(Bloomberg) -- Former US Representative George Santos, who lied about working at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. while running for Congress, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft stemming from his campaign for Congress.
The New York Republican, once seen as a rising star in the party, appeared in court in Central Islip, New York, to enter his plea Monday, abandoning his oft-repeated claim that the case was nothing more than a partisan witch hunt. Santos admitted filing bogus reports with the Federal Election Commission, embezzling campaign funds, charging credit cards without authorization and fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits.
“I understand my actions have betrayed the trust of my supporters and constituents,” Santos said at the hearing Monday, his voice wavering at times. “I deeply regret my conduct.”
Santos, who will be sentenced Feb. 7, had faced as long as 22 years behind bars after being charged with 23 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds. US District Judge Joanna Seybert said that he faces between two years and 7 1/4 years in jail.
While he pleaded guilty to only two of the 23 counts, he confessed to taking part in a wide range of conduct that Seybert can use when determining the final sentence.
Santos also admmitted tricking donors into giving money to a phony nonprofit and then spent the money on himself, as well as using the personal information of friends and family to manipulate the FEC into believing he was getting legitimate campaign contributions.
‘Conning People’
Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said after the hearing that Santos finally told the truth.
“Today, for what may seem like the first time since he started his campaign for Congress, Mr. Santos told the truth about his criminal schemes,” Peace said. “He admitted to lying, stealing and conning people.”
The former congressman also agreed to pay restitution of almost $374,000 and is subject to a forfeiture order of more than $205,000. The plea came just weeks before a trial that was scheduled to start next month.
Santos’ brief political career began to unwind following revelations that he’d lied about his resume and much of his life story when making his pitch to voters in New York’s 3rd district, a string of bedroom communities in Queens and Nassau County on Long Island that’s among the wealthiest districts in the US.
But it was his financial wrongdoing that brought legal peril. In a 23-count indictment, federal prosecutors said he solicited contributions to a shell company that operated as an illegal super-PAC, and stole the personal and financial information of contributors to his campaign. They also said he claimed unemployment benefits he was not entitled to and failed to properly disclose sources of income.
Lawyers for Santos, 36, are likely to seek leniency for the ex-lawmaker, pointing to his decision to admit guilt and spare the court from the time and expense of a trial.
Santos spoke briefly after the hearing, saying that he lied not just to voters, but also to himself.
“Pleading guilty is a step I never imagined I’d take, but it is a necessary one because it is the right thing to do,” Santos said on the courthouse steps. “It’s not only a recognition of my misrepresentations to others, but more profoundly it is my recognition of lies I told myself over the past few years.”
Santos was expelled from Congress on Dec. 1 after the House Committee on Ethics found “substantial evidence” he broke the law. In February, Democrat Tom Suozzi won the race to succeed Santos, retaking a seat he previously held and narrowing the GOP’s razor-thin majority. Santos in March mused about a return to politics, a plan that’s now in doubt following his guilty plea.
Santos, the son of Brazilian immigrants, said he believed he could transcend what he called an “old White man’s party” and described himself as “the full embodiment of the American dream.” But his resume crumbled under scrutiny. He never graduated from Baruch College — or played on its championship volleyball team. His mother did not die in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. And the Jewish identity he espoused on the campaign trail turned out to be, in his words, merely “Jew-ish.”
“From day one, we made the case that George Santos had no business serving in the House of Representatives and needed to be held accountable for his crimes,” Representative Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, said in a statement.
--With assistance from Billy House.
(Adds US Attorney comment in seventh paragraph)
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