d put money into my race for Congress. There’s nothing unsuitable with that.”
In an interview with Recent York’s WABC radio, Santos said, “If I disillusioned anyone by résumé embellishment, I’m sorry,” and he vowed that “I will probably be sworn in. I’ll take office.”
Santos also gave an interview on Monday to the Recent York Post, which ran a headline calling him a “liar” and quoted him as saying “I’m not a criminal.” He said in that interview that, contrary to his campaign biography, “I didn’t graduate from any institution of upper learning.”
This past week, after the Recent York Times report raised a number of questions on whether Santos had fabricated much of his biography, Santos’s lawyer said the congressman-elect had been defamed, but he didn’t address specifics. The Times noted that Santos claimed that he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Spokesmen for each firms confirmed to The Post that that they had no record of his employment.
Santos said through the 11-minute radio interview on Monday that “the way in which it’s stated on the résumé, doing work for — I actually have worked ‘for,’ not ‘on’ or ‘at’ or ‘in’.” He said that he learned a lesson but that it doesn’t mean “I’m some fictional character.”
When Santos in June 2021 announced his bid for Recent York’s third District, which largely represents an affluent section of the North Shore of Long Island, he made a promise that few other candidates could match. If elected, he said in a campaign video, “I pledge to never take a salary.”
He furthered the impression that he was independently wealthy by lending his campaign not less than $580,000, and his political motion committee not less than $27,000, in accordance with Federal Election Commission filings. The loans played a key role in his surprising victory and helped give Republicans a narrow majority within the House.
In his first bid for the House, Santos said in a 2020 financial disclosure that he had no assets or earned income, and he only cited a commission value greater than $5,000.
But by the point Santos filed his 2022 financial disclosure, he declared he was value hundreds of thousands of dollars, with many of the wealth coming from a Florida company wherein he was the only real owner: the Devolder Organization.
At one point, Santos said on his campaign website that Devolder was a privately held family firm that had $80 million in assets under management, a claim that has since been removed.
Documents filed with the Florida secretary of state show that Santos organized the corporate in May 2021, one month before he declared his latest candidacy. A bit greater than a 12 months later, on July 30, 2022, the financial data company Dun & Bradstreet estimated that Devolder had a revenue of only $43,688.
That estimate, which previously has not been reported, was based on Dun & Bradstreet’s “modeling” and “data science,” the firm said in a press release to The Post. As a privately held company, Devolder doesn’t have to publicly release financial reports.
In any case, on Sept. 6, when Santos filed his financial disclosure report with the clerk of the U.S. House, he said the Devolder Organization had provided him with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Santos reported that the Devolder Organization had paid him an annual salary of $750,000 in 2021 and 2022, and that the corporate was value between $1 million and $5 million.
Asked within the radio interview a few report that he had put $700,000 into his campaign, he responded: “That’s the cash of — that I’ve paid myself through my company, Devolder Organization.”
Candidates are required to file accurate reports of their funds with the clerk of the House. If a candidate knowingly files a form that is fake, it could violate quite a lot of laws, according to the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.
The attorney general may pursue civil or criminal penalties against someone who “knowingly and willfully falsifies” financial disclosure statements filed to the House, in accordance with the instruction guide by the House Ethics Committee on filing such statements. Fines can reach as much as $250,000 and imprisonment may be so long as five years, in accordance with the guide. And the House can take “additional motion,” in accordance with the guide.
John Catsimatidis, who’s WABC’s owner and likewise donated to Santos’s campaign, said through the interview: “So in other words, you said you exaggerated your résumé a little bit bit, nevertheless it wasn’t anything criminal about that.”
“No, by no means,” Santos responded. He then attacked the media coverage of his claims. “John, do you recognize, we’re living in a world now that apparently I’m a closeted straight man passing through as a gay man.” Santos appears to have been referencing an article within the Day by day Beast, which noted divorce records filed two weeks before launching his first bid for Congress in 2020 that indicate he was previously married to a girl.
In a press release to The Post, Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Recent York Times, said its “deeply-researched and thoroughly fact-checked reporting speaks for itself. We stand behind its publication unreservedly.”
In 2008, Santos faced criminal charges for check fraud when he lived in Brazil, and he later confessed to the crime, the Times reported, citing court records in that country. In recent times, he has also faced two eviction proceeds and lost a case in small-claims court and was ordered to pay $5,000 plus interest after borrowing money from a friend, the Times said in a second article.
Additional questions have been raised about Santos’s claim of Jewish ancestry. In his initial campaign video, wherein he called Recent York City “a Third World hell hole,” Santos said, “my grandparents survived the Holocaust.”
Talking to the Republican Jewish Coalition on Nov. 19, Santos said that his grandfather fled Ukraine for Belgium after which immigrated to Brazil. A report last week by Jewish Insider questioned that claim, citing genealogists who said Santos’s maternal grandmother and grandfather were probably native Brazilians. Santos has said his father was born in Brazil and has Angolan roots, the Jewish Insider said.
Asked within the radio interview whether his grandparents were born in Brazil, Santos responded: “To one of the best of my knowledge, to one of the best of my understanding, no, they weren’t.” He told the Recent York Post that he’s “clearly Catholic” but that his grandmother had said she was Jewish and converted to Catholicism.
A Santos spokesman didn’t reply to requests for comment before or after the radio interview.
Robert Zimmerman, the Democratic candidate who lost to Santos within the November general election, told The Post that Santos’s alleged misrepresentations about his Jewish ancestry and his family’s survival of the Holocaust are “vile and despicable.”
“The proven fact that he would exploit for his own personal gain the atrocity and tragedy — the death of 6 million Jews — just reflects how unfit he’s for public office,” Zimmerman said.
“There are not any excuses. There’s no misunderstandings,” Zimmerman said Monday before Santos commented. “That is nothing greater than only a vulgar, hateful behavior” that is supposed to “manipulate and exploit an unimaginable tragedy.”
On his website, Santos had said: “After graduating, George Anthony began working at Citigroup as an associate and quickly advanced to grow to be an associate asset manager in the true asset division of the firm.” He also said he “was then offered an exciting opportunity with Goldman Sachs but what he thought can be the top of his profession was not as fulfilling as he had anticipated.”
Santos played down any harm done by his exaggerations. “A whole lot of people overstate on their résumé or twist a little bit bit, or ingratiate themselves,” Santos told WABC radio. “I’m not saying I’m not guilty of that, I’m just saying I’ve done a lot good work in my profession.”
Republicans are divided about find out how to handle the extensive allegations against Santos. Fred Zeidman, a GOP donor and member of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s board of directors, said he desires to see a response from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California or other GOP leaders reminiscent of officials on the Republican National Committee. A McCarthy spokeswoman didn’t reply to a request for comment.
Zeidman, a former chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, said he spoke with Santos on the RJC’s annual leadership meeting in November, where Santos gave a speech wherein he highlighted what he said was his Jewish ancestry. On the time, Zeidman got here away impressed but has since been stunned by reports raising questions on Santos’s biography.
“I’m really form of torn,” Zeidman said, “since you don’t want to present up a Republican seat in Congress, and I’m undecided we could ever win it back again. But I definitely think that the leadership of the Republican Party has an obligation to not seat someone that is clearly totally phony.”
Alice Crites contributed to this report.
