Oh look here's another lying GOP cunt for FF to felch

With a close second "prize" to the news media in his district.

The local paper dug up stuff on him but it didn’t get any traction with larger outlets. It was discussed earlier in the thread.

Now I remember. However, the failure is still a media failure since the information was out there and was either overlooked or ignored by the "big media". As Herman Wouk said in "The Winds of War": surprising things were written in books, but patient, alert eyes are always in short supply. I'm preaching to the choir here, but it's worth repeating for the general audience that TV stations would rather go after low hanging fruit like busting in on restaurants with dirty kitchens (not that that's a bad thing) than allocate the resources needed for the kind of stories that come from building relationships in the community and just reading what the other news outlets are up to. There are still outlets out there doing that kind of work, but they seem to be getting fewer and farther between as the competition dries up. When I moved to Tampa in the late 70's, the area had 5 daily newspapers. Today it has one, and that one (The Tampa Bay Times) only issues print editions on Wednesday and Sunday. When I became a radio reporter in the mid 80s, I was working for one of about a half dozen stations that had full-time reporters on the street. Now, as far as I know, there are none. I could go on but...

In 2017, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after a series of bad checks were written to dog breeders in Amish country. He got the charges dropped by claiming his checkbook had been stolen. He also claimed that he worked for the SEC.

Not long after the bad checks were written to a whole bunch of puppy breeders, Santos' charity, Friends of Pets United, held a big adoption event at a pet store in Staten Island. Santos asked the store owner to make the check for the proceeds out to him instead of the charity. The owner refused, but when he got his bank statement, he found that the check he wrote had been altered to read the way Santos originally wanted it.

Also, Friends of Pets United does not appear, legally speaking, to have ever ... what's the word? Existed.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/09/santos-charged-theft-2017-dog-breeders-00082091

What is it with him and screwing over dogs?

Which journalists? As Shooter described well earlier in the thread, local area news reporting has been burned to the ground.

Oh look, there's another one!

Though this one would at least trigger the Oldfella response and carries off the gun thing a bit better than Boebart.



https://crooksandliars.com/2023/02/stop-presses-republicans-have-another

Santos says he started his company when he was 12.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...ddle-school/ar-AA17koQZ?ocid=sapphireappshare

Wasn't that when he was going to med school before he became a psychic colonel in a bug fighting space army? Oh no wait, that was Neil Patrick Harris.

NPH has infinitely more credibility, and he's legit done all the things his characters have

He beat up Malcolm Reynolds?!

No wonder he's about to take on a Time Lord.

$365K of his campaign funds can’t be accounted for. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/nyregion/george-santos-campaign-money.html

And another one with a padded resume.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/n...-expert-the-stories-of-congressman-andy-ogles

Santos hide’s from protesters.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/02...-from-constituents-petitioning-him-to-resign/

Let me guess - utilizing skills from being the gold medalist in the Olympics hide and seek match?

While owing her landlord over $40K, Santos' sister donated $30K to his campaign.

https://gothamist.com/news/george-s...r-brothers-campaign-settles-her-eviction-case

Seems that the Secret Service interviewed him about ATM fraud. https://www.theinformation.com/arti...twitters-amazon-cloud-bill-sparking-ad-threat

NEW YORK – Rep. George Santos orchestrated a 2017 credit card skimming operation in Seattle, the man who was convicted of the fraud and deported to Brazil said in a sworn declaration submitted to federal authorities Wednesday.


https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/09/santos-masterminded-atm-fraud-feds-00086417

So, House Representative is the newest grift of credit scammers?

Shit, next it'll be president.
Could you imagine such a thing?
A grifter president?
What would that look like?

The Feds are investigating his ties to a yacht sale.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/15/nyregion/george-santos-yacht.html

Paywall….

The short version is that authorities are looking into Santos's role in brokering the sale of a $19 million yacht between two rich donors of his. It's unclear if there's anything overtly illegal about the sale or his role in it from what the article says. It could be that the yacht sale was either a facade to get Santos money, or that Santos tied involvement in the sale to future campaign contributions. At the very least, it seems to be a piece of the puzzle from how he went from being basically broke to having enough money that he could give himself a $700k loan to the campaign. Santos had said separately that his referral fee for involvement in $20m yacht deals would range between $200-400k.

"Job" should be "jahb".
Well "jahb" for Boston; "jawb" for Maine

He got “fuck Trump” published in hundreds of newspapers.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ed-leonardo-bear-vinci?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Sold: Yacht With a Waterfall. Price: $19 Million. Broker: George Santos.

Just before his House election, Mr. Santos helped two of his largest donors reach a private deal on a $19 million boat, mixing his political and personal interests.

A $19 million luxury yacht deal brokered by Representative George Santos between two of his wealthy donors has captured the attention of federal and state authorities investigating the congressman’s campaign finances and personal business dealings.

The sale, which has not been previously reported, is one of about a dozen leads being pursued by the F.B.I., the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn and the Nassau County district attorney’s office, people familiar with the investigation said.

Prosecutors and F.B.I. agents have sought in recent weeks to question the new owner of the 141-foot superyacht — Raymond Tantillo, a Long Island auto dealer — about the boat and his dealings with Mr. Santos, including his campaign fund-raising efforts.

Mr. Tantillo bought the boat from Mayra Ruiz, a Republican donor in Miami. Mr. Santos negotiated the payment — $12.25 million up front, with $6.5 million more in installments — and advised the two on the logistics of turning over the yacht, according to a person familiar with the sale, which took place a few weeks before his election in November.

It is not clear what laws, if any, may have been broken in the transaction. Several election law experts said that if the sale was designed to inject money into Mr. Santos’s campaign, it may be in violation of federal law governing caps on campaign contributions. It could also be illegal if Mr. Santos tied any commission he received on the sale to previous or future donations.

But even if Mr. Santos broke no laws, the deal serves as further evidence of an emerging narrative given by people in his political orbit — that Mr. Santos seemed to use his campaign not only to win elected office but also as a networking exercise to ingratiate himself with rich donors and enrich himself from those contacts.

Mr. Santos has denied wrongdoing. Joe Murray, a lawyer representing Mr. Santos in potential criminal matters, declined to comment, as did spokesmen from the F.BI., the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn, and the Nassau County district attorney, who is working with federal authorities on the investigation.

Mr. Santos’s campaign finances and personal business dealings have been under scrutiny following revelations by The New York Times in December that Mr. Santos had fabricated or embellished most of his résumé. The Times has since reported on curious omissions in his campaign filings, an unregistered fund connected to him, and other irregularities in his finances.

A central mystery is Mr. Santos’s sudden, unexplained jump in income, and where he got the money to loan himself roughly $700,000 over the course of his 2022 campaign.

During his first bid for Congress in 2020, he reported an income of $55,000; two years later, he reported a $750,000 salary and over $1 million in dividends from his company, the Florida-based Devolder Organization, which Mr. Santos described as a “capital introduction” business.

Mr. Santos, a Republican, has said publicly that his company brokered deals between high net-worth clients. In an interview with Semafor in December, he sought to explain his work by saying that if a client wanted to sell a plane or a boat, he would “put that feeler out there” among his contacts, adding that he had landed a couple of million-dollar contracts.

“If you’re looking at a $20 million yacht,” he told Semafor, “my referral fee there can be anywhere between $200,000 and $400,000.”

As it turns out, there was, in fact, a yacht worth nearly $20 million.

In 2019, records show, John H. Ruiz, a Miami lawyer and businessman, bought a superyacht made by the Italian yacht builder Mangusta. The yacht, which was listed at the time for 18 million euros, or $20 million, sleeps 12 guests and seven crew, and featured an infinity pool, a waterfall and an outdoor shower. It was called “Namaste,” a greeting in Hindi.

Mr. Ruiz, a Coral Gables lawyer who specializes in health care and malpractice claims, gained notoriety last year when he took his data analytics company public in a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company. The company, MSP Recovery, briefly had a record-setting valuation of nearly $33 billion, making Mr. Ruiz a billionaire many times over.

But the stock promptly plummeted to a dollar a share and, in June 2022, he and the firm’s co-founder lent the company $113 million to plug a cash shortfall.

Mr. Ruiz did not donate to Mr. Santos’s campaign, but his wife, Mayra, was a particularly generous supporter. Campaign finance records show that on March 31, 2022, Mayra Ruiz gave $10,800 to Mr. Santos’s joint fund-raising committee. Later, she was among the first to give Mr. Santos money after he won the election.

Mr. Santos has failed to disclose any of his Devolder clients. But in December, the Tantillo Auto Group — Mr. Tantillo’s network of car dealerships on Long Island — and two organizations tied to Mr. Ruiz’s family were identified by The Daily Beast as Devolder clients. The Daily Beast quoted Mayra Ruiz saying the family had hired Devolder in early 2022, but did not provide more detail.

Ms. Ruiz did not respond to requests for comment. Christine Lugo, a lawyer for Mr. Ruiz, said her client was “not interested in making any statement other than the fact that he has already publicly disclosed that he does not know who George Santos is and has never contributed to his campaigns and has never done any business with him.”

Mr. Santos, by many accounts, mingled campaign fund-raising with personal business opportunities. Several donors have described encounters with Mr. Santos at fund-raisers in which he would describe deals he could broker with other donors in industries including insurance and pharmaceuticals, or he would tell them about donors who were seeking to sell businesses or luxury items.

Mr. Santos would offer to bring people together, with the implicit understanding that he would take a cut, they said. The pitches were often paired with requests for donations. None of the other potential arrangements described to The Times appear to have resulted in deals.

Among the donors he courted, Mr. Santos seems to have grown close to Mr. Tantillo, according to people familiar with their relationship.

Mr. Tantillo gave more than $17,000 to Mr. Santos’s campaign and affiliated committees; his estranged wife is recorded as giving at least $5,000 more, as is another ex-wife. (Contribution limits in New York congressional races in 2022 were slightly altered after a state court ruling scuttled an electoral map and forced an August primary; the Federal Election Commission held that candidates could raise additional funds.)

In August, Mr. Santos approached Mr. Tantillo with an offer to sell him the yacht. The agreement was hammered out in late September in Coral Gables, and Mr. Santos suggested moving the boat into a free-trade zone at the port, the person said.

It is common for boat sales to take place in a free-trade zone before going overseas — often, the Bahamas — and returning with a new owner, according to another person familiar with the sale and with the Miami port system.

As negotiations progressed, Mr. Santos pressed Mr. Tantillo for additional donations and financial help for his campaign and for other Republicans as Election Day drew near, the person said. Mr. Tantillo did not provide additional funds.

“I have every reason to believe that Mr. Tantillo will not be charged for anything, including the purchase of a boat or campaign contributions,” said Robert Curtis Gottlieb, a lawyer for Mr. Tantillo.

At least one other large donor was asked for a major contribution weeks before the election, The Times has reported.

After weeks of negotiations, Mr. Tantillo agreed in September 2022 to buy the yacht, according to a person familiar with the sale. The deal was brokered by Mr. Santos with Ms. Ruiz, according to emails described to The Times.

On Nov. 3, 2022, “Namaste” left for the Bahamas from its berth in West Palm Beach, Fla. Fifteen days later, port records show, the boat returned to Florida under a new flag — the Cayman Islands — a different name and a new owner.

Mr. Tantillo rechristened the boat “Neverland.”

He cried and ran away from the media because of the questions they were asking him.

https://twitter.com/wutangkids/status/1643277051904815109?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ