He told City and State NY that he opened his own company after working various jobs. And I basically started building wealth. ” On top of that, he added: There is nothing wrong with that. ”
In an interview with New York’s WABC radio, Santos said, “I’m sorry if I let anyone down by embellishing my resume.”
Santos also gave an interview to the New York Post on Monday, running headlines calling him a “liar,” and quoting him as saying, “I’m not a criminal.” “I have not graduated from any higher education institution,” he said.
After a New York Times report last week raised many questions about whether Santos fabricated much of his biography, a lawyer for Santos said the congressman-elect was in defamation, but has not provided details. The Times noted that Santos claimed to have worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Spokesmen for both companies confirmed to the Post that there is no record of his employment.
In an 11-minute radio interview on Monday, Santos said, “I have a job, as it says on my resume — I’ve worked ‘for.’ He said he had learned his lesson, but that doesn’t mean “I’m a fictional character.”
When Santos announced its bid in June 2021, New York’s Third District, which largely represents the affluent neighborhoods of Long Island’s North Shore, he promised few other candidates would be a match. Said In the campaign video, “I swear I will never take a paycheck.”
He fostered the impression of being independently wealthy by loaning at least $580,000 to his campaign and at least $27,000 to the Political Action Committee, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Loans played a key role in his stunning victory, helping Republicans secure a narrow majority in the House.
In his first bid for the House, Santos said in his 2020 financial disclosures that he had no assets or income, only citing fees of $5,000 or more.
But by the time Santos files his 2022 financial disclosures, he has declared himself worth millions, with most of the wealth also coming from the Deboulder Organization, a Florida company of which he is the sole owner. was dropped.
At one point, Santos said on his campaign website that Devolder was a privately held, family-owned company with $80 million in assets under management, but this claim has since been dropped.
Santos formed the company in May 2021, a month before he announced his latest candidacy, according to documents filed with Florida’s secretary of state. A little over a year later, on July 30, 2022, financial data firm Dun & Bradstreet estimated that Devolder’s earnings were just $43,688.
The previously unreported estimate is based on Dun & Bradstreet’s “modeling” and “data science,” the company said in a statement to The Post. Devolder is a privately held company and is not required to publish financial reports.
In any case, when Santos filed a financial disclosure report with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 6, Santos said the Devolder Organization had provided him with millions of dollars. Santos said the Devolder Organization paid him his $750,000 annual salary in 2021 and his $750,000 in 2022, and that the company’s value is between his $1 million and his $5 million. reported that there is
In a radio interview, when asked about reports that he put $700,000 into the campaign, he replied: “That’s the money I paid for myself through my company, the Devolder Organization.”
Candidates must accurately report their financial situation to the Clerk of the House. According to the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, it could violate a number of laws if a candidate knowingly submits a false form.
The Attorney General could impose civil or criminal penalties on anyone who “willfully falsifies” financial disclosure documents filed with the House of Representatives, according to the House Ethics Committee’s instructional guide on the submission of such documents. And. According to the Guide, fines can reach up to $250,000 and prison terms can be up to five years. The House can take “additional action,” according to the guide.
WABC owner John Katsimatidis, who also donated to the Santos campaign, said in an interview:
“No, not at all,” Santos replied. He then attacked media coverage of his allegations. “John, do you know, we live in a world now where apparently I am a closed heterosexual going through as a gay man.” Santos appears to be referencing an article in the Daily Beast that said he had previously been married to a woman, and the divorce record, which was filed two weeks before he began his first candidacy for Congress in 2020. It is shown that.
“Thoroughly researched and thoroughly fact-checked reporting speaks for itself,” New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement to The Washington Post. We unconditionally support its publication.”
In 2008, Santos faced criminal charges of check fraud while living in Brazil and later confessed to the crime, The Times reported, citing court records in that country. After facing a lawsuit, losing in small claims court, and borrowing money from a friend, he was ordered to pay $5,000 plus interest, the Times said in a second article.
Additional questions were raised about Santos’ claims of Jewish ancestry. “My grandparents survived the Holocaust,” Santos said in his video of his first campaign, which called New York City a “third-world hellhole.”
Speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition on November 19, Santos said his grandfather fled Ukraine to Belgium and then to Brazil. A report last week by Jewish Insider questioned that claim, citing a genealogist who said Santos’ maternal grandmother and grandfather were probably native Brazilians. Born in 1998, he said he has Angolan roots.
In a radio interview, Santos was asked if his grandparents were born in Brazil and replied, “To the best of my knowledge, to my understanding, they weren’t.” Catholic”, but his grandmother said she was Jewish and converted to Catholicism.
A Santos spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment before and after the radio interview.
Democratic candidate Robert Zimmerman, who lost to Santos in the November general election, told The Post that Santos’ false claims about Jewish ancestry and his family’s survival from the Holocaust were “vile and despicable.”
“The fact that he exploited the atrocity and tragedy of the deaths of six million Jews for personal gain reflects how unfit he is for public office,” Zimmermann said.
“There are no excuses,” Zimmerman said Monday before Santos commented.
Santos said on his website: He also said, “He was then offered exciting opportunities at Goldman Sachs, but what he thought would be the pinnacle of his career was not as fulfilling as he expected. .
Santos downplayed the harm done by his exaggeration. “A lot of people exaggerate their resumes, they tweak it a little, they try to please themselves,” Santos told WABC radio. I’m just saying that you’ve done a lot of good work in
Republicans are divided on how to handle the widespread allegations against Santos. Republican donor and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Fred Seidman, said he would like to hear from other Republican leaders, such as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California or officials of the Republican National Committee. Said he wanted to see. A spokeswoman for McCarthy did not respond to a request for comment.
Zeidman, former chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, said he spoke with Santos at the RJC’s annual leadership conference in November. At the time, Zeidman was impressed, but then he was taken aback by reports that he was questioning Santos’ biography.
“I’m really torn,” said Seidman. But I do believe that Republican leaders have a duty not to elect someone who is clearly and completely false. ”
Alice Crites contributed to this report.
