- Sep 26
- 4 min read

Sanctimonious Santos

By Shiny Xu and Catherine Nguyen Sept. 25, 2024

George Santos is a Jewish multimillionaire, Wall Street employee, famous Brazilian journalist, target of an assassination attempt, college volleyball star and the producer of the musical, “Spider- man: Turn Off the Dark,” one of the biggest flops in Broadway history. His grandparents were Holocaust survivors, his mother was a victim of 9/11 and his niece was kidnapped by Chinese communists.

None of this is true. These are all lies made up by Santos himself. George Santos is actually a former Republican Congressman for New York, who is now a convicted felon.

On Aug. 19, Santos pleaded guilty to criminal charges of wire fraud and identity theft, including laundering campaign funds for personal expenses and using the

credit cards of donors without their authorization. He faces a mandatory sentence of two years in prison. As part of his guilty plea, Santos will have to pay a $373,749 restitution and a $205,002 forfeiture. He was initially charged with 13 counts of fraud in May 2023 and in October of that year, another 10 counts of fraud were added. Santos originally pleaded not guilty to all 23 charges.

On Dec. 11, 2023, the House of Representatives voted 311- 114 to expel George Santos from Congress, making him the sixth member to ever be expelled. The last time someone was expelled was in 2002—Congressman James Traficant was removed after being convicted of ten felony counts. His expulsion followed an ethics report that had discovered evidence his misappropriated campaign funds were spent on Botox injections and on luxury goods. Santos was also found to have stolen personal and financial information from his contributors, with which he charged their credit cards without their authorization. He had transferred funds from his campaign to his own bank account, sometimes even from the supporters of his campaign.

Santos was already controversial since December 2022, when The New York Times released an exposé that found the Congressman-elect had made up multiple aspects of his resume and biography. He had lied about where he went to both high school and college, claiming he went to the prestigious Horace Mann School, graduated with a degree in economics and finance from Baruch College and earned a Master’s Degree from New York University. None of the schools could find records that he had ever been enrolled. His campaign biography stated that he had worked on Wall Street, at companies Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, yet neither company had record of his employment.

Santos was also found to have fabricated much of his personal biography. He lied that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors and had fled prosecution during World War II, even though both were born and lived in Brazil. Santos retracted his claims, saying he had never claimed to be Jewish and only claimed that his mother’s family were of Jewish heritage, making him “Jew-ish.” He further lied that his mother was inside the Twin Towers during the September 11 attacks, but immigration records showed that Santos’ mother had not even been in the country that year. Santos also claimed he ran a pet charity: Friends of Pets United. While he did raise a sum totalling $3000 for surgery on a service dog belonging to a veteran, the dog had never been sick. Santos took the money anyway.

“As a convicted criminal and repeat liar, Santos should not be a representative of America. Santos’ actions cannot represent the American Dream. Those in the House of Representatives are important enough to be elected by citizens who trust them—if that trust is broken, our country may become less united,” Freshman Juliana Shin said.

The real story of George Santos goes like this: he was born in Queens, New York to Brazilian immigrant parents. He recalled that his family was poor and relatives say he already had a reputation for lying and stealing as a child. In 2020, Santos had his first campaign experience, losing to the incumbent Democrat in a bid for the House. He ran again in 2022 as the first openly gay Republican and won against a new competitor. During his campaigns, journalists had questioned the truthfulness of his history, but only after his victory did media outlets begin reporting on the issues with his biographical details. Santos has said himself that he made up lies about his biography in order to gain acceptance from New York voters.

“Still, lying, especially about his family history does not benefit Santos in any way and in politics, if any lies are said, it is to boost their image. Americans do not want the American Dream to be built upon lies,” Junior Que-Tran Nguyen said.

While George Santos may have been able to weave an intricate web of lies that fooled New York’s wealthiest congressional district, he has quickly learned that he could not

run away from the truth, especially when his lies were so absurd.

About the Contributors

Shiny Xu

staff writer

Shiny Xu is a Junior at Leland High School and a Staff Writer. This is her first year in journalism. She likes theater, reading and hanging out with her friends.

Catherine Nguyen

staff writer

Catherine Nguyen is a staff writer and artist for the Charger account. This is her second year in journalism. She loves drawing and listening to music.