The Republican congressman George Santos, exposed for lying extensively about his background and campaign finance disclosures, was expected to appear in federal court in New York on Wednesday on multiple charges of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and false statements.
Santos surrendered to authorities at the courthouse in Central Islip, Long Island, a day after he was informed of the indictment, slipping in through a back door.
While the vast Alfonse D’Amato United States courthouse played host to few of the kinds of protesters that greeted Donald Trump on his recent trip to face criminal charges in Manhattan, an attendant media circus was apparent, dozens of reporters and cameras awaiting Santos’s appearance.
The congressman was probably treated the same as any other criminal defendant, former prosecutors said: being fingerprinted, getting his mugshot taken and sitting for a preliminary interview.
The 13-count indictment unsealed on Wednesday contained seven counts of wire fraud, three of money laundering, one of theft of public money and two of making materially false statements in reports to the House of Representatives.
Santos faces a maximum sentence of 20 years on the top count, the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York said. He will not have to relinquish his seat, though members sentenced to at least two years cannot vote or be on committees.
“The allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” the US attorney Breon Peace said.
The indictment outlined three alleged fraudulent schemes, including one in which prosecutors said Santos and an unnamed Queens-based consultant induced donors to give money used to pay for luxury goods and personal debts.
The second alleged scheme involved unemployment benefits fraud during the Covid pandemic, when Santos applied for government assistance though he was employed and receiving a $120,000 salary from an investment firm in Florida.
The third alleged scheme involved Santos misleading the House about his financial situation, overstating a source of income without disclosing his salary in May 2020, during his first, unsuccessful run for Congress, then making false statements in September 2022 during his victorious run.
The false information prosecutors say Santos included in his second financial disclosure saw significant amounts of money at stake in bizarre circumstances.
Prosecutors alleged Santos falsely certified a $750,000 salary and between $1m and $5m in dividends from his company, the Devolder Organization, and claimed to have $100,000 to $250,000 in a checking account and between $1m and $5m in savings.
Santos was informed about the charges on Tuesday, hours before they were widely reported. His spokesperson and an attorney did not comment.
In Washington, Santos’s staff were told they should work from home for an unspecified period, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Santos was elected after a campaign built partly on falsehoods, including that he was a wealthy Wall Street dealmaker and former star college athlete. In reality, he did not work at the firms he claimed, did not go to college and struggled financially.
But Santos has so far managed to evade serious political repercussions, largely due to the fact Republicans hold a razor-thin House majority and Santos was a key vote for Kevin McCarthy as he won the speakership.
His most pressing issue until the indictment was an investigation by the House ethics committee, which rarely disciplines members. McCarthy said he would ask Santos, who has announced a re-election campaign, to resign if found guilty of the federal charges.
Santos has emphatically denied any wrongdoing and refused to resign, even as he faces pressure from New York Republicans and Democrats, a rare instance of unity in the hyper-partisan House.
The Republican Marc Molinaro told reporters: “George Santos should have resigned in December. George Santos should have resigned in January. George Santos should have resigned yesterday. And perhaps he’ll resign today. But sooner or later … both the truth and justice will be delivered to him.”
Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, called him “a pathological liar and lawbreaker who lied to the voters of New York state and defrauded his way into the United States Congress”, adding: “Santos is a deep rot of corruption at the core of Congress.”
The US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York and the FBI have been examining Santos’s federal campaign filings as part of a criminal investigation into whether he used funds unlawfully.
The irregularities in Santos’s filings, reported by news outlets, were apparent on their face: 1,200 payments of $199.99 – one cent below the threshold where receipts are required – an unregistered fund that raised vast sums, and around $40,000 for air travel.
Santos claimed he loaned his campaign and political action committees more than $750,000, but it was unclear how he would have come into that kind of wealth after struggling to pay rent and facing eviction.
Santos described the Devolder Organization as a broker for luxury items. The business was incorporated in Florida shortly after Santos stopped working as a salesman for a company separately accused by federal prosecutors of operating an illegal Ponzi scheme.
He has faced criminal investigations before. When he was 19, he was investigated in Brazil over allegations he used stolen checks at a clothing shop. In the wake of his US-based legal troubles, Brazilian authorities said they had reopened the case.
In 2017, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after fraudulent checks were written in his name to buy puppies from Amish dog breeders, though the case was dismissed and his record expunged after Santos said his checkbook had been stolen.
Federal authorities have also been investigating complaints about Santos’s work for a group that purported to help abused pets, after a New Jersey veteran accused Santos of failing to deliver $3,000 raised to help his dog get surgery.