Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - POLITICAL: George Santos

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

From stolen identities to fake charities, former Rep. George Santos mastered the art of deception long before he ever stepped foot in Congress. Nicole Lapin uncovers the astonishing truth behind the disgraced politician’s career, detailing the fraud, financial scams, and outrageous lies that made Santos infamous—and ultimately brought about his spectacular downfall. Scams, Money, & Murder is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Don’t miss out on all things Scams, Money, & Murder! Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Crime House. Politics is a dirty business because when it comes to money, power, and privilege, things are bound to get messy. Add a few mistruths into the mix like many politicians do, well then you are off to the messy. Add a few mistruths into the mix, like many politicians do, well then you are off to the races. It's usually small, trivial things, maybe an admission about their past here and a tiny white line regarding their belief system there. Nothing that should threaten American democracy as a whole. Well, at least not until George Santos came along. In 2023, the newly elected congressman from New York had told so many lies about himself,

the truth was no longer visible. He claimed he was a rich Wall Street trader who'd graduated from an elite private college, a star volleyball player who ran a pet charity. He even lied about his grandparents escaping the Holocaust. The stories were so wild that George couldn't even keep track of them himself. But in reality, they were all just a smokescreen for something even more scandalous. A web of illegal scams George had been pulling off for years. And his status as a congressional candidate just happened to be the perfect cover. As they say, money makes the world go round. What many don't talk about is the time it made people's worlds come to a screeching

halt. Whether it's greed, desperation, or a thirst for power, money can make even the most unassuming people do unthinkable things. And sometimes those acts can be deadly. This is Scams, Money & Murder, a CrimeHouse original. I'm Nicole Lapin. Every Thursday we alternate between covering infamous money-motivated crimes and gripping interviews with the experts or those who are directly involved themselves.

CrimeHouse exists because of you. Please rate, review, and follow scams, money, and murder. For early ad-free access and bonus content, you can also subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. And for even more true crime stories from this week in history, check out Crime House The Show. Today, I'll tell you the real story of George Santos, from his beginnings as a petty scammer, through his audacious rise to Congress, to his spectacular collapse,

and how he managed to line his pockets every step of the way. Crime House Studios has released its first audiobook called Murder in the Media. Told through the lens of five heart-pounding murder cases, this thrilling audiobook traces the evolving and sometimes insidious role the media has had in shaping true crime storytelling. Murder in the Media is a Crime House original audiobook. Find it now on Spotify. Representative George Santos, the man who put the con in Congress, a fabulous storyteller who lied and scammed his way to a seat in our nation's capital.

George has told so many tall tales about his life, it can be hard to pick the grains of truth from his mountains of deceit. But here's what we think we know to be true. George Anthony de Vaulder Santos was born on July 22, 1988, in Jackson Heights, Queens, a diverse, working-class borough of New York City. And his family didn't have much. His parents were both immigrants from Brazil. His mother, Fatima, worked as a cleaning woman, and his father, Draceno, was a house painter.

When George was a kid, they lived in a basement apartment that he said was infested with rats. And while George came from humble beginnings, he always dreamed of having a bigger life, one filled with wealth, success, and fame. And he was willing to do anything to make that a reality. George's parents divorced when he was young, and he was raised mostly by his mom after the split. That's when she took George back to Brazil with her, where they lived with family in a city called Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro.

And during his teenage years, he found a community that really called to him. He started getting involved in the local drag scene. George was openly gay, and Niteroi had a vibrant drag culture. When he was around 17 years old, he was performing himself under the drag name Katara Rivace. Although one drag queen who knew him quipped that he, quote, did not have the glamour to do it professionally. Bad reviews aside, George's interest in drag was an early glimpse into what came to be his greatest talent, putting on a costume and pretending to be someone else.

George developed another talent during his teenage years as well, a penchant for crime. The first one we know of was in 2008 when George was 19 years old. At the time, his mom was working as a caretaker for an elderly man. But when the man died, George apparently took the opportunity to steal his checkbook. George then used it to write several bad checks around town, buying things like designer clothes and shoes. He didn't cover his tracks very well, though. Before long, the police caught onto his scheme

and traced the checks back to George. Once in custody, he admitted to the crime and was formally charged in 2011. But before he could face punishment, George and his mother fled Brazil and went back to Queens. Since the offense was small, the Brazilian authorities chose not to pursue extradition. But this taught George something.

He could get away with his crimes and escape with zero punishment as long as he played his cards right. In Queens, George returned to the humble life he'd had as a child. He slept in cramped apartments with various family members and roommates throughout most of his twenties. For a while, he worked as a telemarketer, where his co-workers remembered him telling wild stories about his family.

For example, he claimed his parents were very wealthy, that his mom had a finance job on Wall Street, and that they owned expensive property. Of course, people wondered why George was working for a low hourly wage at a call center, if that were the case. But he was so charming and friendly that no one really questioned him that much. George realized this was a skill that could take him really far. But George barely lasted a year at the call center, seeming to hate the grind of a 9-5. That's when he decided to try and make his money in more creative ways. For instance, in 2012, when George was 24 years old, he married a Brazilian woman named

Uodla. He was openly gay, of course, and even had a serious boyfriend at the time. But Uodla didn't care. She wanted American citizenship. So according to George's friends, she paid George $30,000 for a fake green card marriage. And seemingly, he got his money. Seven years later, after Uodla became a legal permanent resident, they got divorced. But in 2013, 25-year-old George had added an even weirder hustle to his fake marriage scam. He started a phony dog rescue charity.

He called it Friends of Pets United. And he used it to make money in a few very questionable ways. He'd hold fundraisers for the charity and then pocket most of the donations. He'd also supposedly use it as a front for selling dogs, charging hundreds of dollars per pet and claiming the money was going to charity. In reality, it was just going back to him. George even used Friends of Pets United to raise money online through Facebook posts, PayPal requests, and GoFundMe's.

The most tragic victim of this scam was a man named Rich Ostof. Rich was an unhoused Navy veteran who had a dog named Sapphire. Sapphire developed a tumor, and Rich couldn't afford to pay for the surgery to remove it himself. So he turned to George and his charity for help. George quickly raised the $3,000 needed for her surgery. But Rich never saw a dime of it. George took it all for himself. And sadly, Sapphire passed away because of it. George never admitted any fault in what happened. Actually, George never faced any blowback for his charity scam. He got away with it

for years, up until at least 2017. But by 2020, 32-year-old George had moved onto a bigger hustle. He started working for a man named J.P. Maroney at a company called Harbor City Investment. And according to an SEC lawsuit, Harbor City was little more than a Ponzi scheme. Here's how it worked. Harbor City claimed it had developed a lucrative new way for businesses to serve online ads to potential customers. Harbor City employees would then go out and find rich investors, pitch them the company, and promise a crazy return on their investment.

Moroni would then use some of this money to pay out returns to other investors, making it look as though the company was profitable. But mostly Moroni kept the money for himself. He allegedly spent $827,000 on a waterfront home, $90,000 on a Benz, and $1.3 million on credit card bills. And George Santos?

Well, he was one of JP Moroni's best employees. He was so good that Moroni put him in charge of starting a New York City branch of the company. Though I should mention, it's not exactly clear if George knew Harbor City was a Ponzi scheme when he was working there. He was not named in the SEC suit and faced no charges. But I can tell you one thing, George made some really good money there. His salary was about $120,000 a year.

And knowing him, he probably found ways to make even more money on the side. But it didn't last long. Barely a year after he started working at Harbor City, the SEC froze the company's assets and the company folded. By that point, though, George didn't need Harbor City anymore. He had learned all he needed to know from the place. He knew how to convince the rich to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars on little more than a promise. It was salesmanship at its highest level and it gave George all the skills he needed for his next grift, politics.

George Santos had spent most of his life as a broke con man running scams to support himself. He had no college education or real business experience except for his involvement with Harbor City. And there was an open legal case against him in Brazil. He was carrying more baggage than a Beverly Hills bellhop. Despite all of this, 32-year-old George didn't seem worried. And in 2020, he decided to take his con to the next level. He was going to pursue national politics. That year, he ran for Congress in New York's third district.

You might be wondering, why politics? Well, George had two big inspirations from different sides of the spectrum. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Donald Trump. AOC was a year younger than George, a New York City native with no political background who'd quickly risen to fame by being elected to Congress. And Donald Trump was very similar, a New Yorker with no political background who'd made it to the White House on charm and charisma.

It seemed like George was thinking, if those two could do it, so could I. So George ran as a Republican in the 2020 congressional election. He supported many hot button positions, and although George was gay himself, he frequently took anti-LGBTQ stances. But it wasn't his policy positions that made him unique. It was his backstory.

You see, George couldn't just tell people that he was a broke con artist. So he had to make up a completely fake story about his past. On the campaign trail, he began saying he was a poor kid from Queens who'd used his hard work and street smarts to climb his way up to the highest levels of New York's elite. He claimed he went to good schools in the city, NYU, Baruch College, where he said he was a star volleyball player. He claimed that, after graduating, he built a successful career on Wall Street working

as a project manager at Goldman Sachs. He said he was quote, a associate asset manager at Citigroup. He presented himself as the embodiment of the American dream. It was an appealing story for sure. And George, being the charming smooth talker that he was, looked like an appealing candidate to many voters and donors. The donors were crucial because of course,

George wasn't just in politics for the issues, he was in politics to get rich. So George found countless ways to use his status as a congressional candidate to make money for himself. George was great at fundraising, especially after running that fake pet charity. He also was great at selling rich constituents on his candidacy using the sales skills

he'd honed at Harbor City. He was known to shake down anyone he met for a donation to his campaign. But in reality, George was using lots of that money on himself. For things like designer clothes, expensive dinners, flights, fancy hotels, and even Botox. To take it a step further, George literally stole the credit card information of many of his donors. He used that information to make further donations to his campaign and other campaigns he supported. Sometimes he'd even just transfer the money straight into his own bank account.

But even that wasn't enough for George, so he came up with a new way to steal. It started with him reporting that he had made a large loan to his own campaign. Which was BS, of course. He'd never actually given his campaign any money. But now he could openly use campaign donations to quote-unquote, pay himself back. This scam didn't just make George money. It also made his campaign look more financially secure than it actually was, which helped bring in even bigger donors. More importantly, it helped George win the support of the National Republican Party.

To qualify for national backing, a candidate has to show their campaign can raise at least $250,000 in one quarter. With George's quote loans and the many fraudulent donations he made with stolen credit card information, it looked like he had passed that benchmark. The National Party Committee began giving George's campaign polling help, marketing support and even more funding. It didn't matter, however. George ended up losing his 2020 run for Congress.

But he wasn't about to let that stop him. His politics grift was making him too much money to quit now. So, George found another angle. He claimed his election had been rigged. Then he started raising money for a recount. Ultimately, it proved George had lost decisively by 13 points. Still, the rigged election story had given him a reason to stay in the spotlight and keep raking in cash from his supporters. As soon as it was over, he announced he was running for Congress again in 2022 and just kept right on campaigning. This time around, George's money-making scams got even more elaborate and lucrative.

For example, in November of 2021, he set up a company called Redstone, which supposedly did digital consulting and fundraising. And he hired them to do the marketing for him. Of course, hardly anyone knew that Redstone was actually owned and operated by George himself, so no one knew that he was basically paying himself yet again. In fact, the campaign allegedly spent tens of thousands of dollars for Redstone's supposed services, all of it going into a bank account that George controlled. Then he reportedly used this money on his own credit card bills, shopping at Hermes, Sephora and even making some purchases on OnlyFans.

But it wasn't just George's scams that got crazier. His lies about himself did, too. The Long Island district in which he was running had a very large Jewish population, and so George, the Brazilian Catholic, began telling people he was Jewish. He even went so far as to suggest his grandparents had survived the Holocaust. A few years later, when reporters called him out on his lie, George actually claimed he had never said he was Jewish, just that he was Jew-ish, emphasis on the ish.

George also lied about his own mother's death. He said his mom died from health issues related to her proximity to the September 11 attacks. The Long Island district where he was running was home to many firefighters and police officers who had been at Ground Zero themselves, so this story pulled a lot of heartstrings. In reality, though, George's mom wasn't even in the United States on 9-11. She had died from cancer in 2016 and it was never linked to the tragedy. Now I'm sure many of you are wondering how George's flagrant lying and scamming went

unnoticed all this time. While you have to go through an extensive background check to get a job as, say, a teacher or a taxi driver, it turns out there is very little vetting done for a U.S. congressman. Anyone can run, and there's no formal system for looking into their credentials. The vetting we do have usually gets done by the press and or the opposing political party. But in George's case, both of those checks failed. A few small news outlets did catch George in some of his lies. For instance, in 2022, a Long Island paper called the North Shore Leader published an

article raising questions about Georgia's finances. He claimed he was worth $11 million on a financial disclosure, but two years earlier he had a net worth of near zero. But this story and a few others like it from the Daily Beast and Newsday failed to get much public attention. They also never really painted a full picture of just how corrupt and pathologically untruthful George really was. As for the Democrats, well, they did do some research into George. They even put together an 87-page booklet of their findings.

But they were mainly focused on extreme political statements that he had made on the campaign trail, not his constant lying and scamming. It raised a few mild questions about his finances and even dug up some dirt about Friends of Pets United. But overall, the booklet didn't raise much of an alarm. So George just continued lying and scamming, pretty much unquestioned for the rest of his campaign.

George didn't realize that the call would soon come from inside his own house. In the fall of 2021, as George was starting to look like a real contender, his campaign commissioned an independent researcher to dig into his background. The goal was to find any vulnerabilities so they could prepare defenses for George. This is standard operating procedure for political campaigns, and it's something George himself even approved, although he probably was nervous about it. And rightfully so, because what they found shocked George's campaign staff. The report was more than 100 pages long, and it laid out in detail a feast of damning charges against him. It said there was no evidence he had gone to the colleges he said he went to.

It questioned how he'd loaned his first campaign 80K when he only had a salary of $55,000. It brought up his involvement in the Harbor City Ponzi scheme, his fake green card marriage to Uodla, and more. It painted a horrible, yet accurate, picture of George as a con artist. One who'd spent his life scamming people and lying about nearly everything. Three of his aides were so disgusted by George's obvious lies that they quit the campaign. Some of George's own staffers encouraged him to drop out of the race entirely. But George refused. He denied all the findings in the report and he had an excuse for all of it. Instead, George doubled down. He was prepared to ride this political grift as far as it would take him, which was

all the way to midterm's election night 2022. Republicans had been expected to win a ton of congressional races across the country, but that so-called red wave never materialized and they barely hung onto their majority in the House. Although there were a few bright spots for the GOP that year. One of those was a battleground district in Long Island where a young Republican had just flipped a formerly Democratic seat in Congress. George Santos had won by eight points. The poor hustler from a basement in Queens had just lied and scammed his way into a seat

in the United States Congress, getting rich as a dog along the way. He'd even made history as the first openly gay Republican non-incumbent ever to be elected to the House of Representatives. He'd achieved the kind of life he always lied about having. A big, important one full of wealth, luxury, and fame. And he was only 34 years old. But George's moment in the spotlight wouldn't last long. All his lies and scams were about to explode in his face. And the fireworks show was unlike any other in American history.

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Join me, Payton Moreland, on Into the Dark, the true crime podcast from Ono Media with a hint of horror and mystery. Each week, I dive into a different case, breaking down the facts, and pondering the age old question, why do people do what they do? Now, sometimes the answer isn't so clear,

and that's why I'll also explore conspiracy theories, hauntings, and all things spooky. From the Green River Killer to the Mothman Incident, we will unravel all of the questions that keep us up at night. So don't miss out. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Into the dark, where true crime meets the eerie unknown. Imagine how George Santos felt the first time he walked into the Capitol building as an

elected congressman. He'd gotten there on countless lies and shady schemes, but still, he'd gotten there. The poor Brazilian kid from Queens had made something of himself. Whether it was all based on a crock of lies or not, George didn't care. And he didn't seem to think anyone would ever catch on either. But George didn't realize he was running with the big dogs now. The spotlight on actual congressmen was much brighter than it was on mere candidates. And he wouldn't be able to keep his dirty secrets hidden for long.

Still, those first few weeks seemed like a blast for George. He had lots of chats with the press, he even went to an event thrown by the New York Young Republican Club. That's where he caught the attention of two New York Times reporters named Grace Ashford and Michael Gold. After hearing about George's attendance, they began looking into George's background, and this time, their findings wouldn't stay under wraps. Grace and Michael discovered that nearly everything George had ever said was a lie, and he had more skeletons in his closet than

a Spirit Halloween store. They found out that he never attended NYU or Baruch College like he claimed, nor had he worked for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup. They learned of his scammy fake charity, Friends of Pets United, and the open check fraud case against him in Brazil. Most importantly, they discovered lots of suspicious activity in George's finances. For example, they found that in a 2020 campaign disclosure form, George had declared earnings of $55,000. Yet just two years later, he was reporting a salary of over $750,000 and millions more in assets.

Yet he provided almost no evidence to explain how his finances had suddenly spiked. On December 19, 2022, barely a month after George was elected, Grace and Michael published their bombshell article titled, Who is Representative-Elect George Santos? His resume may be largely fiction. The piece sparked an instant scandal. Overnight George became the most talked about man on Capitol Hill. He immediately went on the defensive, claiming the article was nothing but a smear campaign

by the liberal media who were out to get him. But the floodgates were open. Soon, journalists were swarming George everywhere he went and uncovering even more dirt about him. His drag performances, a sexual harassment claim against him, he became an answer on Jeopardy! and a punchline on late night TV. But behind the jokes,

serious questions were now swirling about George's finances. By December 28th, 2022, federal prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York had opened an investigation into George, saying in a statement that, quote, the numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with congressmen-elect Santos are nothing short of stunning. No one is above the law. And if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it. In Washington, many Democrats and even a few Republicans called on George to step down. He had not even been officially sworn in yet, so there was still time for him to resign his post easily. But George refused.

He claimed he had won his seat fair and square, and he would fight like hell to keep it and clear his good name. Then in January 2023, a month after The New York Times exposed George, he was sworn in as a member of Congress. He was seated on two committees, the Small Business Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. But try as he might to carry on like a normal congressman. The bad press did not stop.

And neither did the questions about his finances. On February 28, 2023, the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into him. Then on May 10, 2023, four months after he was sworn in, George was indicted on 13 federal crimes. These included seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives, and one count of theft of public funds. George pleaded not guilty to everything and claimed that it was all a witch hunt. George continued on as a congressman for six more months. But then the House Ethics Committee report dropped, and it was even more scathing than

the Justice Department's indictments. It laid out in clear, unambiguous detail the litany of lies George had told and the many illegal scams he'd pulled off. It accused him of purposefully misrepresenting his finances to the government and said George defrauded his own donors to personally enrich himself. At this point, there was no defending him anymore. On December 1, 2023, the House voted to expel George Santos from Congress.

While he'd once made history as the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress, he had now made history again, as the first Republican ever expelled from Congress. In August of 2024, George pleaded guilty to identity theft, wire fraud, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. On Friday, April 25, 2025, George was sentenced to 87 months in prison. He'll also have to repay over $578,000 in restitution and forfeiture. Which means George's wild ride has finally come to an end. Or has it?

Prior to his sentencing, George spent time making videos on Cameo. He also floated the idea of appearing on Dancing with the Stars, and he started a podcast called Pants on Fire with George Santos. So yes, while George is headed to prison, you have to wonder, in his own way, did he still win in the end? After all, he did manage to achieve that big life he always wanted.

He became rich and famous, and now he has a hell of a story to tell. And this time, it'll actually be true. Thank you so much for listening. I'm your host Nicole Lapin. Scams, Money and Murder is the Crime House original. Join me every Thursday for a brand new episode. Here at CrimeHouse we want to thank each and every one of you for your support.

If you like what you heard here today, please reach out on all social media, we're at CrimeHouse. And don't forget to rate, review and follow Scams, Money and Murder wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And for ad-free listening plus early access and bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple podcasts. Scams, Money and Murder is hosted by me, Nicole Lapin,

and is a Crime House original powered by PAVE Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Scams, Money and Murder team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Laurie Maranelli, Natalie Prusovsky, Sarah Camp, Dan Merck, Joanna Powell, and Michael Langster. Thank you so much for listening. Ready to rethink everything you know about true crime?

Check out Murder in the Media, the first audiobook from Crime Health Studios. Find Murder in the Media on Spotify.