George Santos indicted on 23 charges including conspiracy, wire fraud and identity theft

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was slapped with numerous charges on Tuesday, which included conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft and credit card fraud.

A 23-count superseding indictment was filed by prosecutors against Santos.

These charges are one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of access device fraud.

This is in addition to the seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the United States House of Representatives that were charged in the original indictment, per the Department of Justice.

“As alleged, Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign. Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen” said United States Attorney Peace. “This Office will relentlessly pursue criminal charges against anyone who uses the electoral process as an opportunity to defraud the public and our government institutions.”

The DOJ press release on the matter claims that Santos and his former treasurer, Nancy Marks, worked together to hatch a scheme to fund Santos' 2022 congressional campaign by sending false reports to the FEC on behalf of the campaign. These reports were said to have inflated the campaign's fundraising results in an intentional plan to deceive the FEC, a national party committee, as well as the American public.

Marks pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States last week. 

Santos' alleged false report included a fictitious $500,000 that he had supposedly loaned to his own campaign. The New York representative in reality had less than $8,000 in his personal and business bank accounts, according to the DOJ.