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☆ George Santos told a NYT reporter his niece was kidnapped by Chinese Communists, but an official said he 'made it up'
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

He told the New York Times that one threat included the kidnapping of his five-year-old niece. A "high-ranking police official" told the publication the story was made up. AdvertisementAdvertisementRep. George Santos recently told a New York Times reporter that his 5-year-old niece was kidnapped from a Queens, New York, playground. According to a recent New York Times piece, Santos dialed up reporter Grace Ashford (who penned the initial Santos exposé) for the first time in September 2023. AdvertisementAdvertisement"Look, I don't want to go into like, conspiracy theory," Santos told the New York Times.

Persons: George Santos, he's, —, Santos, Grace Ashford, Ashford, who's, Goldman Sachs Organizations: New York Times, Service, Chinese Communist Party, New York Police Department, New, Congressional District, Citigroup, New York University, Baruch College Locations: Queens , New York, New York's, New York

☆ George Santos says he threw his life 'into the toilet' and 'flushed it' to win his House seat, but doesn't regret running for office
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rep. George Santos told The New York Times that he upended his life to run for public office. AdvertisementAdvertisementIn January, Rep. George Santos stepped onto the House floor as arguably the most high-profile freshman congressman this year. Shortly before taking office, a bombshell New York Times report detailed a number of discrepancies with Santos' education, previous places of employment, and his campaign's financial disclosures. Santos told Ashford that despite the tumult leading up to his election, he would still go through the experience again but would exercise caution with some of the aides and consultants whom he feels have wronged him. He remains unable to serve on any House committees but told Ashford that he loves representing his constituents.

Persons: George Santos, —, Santos, Grace Ashford —, Ashford Organizations: The New York Times, Service, New York Times, New York Republican, GOP Locations: Ashford, Nassau

☆ George Santos Swore He’d Never Talk to Me. Then the Phone Rang.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( Grace Ashford | More About Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Not only did he need to support his family, he said, but he loved being a congressman. He loved working with people. And of all of the things he has said, this is the one that is most believable. Despite being excluded from House committees and rejected by much of his local community, Santos has forged ahead, introducing more than 40 bills. From an early age, he has been manifesting a life like this for himself — a life of consequence and power.

Persons: Santos, —

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday filed a significant array of additional charges against Representative George Santos of New York, accusing him of new criminal schemes, including stealing the identities and credit card details of donors to his campaign. The new accusations were made in a 23-count superseding indictment that laid out how Mr. Santos had charged his donors’ credit cards “repeatedly, without their authorization,” distributing the money to his and other candidates’ campaigns and to his own bank account. The new indictment filed in the Eastern District of New York added 10 charges against Mr. Santos: conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, false statements to the Federal Election Commission and falsifying records to obstruct the commission. The accusations against Mr. Santos, a first-term Republican of New York, seem vastly different from the typical corruption cases that ensnare politicians. Many of those have hinged on intricate quid pro quos and complex legal questions about the nature of a political bribe.

Persons: George Santos, Santos, “ Organizations: of, Federal Locations: George Santos of New York, Eastern, of New York, United States, New York

☆ Latinos Have Transformed Sleepy Hollow, but Not Their Town Board
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Grace Ashford | More About Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

It’s not hard to find signs of the Latino influence in this working-class village along the Hudson River: Mexican taquerias and Ecuadorean delis dot the promenade along Beekman Avenue, and neighbors greet one another in Spanish, while colorful flags dance in the wind. More than half the Village of Sleepy Hollow is of Hispanic origin, according to the most recent census. The village, about 30 miles north of New York City, is part of the Town of Mount Pleasant, which uses an at-large voting system that allows residents to cast ballots for all open positions. The Mount Pleasant town board has no Latino members, and no one could recall the last time it had one. That disconnect has led to a formal claim filed with the town, on behalf of five residents who say that they and other Latino voters are being disenfranchised.

Persons: It’s Locations: Mexican, Beekman, New York City, Mount Pleasant, Pleasant

Kathy Hochul of New York on Thursday forcefully urged President Biden to respond to the influx of migrants arriving in the state, underscoring the urgency of a situation that has vexed Democratic leaders for months. More than 100,000 migrants have traveled to New York City from the southern border over the past year, and more than half of them have taken refuge in the city’s shelters, straining the system. Unlike Mayor Eric Adams, the governor has taken pains to avoid overtly criticizing the president’s response, choosing to communicate with Mr. Biden and his staff behind the scenes instead. But the governor’s 10-minute address, live streamed from Albany, marked her most direct appeal to the federal government since she first called the migrant crisis a state emergency in May. She noted how the White House has failed to respond to her call to expedite work permits for newcomers and turn more federal properties into emergency shelters, saying, “We’ve managed thus far without substantive support from Washington.”

Persons: Kathy Hochul, Biden, Eric Adams, “ We’ve, ” Organizations: Democratic, White Locations: New York, New York City, Albany, Washington

A campaign aide to Representative George Santos who impersonated Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s former chief of staff was charged with wire fraud and identity theft in a federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday. Federal prosecutors said the aide, Samuel Miele, was behind “fraudulent fund-raising” emails and phone calls that were sent and made to more than a dozen potential campaign contributors. In his solicitations, Mr. Miele, 27, claimed to be a “high-ranking aide to a member of the House with leadership responsibilities,” the indictment said. When Mr. Miele successfully obtained campaign contributions, he received a 15 percent commission. He was arraigned on Wednesday morning in federal court in Brooklyn and pleaded not guilty, according to John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York.

Persons: George Santos, Kevin McCarthy’s, Samuel Miele, Miele, John Marzulli Organizations: U.S, of Locations: Brooklyn, Eastern, of New York

But the laws and guidelines surrounding House financial disclosures are relatively generous when it comes to timely filings. Mr. Santos is not the only member of New York’s House delegation who has yet to file a form. What’s NextNothing is ever certain concerning Mr. Santos, especially when it comes to finances. In the unlikely event that Mr. Santos does not file at all, he could face a civil penalty of up to $71,316. Mr. Santos is due back in the Capitol from August recess on Sept. 12.

Persons: Santos, Jamaal Bowman, Anthony D’Esposito, Brandon Williams Organizations: Devolder Organization, York’s, Bronx, Capitol Locations: Florida, Westchester County, Central Islip

☆ How George Santos Used Political Connections to Fuel Get-Rich Schemes
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Grace Ashford | More About Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

About a year before George Santos was elected to Congress, he and three other men approached a loyal campaign donor with a potentially lucrative opportunity. A wealthy Polish citizen wanted to buy cryptocurrency, they said, but for reasons unclear, his fortune was frozen in a bank account. They asked the donor, a wealthy investor in his own right, for help. He was not told the Polish citizen’s name. The men’s plan — having the donor create a limited liability company to gain access to the funds — made no sense to him.

Persons: George Santos, — Organizations: Congress Locations: Polish

Representative George Santos, the New York Republican facing federal criminal charges, reported raising about $150,000 through his re-election campaign and an associated committee from April through June — a modest sum that he mostly used to pay back money he had lent to his past congressional bids. Mr. Santos had previously reported giving his own campaign more than $700,000 in personal loans, money that has been the subject of intense scrutiny given his apparent sudden rise in wealth and a lack of transparency around his business deals. On May 30, his campaign repaid him $85,000, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday. Kellen Curry, a Republican primary challenger, said he raised more than $200,000 in the same period. Other candidates who have entered the race had yet to announce their totals ahead of a Saturday deadline.

Persons: George Santos, Santos, Santos’s, Zak Malamed, Kellen Curry Organizations: New York Republican, Federal, Democratic, Republican Locations: Long Island, Queens

☆ Who Bailed George Santos Out? Court Is Set to Reveal the Mystery.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Michael Gold | Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Of the many questions that surround Representative George Santos, one has recently taken center stage: Who guaranteed the $500,000 bond that allowed him to be released from federal custody last month? Mr. Santos, 34, and his lawyer have for weeks attempted to thwart efforts to make public the names of his guarantors, at one point claiming to the court that Mr. Santos — who awaits trial on 13 federal criminal charges — would rather go to jail than have them revealed and subjected to public scrutiny. But the mystery surrounding Mr. Santos’s bond is expected to be resolved at noon Thursday, after a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York dismissed his appeal to keep the names sealed. Some of the wilder theories about the source of the bail funds were seemingly put to rest. In court filings opposing the disclosure of the so-called sureties, Mr. Santos’s lawyer, Joseph Murray, all but declared that Mr. Santos’s guarantors were relatives.

Persons: George Santos, Santos, Santos —, —, Santos’s, wilder, Joseph Murray, Santos’s guarantors Organizations: of New York Locations: Eastern

☆ N.Y. Lawmakers Confront Hot-Button Issues in Rare Return to Albany
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Luis Ferré-Sadurní | Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

One of the more consequential matters hanging in balance concerns the development of offshore wind farms along the coast of Long Island. Ms. Hochul has called offshore wind, which tends to be more productive and less disruptive than land turbines, a key component of her climate plan. Democrats in the State Senate approved the bill earlier this month, but it is unclear how the Assembly will proceed. The measure has found opposition among citizens and Republican representatives on Long Island, who say the developer has not adequately allayed safety concerns. The district attorneys group argued that the state already had laws to protect people from wrongful convictions and that the bill would serve to eliminate finality in criminal convictions or plea deals.

Persons: Hochul, “, ” Mr, Heastie Organizations: Senate, Republican Locations: New York, Albany, Long

☆ What N.Y. Lawmakers Have, and Haven’t, Accomplished This Year
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Luis Ferré-Sadurní | Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After a grueling year marked by Democratic infighting, New York State lawmakers are expected to conclude the 2023 legislative session this weekend with few marquee policy wins and a notable failure to address the state’s critical housing needs. Despite last-ditch efforts, Democrats in control of the State Capitol failed to introduce or pass legislation to tackle the state’s affordable housing crisis, perhaps the most pressing issue on their policy agenda, leading to a public round of backbiting between lawmakers and Gov. Even so, Democrats were claiming victories on other fronts, weary as they were from drawn-out state budget negotiations that shortened their time to legislate. Lawmakers are expected to pass a long-stalled initiative to seal old criminal records to help people convicted of certain crimes re-enter society. They also passed a bill to create a commission to study reparations for Black people, making New York the second state after California to undertake such an initiative, and were pushing to expand health care services for undocumented immigrants.

Persons: Kathy Hochul Organizations: Democratic, New York, State Capitol, Gov Locations: New, New York, California

☆ George Santos Says His Family Helped Bail Him Out. (Just Don’t Ask Who.)
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Grace Ashford | Michael Gold | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Santos, a Republican representing Long Island and parts of Queens, is facing 13 felony counts including money laundering and wire fraud. A group of media organizations, including The New York Times, requested last month that the identities of the people who guaranteed Mr. Santos’s bail bond be unsealed. In a motion filed on Monday, Mr. Murray shared a response he wrote to the Ethics Committee’s questions about bail, in which he pointed to House ethics rules that permit gifts from family members. Mr. Murray said that he would not oppose a targeted unsealing that would confirm to the public and to House investigators that Mr. Santos’s guarantors were family members, without fully revealing their names or exact relationships to Mr. Santos. Though the suretors did not hand over actual money, they will be on the hook for the $500,000 if Mr. Santos flees prosecution.

Persons: Joanna Seybert, Santos, Santos’s, Murray, Santos’s guarantors Organizations: Republican, The New York Times Locations: Long, Queens

☆ Should Some Criminal Records Be Wiped Clean After 7 Years?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Melinda Agnew has done a lot in the 25 years since she got in trouble with the law: She earned an associate degree, followed by a bachelor’s and a master’s. To answer it truthfully — she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault — is to be denied jobs she is otherwise qualified for and apartments she can afford to rent. To lie is to undercut the person she has fought so hard these past decades to become. Lawmakers in Albany are considering legislation aimed at lifting that burden for Ms. Agnew and millions of others. Known as the Clean Slate Act, the bill would automatically seal the criminal records of people who have paid their debt to society and remained out of trouble for a specified number of years — three for misdemeanors, seven for most felonies.

☆ George Santos Is Charged With Fraud and Lying in 13-Count Indictment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Grace Ashford | Michael Gold | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — For months, Representative George Santos seemed to possess a Teflon-like resistance to repercussions, even as questions mounted over his income, campaign finances and rags-to-riches life story. Mr. Santos, a first-term Republican representing Long Island and Queens, gave numerous speeches on the House floor and appeared to relish his growing notoriety. But on Wednesday, Mr. Santos was confronted with consequences that may prove difficult to skirt. Appearing before a judge and scores of assembled reporters in a federal courthouse in Central Islip, Mr. Santos pleaded not guilty on all charges. Sitting upright, with his arms crossed before him, Mr. Santos, 34, was polite and deferential, cutting a familiar figure in his trademark outfit of sweater beneath a navy blazer.

But for months, Mr. Santos has denied any criminal wrongdoing, even as he has admitted to lying about going to college and working for prestigious Wall Street firms. When he appears before a judge on Wednesday, Mr. Santos will hear the government’s case against him. Shortly thereafter, prosecutors will argue for the terms of release they believe to be appropriate to ensure that Mr. Santos returns to court. It is not yet clear whether Mr. Santos will lodge a plea or if he will be asked to do so in a subsequent hearing. Court records show that Mr. Santos spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name at a store near Rio de Janeiro.

Details of the case against Mr. Santos remain under seal, and the charges against him will not be revealed until later on Wednesday. A spokeswoman in Washington referred all questions to Mr. Santos’s lawyer, who did not respond to requests for comment. But for months, Mr. Santos has denied any criminal wrongdoing, even as he has admitted to lying about going to college and working for prestigious Wall Street firms. It is not yet clear whether Mr. Santos will lodge a plea or if he will be asked to do so in a subsequent hearing. Court records show that Mr. Santos spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name at a store near Rio de Janeiro.

Representative George Santos, the New York Republican who fell under numerous investigations over his personal and campaign finances after his biography was found to be a web of lies and exaggerations, has been charged by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, two people familiar with the investigation said. Mr. Santos, his lawyer and a spokeswoman in his Washington office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn could not be reached for comment; an F.B.I. The specific charges against Mr. Santos, who last month announced he would run for re-election in his district in Long Island and part of Queens, are not yet clear. CNN reported that Mr. Santos could appear as soon as Wednesday in federal court.

☆ How New Yorkers’ Lives Will Be Altered by the $229 Billion State Budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Luis Ferré-Sadurní | Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

ALBANY, N.Y. — Minimum wage workers in New York City will get a pay bump for the first time in five years. Out-of-state students at city and state universities will face a tuition hike. And cigarette smokers will need to pay an extra dollar in taxes per pack. New York State lawmakers approved a $229 billion state budget on Tuesday night that will touch on New Yorkers’ everyday life, after completing protracted negotiations with Gov. This being Albany, of course, the closed-door negotiations centered much less on the state’s finances than they did on contentious policy changes that were stuffed into the final budget legislation.

ALBANY, N.Y. — It was just four years ago that New York’s Democratic lawmakers celebrated a new law that eliminated bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies and, at the time, seemingly added a measure of new justice to a system long faulted for pre-emptively punishing the poor. On Thursday night, however, after months of grueling negotiations, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the state would scale back those changes — for the third time — after a sharp rebuke from New York’s voters and residents over a rise in crime. “It was very clear that changes need to be made,” the governor said. While judges will remain unable to set bail for a vast majority of misdemeanor and nonviolent charges, such a change could nonetheless have a dramatic impact, giving judges greater discretion to hold defendants — particularly repeat or serious offenders — before their trials.

☆ Gov. Hochul Gets a Budget Deal, but No Signature Win
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

ALBANY, N.Y. — It was around dinner time on Thursday, with many New York State lawmakers already heading home to their districts, when Gov. Kathy Hochul dropped a budget bombshell: Roughly four weeks past the deadline, she and legislative leaders had reached a tentative deal. She hastily convened a news conference in the Capitol’s ornate Red Room to announce the handshake agreement, but there were no hands to shake. Neither the leader of the Assembly nor the Senate was present, leaving Ms. Hochul to make a solitary victory lap around a $229 billion budget that, if passed by the Legislature next week, will be one month overdue. She backed off from her pledge to construct 800,000 new homes, a potential centerpiece of her first term.

☆ M.T.A. Averts Fiscal Crisis as New York Strikes Budget Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ana Ley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

During each budget cycle, the authority has had to jockey for money against an array of other interests. “This was the most consistent and dependable funding proposal on the table,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for Riders Alliance, a grass-roots organization of transit riders. The Covid-19 emergency plunged the system into crisis as riders abandoned it, depleting fare revenue it had critically depended on. The state deal will provide $65 million to reduce the first potential fare hike, which could bring the fare closer to $2.86 instead of $2.90. There has not been a fare hike since the start of the pandemic.

☆ New York State Budget Deal Would Raise Minimum Wage and Change Bail Laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Luis Ferré-Sadurní | Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced that she and state lawmakers had reached an agreement on a roughly $229 billion state budget that would change the state’s bail laws, increase the minimum wage and provide urgently needed funding for New York City’s transit system. The deal capped weeks of contentious negotiations that divided the governor and the Democrat-led State Legislature, delaying its expected passage by almost a month — the latest budget in over a decade. The broad strokes of the “conceptual agreement” were revealed by the governor at an impromptu news conference at the State Capitol on Thursday evening; some of the details, Ms. Hochul said, were still being “fine tuned.”Representatives for Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the majority leader in the State Senate, and Carl E. Heastie, the Assembly speaker, confirmed the deal. Lawmakers, who had already left Albany for the week because they had not anticipated an agreement, are expected to vote to approve the budget as early as next week.

☆ The Obscure G.O.P. Bookkeeper at the Center of the George Santos Mess
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Grace Ashford | Nicholas Fandos | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The degree to which Ms. Marks was aware of Mr. Santos’s numerous biographical deceptions is not clear. In May 2021, Red Strategies USA was born. The placements cost $3,800, though Mr. Hafizi paid Red Strategies $12,000, according to a person with direct knowledge of the arrangement. Red Strategies was not the only company Mr. Hafizi patronized that was tied to Ms. Marks, who was also his treasurer. By then, Ms. Marks and Mr. Santos were just a few weeks from an unlikely upset victory that would alter the course of their careers.

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