I’m starting to feel sorry— well, almost starting to feel sorry— for the Brazilian Lying’ King. George Santos took a flier in an open blue Long Island district and everything went so well for him— it was redistricted slightly less blue; the incumbent decided to make a suicidal run for governor; the Democrats picked an exceptionally bad nominee; the New York Democratic Party and the DCCC were too preoccupied with impending catastrophe to pay him any attention; the media persuaded half the residents in one of America’s safest counties that they were under siege from violent criminals— and he won! Imagine how happy he was. He had never had a real job with a real salary and had never been respected by anyone and now he was, as if by magic, about to become a congressman. And then it all started falling apart.
His campaign was built on a tissue of blatant, impossible lies— one after the after after the other. Nothing he ever said was true. Everyday there’s more bad news. Last night he was booked to be on Fox with Tucker Carlson and, no doubt, thought he’d get a free ride to spout his bullshit. Instead, Tucker was building a snowman in Lewiston and he wound up with Tulsi Gabbard, who tore him a new asshole.
He’s already been referred to the House Ethics Committee by members of both parties for investigation and the NY state Stormy General is also investigating him. Yesterday, the Republican Nassau County district attorney Anne Donnelly, announced she’s opening an investigation into the myriad scandals swirling around him. “The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning. The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress. No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”
He’s had more national press coverage this week— all of it devastating— than most members with decades of seniority have had in a career! Although… has Kevin McCarthy uttered his name? CNN reported yesterday’s latest cascade of campaign lies, including claims he was forced to leave a New York City private school [Horace Mann] when his family’s real estate assets took a downturn and stating he represented Goldman Sachs at a top financial conference where he berated the company for investing in renewables. CNN also reviewed more instances of Santos providing additional false history of his family’s background. In one interview, Santos said his mother’s family’s historical Jewish name was ‘Zabrovsky,’ and later appeared to operate a GoFundMe campaign for a pet charity (which he falsely claimed was a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) under that alias. Genealogists CNN previously spoke with found no evidence of Jewish or Ukrainian heritage in his family tree. In another, he said his mother, whose family has lived in Brazil since the late 1800s, was a White immigrant from Belgium.”
Senior Texas Republican Congressman Pete Sessions, once chair of the NRCC and someone who has always played very fast and very loose with the rules himself, told the Washington Examiner that he’s “not supportive of [Santos] being in our conference at all from what I know. You cannot come into our conference as a known liar.” Really? Well, I'll be... That’s kind of funny, right as that conference of which he speaks, is about to elect Kevin McCarthy, a notorious liar, Speaker— with Santos’ announced help. Of course, they may well pass on OK Kevin in the end and go to another notorious liar, Gym Jordan.
Yesterday, Ed Kilgore dubbed him a fabulist and an “international man of mystery… [and] the feel-bad story of holiday season… For all the stuff Santos seems to have made up, there’s also a lot he didn’t disclose in biographical information: multiple evictions and debt defaults in New York; a criminal fraud conviction in Brazil; and a recently dissolved marriage to a woman (he claims to be openly gay and married to a man, though records on that can’t be found either so far). The one thing about him that is very real is that somehow between an unsuccessful 2020 congressional run and his 2022 victory, he made a lot of money, or at least enough to partially self-finance his campaign.”
David Corn took it from there, finding what was most intriguing about Santos’ web of lies “the story he has told about his personal finances: how we went from making $55,000 a year in 2020 to scoring between $3.5 million and $11.5 million in 2021 and 2022 and being able to funnel $700,000 into his recent campaign. Santos tried to explain this in an interview this week with Semafor— but he only compounded the mystery with a story that contradicts his earlier accounts… Santos declared on financial disclosure statements that he made his millions through a company called Devolder Organization LLC, formed in May 2021. (His full name is George Devolder Santos.) This was weeks after the Florida investment firm called Harbor City Capital where he was working had been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of running a Ponzi scheme.”
Devolder had no public-facing operations, not even a website. On Santos’ campaign website in 2021, he described Devolder as his family’s company and said he was a managing member who oversaw “asset allocations” of $80 million. This made it seem he was managing an investment fund. Yet there is nothing in the public record that explains how he and his family supposedly came to oversee such a large fortune. Santos has said that he came from “abject” poverty. And the financial disclosure form Santos filed in 2020 during a losing House campaign recorded no signs of any personal wealth.
In April 2022, Santos provided a different description of Devolder to the Daily Beast. He reported that he had created Devolder to help “all the people who were left adrift” after Harbor City was charged by the SEC. He also said that Devolder had by then been dissolved. The Daily Beast also reported that Devolder was one of several stakeholders in Red Strategies USA, a consulting firm that did work for Tina Forte, a QAnon-ish challenger to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
So, what was Devolder? An assets management firm handling his family’s supposed wealth? Or something else connected to political campaigning?
On the financial disclosure form Santos filed in September 2022, he characterized Devolder in yet another way. He termed it a “Capital intro consulting company.” The form stated that he had earned a hefty $750,000 in salary and between $1 million and $5 million in dividend income from Devolder in 2021 and the same amounts in 2022. This is a lot of money from a company that Santos said had been dissolved less than a year after it was created. It’s also just a lot of money, period— especially for someone who was pulling in $55,000 the year before this windfall.
Santos’ transition from a mid-income earner at a company that held investor conferences to a multi-million-dollar macher is puzzling. That’s quite a transformation, but one he apparently (and suspiciously) did not note or boast about when presenting his biography during the campaign.
As part of his recent PR offensive to counter the widespread criticism of his brazen lying, Santos spoke with Semafor, and he addressed— vaguely and briefly— Devolder:
Santos said that Devolder was also in the capital introduction business, including “deal building” and “specialty consulting” for “high net worth individuals.”
As an example of his work, he said a client might want to sell a plane or a boat. “I’m not going to go list it and broker it,” he said. “What I will do is I will go look out there within my Rolodex and be like: ‘Hey, are you looking for a plane?’ ‘Are you looking for a boat?’ I just put that feeler out there.” He said he had a network of wealthy investors, family offices, “institutions” and endowments that included about 15,000 people. Within the first six months of starting Devolder, he said he “landed a couple of million-dollar contracts.”
“If you’re looking at a $20 million yacht, my referral fee there can be anywhere between $200,000 and $400,000,” he said.
Santos did not respond to follow-up questions asking what the million-dollar contracts entailed, or if he could share the names of previous clients from his business.
This does not square with his initial description of Devolder as an $80 million fund that he managed— nor with his earlier statement that the firm was dissolved prior to April 2022.
And the numbers don’t add up.
If he actually landed a couple of million dollar contracts in the second half of 2021— and he made commissions between 1 and 2 percent— that would not bring in the millions of dollars he claimed to pocket.
Why the shifting explanations? What’s actually going on?
As the Santos story moves forward, it’s the money that may matter the most. It shouldn’t be hard for him to demonstrate what Devolder did, what he earned, and how he was able to pour $700,000 in his own money into his 2022 campaign. He could— and probably should— release his tax returns. That’s not a common practice for members of Congress. But Santos warrants such scrutiny. And after Congress convenes next week, the House Ethics Committee ought to initiate an investigation to determine if Santos filed accurate financial disclosure forms. Under the Ethics in Government Act, it is a federal crime to knowingly file false information; doing so can lead to a fine of up to $50,000 and imprisonment of up to 5 years.
Obviously, whatever Santos says about Devolder and his personal finances should not be taken at face value. The public needs to see his receipts.
What is known, however, is that he was at least in part bankrolled by two crooks looking to buy members of Congress, Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and home-grown crook Sam Bankman-Fried (via FTX). And that was legally reported money. People I’m talking to about this are all saying he likely took hundreds of thousands of dollars under the table that never got reported to the FEC. If that’s the case, let’s hope either Anne Donnelly, Letitia James or the feds— who haven’t announced an investigation but are no doubt looking into this [UPDATE: they have]— get to the bottom of it. They also need to get to the bottom of where he was actually born and of what country he is a citizen. Let's see if he shows up for the Mar-A-Lago New Years Eve Party Señor Trumpanzee is hosting for Jair Bolsonaro.
National Review’s completely deranged far right editor, Jim Geraghty, worries that Santos’ penchant for falsehood could lead to public corruption since “Santos appears to have gotten extremely rich extremely quickly, and no one is sure who has paid him and for what.” He warns that candidates “are required to complete financial-disclosure forms, and Congress has authorized the U.S. attorney general to seek a civil penalty of up to $50,000, up to five years of imprisonment, or both, against an individual who knowingly and willfully falsifies or fails to file or to report any required information. Right now, the most consequential question is where Santos got that $600,000 or so that he used to finance his campaign. For all we know, some foreign power may have bought itself a congressman. This isn’t outlandish speculation, as one of his largest donors has ties to the Russian government… Could you imagine if there was some Russian plot to elect a congressman, and that congressman then turned around and called for tougher sanctions on Russia? Then again, based on what we know so far, does George Santos seem like the kind of crook who could stay bought?”
Let's end this episode of A Day in The Life of George Santos with his supposed promise to New York GOP leaders that if he's allowed to serve a term in Congress, he won't run for reelection in 2024.
