George Santos' Former Roommate Tells FBI the Now-Congressman Once Masterminded an ATM Fraud
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Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images Rep. George Santos outside his office on Capitol Hill
George Santos' ex-roommate says the freshman congressman once spearheaded a credit card-skimming fraud at ATMs that landed the ex-roommate in jail.
Politico reports that the former roommate — Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha — made the allegations in a sworn declaration submitted to the FBI.
Trelha was convicted of the fraud in 2017, Politico reports, and deported to Brazil as a result.
"I am coming forward today to declare that the person in charge of the crime of credit card fraud when I was arrested was George Santos / Anthony Devolder," Trelha wrote in the declaration.
Elsewhere in the declaration, Trelha wrote: "Santos taught me how to skim card information and how to clone cards. He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines."
Politico earlier reported that Santos allegedly lied to a Seattle judge at a 2017 bail hearing for Trelha, saying that he worked for Goldman Sachs at the time (a lie he told frequently on the campaign trail, and has since admitted was not true).
Santos was questioned about the Seattle ATM fraud by investigators for the U.S. Secret Service, CBS News reported, though he was never charged in the scam.
Politico reports that Trelha said he met Santos via a Facebook group before renting a room in Santos' apartment near Orlando. That's where, Trelha said in the declaration (which was translated by Politico from Portuguese), he "learned from him how to clone ATM and credit cards."
Trelha further alleges in the declaration that Santos kept a warehouse full of credit card-skimming equipment—"parts, printers, blank ATM and credit cards to be painted and engraved with stolen account and personal information"—and "taught me how to use them."
Trelha was arrested when he was caught on security footage removing one of the pieces of equipment from an ATM in Seattle.
While he was the only one charged, he claims in the declaration that Santos and he had a deal—"50% for him and 50% for me"—but that he didn't tell authorities at the time because he was "threatened" not to.
According to Politico, Trelha further alleges that Santos "stole" money he had collected for his bail, asking another roommate to give him $20,000 in cash after promising Trelha he was going to hire drug kingpin El Chapo's attorney to help get him out. Instead, Santos allegedly took the money and left, and Trelha never heard from him again.
RELATED: Fact-Checking the George Santos Claims: From Goldman Sachs Employee to College 'Volleyball Star'
Santos has been the subject of numerous headlines after The New York Times found that many of the claims he made on the campaign trail and on his resume were unsubstantiated.
After the Republican admitted that he had "embellished" some portions of his resume, more mysteries began to crop up, like the source of his income, which has seemingly grown by hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.
In 2020, when he launched his first run for the House, he stated in a financial disclosure that he had no assets and no earned income. But his financial situation appeared to have markedly improved by the time he decided to launch a second run for the House in 2022, with Federal Election Commission filings showing he lent at least $700,000 to his campaign, and $27,000 to his political action committee.
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Santos is currently under federal investigation over questions about his finances, and the Nassau County District Attorney's Office in New York has announced that it, too, is investigating the incoming lawmakerfor fabrications that DA Anne T. Donnelly called "nothing short of stunning."
Santos recently told colleagues he would temporarily resign from his assignments on the Small Business and Science Committees while various investigations into his past play out.
Federal investigators are also reportedly looking into claims that Santos once scammed a Navy veteran out of $3,000 meant for his ailing service dog, CNN and Politico reported in February.
