Rep. George Santos (R-NY) charged in Pennsylvania in 2017 for allegedly committing theft by writing NSF checks, Politico reported Thursday.
The fees were lowered in 2021 after Santos told prosecutors he “works for the SEC,” the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to attorney Tiffany Bogosian, a former friend of Santos’ who helped him in his efforts to resolve the issue.
Bogosian, who met Santos in college, revealed that he reconnected with Santos in 2019 for the first time in years. She alleged that Santos told her he had lost a congressional candidacy, he didn’t launch his first crusade to Congress until November 2019. The following year, Santos visited him in his office, asking for legal advice.
He reportedly explained that he lost a checkbook in 2017 and canceled it, but was served with an extradition order by the NYPD in February 2020 on charges in Pennsylvania. Bogosian emailed a Pennsylvania state trooper relaying Santos’ explanation, even offering photos of canceled checks with signatures that didn’t fit on Santos’ New York State ID card.
Santos later told Bogosian that fares were reduced after he left for Pennsylvania. She recalled that he had said he worked at the SEC.
In November 2017, several checks totaling $15,125 were issued, some with notes referring to “puppies” and cut to Amish dog breeders. Policy briefs:
Later that year, in December 2017, Michele Vazzo said she met Santos at Pet Oasis when she followed a puppy from an event. Santos told her that the golden retriever had been rescued from an Amish puppy kennel. There were many dogs on charity occasions, and adoption prices ranged from $300 to $400, he recalls.
Shortly after Santos wrote the checks, he held a dog auction on Staten Island through his purported charity, Friends of Pets United, which is not officially registered. People who bought the Santos puppies reported that the amount and recipient of the checks they issued in the name of Charity on the occasion were substituted to pass to Santos.
Santos’ fees in York County, Pennsylvania, were eliminated on November 24, 2021. Pennsylvania officials have commented on the matter.
Bogosian previously told The Washington Post in January that he brought a client to Santos in 2020, some time after they reconnected. Santos tried to get the client to invest the money earned through a lawsuit with a company Santos worked for, but the SEC later decided it was a Ponzi scheme. After the Bogosian consumer refused to invest with Santos, Santos became furious and Bogosian began to doubt more and more the data Santos had given him.
Jacqueline Sweet, the journalist who wrote the story and did several reports on Santos, told CNN, “There’s a hint of the indictment erased in some substantive reporting, but. . . There is no data available from the court. “
Look above CNN.
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