George Santos’ Dad and Aunt Bailed Him Out of Jail

Ryan Bort
·2 min read
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George Santos was arrested last month in New York, where he was slapped with 13 federal charges including wire fraud, money laundering, and lying to Congress.

The congressman and serial liar was released on a $500,000 bond, leading to speculation about the benefactors who guaranteed the money. The court revealed on Thursday that Santos’ father, Gercino dos Santos, and aunt his aunt, Elma Preven, were the two individuals who helped bail him out. The elder Santos reportedly worked as a house painter, and Preven is a mail carrier.

The filing notes that the suretor’s didn’t guarantee the bond with cash or property, but “agreed to be personally responsible for Defendant’s compliance.”

Santos tried to prevent the identities of the guarantors from being made public, with his lawyer writing that Santos would “rather surrender to pretrial detainment than subject these suretors” to public scrutiny. The court dismissed his appeal earlier this week, however, ruling that the names could be released Thursday at noon.

The indictment against Santos alleges that he fraudulently applied for unemployment benefits in New York while he was making $120,000 a year at an investment firm in Florida; that he spent tens of thousands of dollars donors thought were going to his congressional campaign on personal expenses, including car payments and designer goods; and that he lied to Congress on financial disclosure forms.

The potentially illegal activity laid out in the indictment only covers a fraction of Santos’ problematic behavior. The New York Times reported in December about inconsistencies in the newly elected Santos’ background. It’s since been revealed that he fabricated huge portions of his biography — including that his mother survived 9/11 — and that he allegedly participated in a comical array of potentially fraudulent financial schemes.

Santos recused himself from serving on congressional committees in light of the media attention, and is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has so far declined to take any action against the Republican, although the GOP in both New York state and in his home district have called for him to resign. Nevertheless, Santos already filed paperwork to run for reelection in 2024.

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