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☆ U.S. watchdog accuses Rep. George Santos of breaking campaign finance laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Jason Lange | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A federal watchdog on Monday accused newly elected Republican U.S. Representative George Santos of breaking campaign finance laws by concealing funding sources and using donor money to pay rent on his personal residence. "The commission should thoroughly investigate what appear to be equally brazen lies about how his campaign raised and spent money," according to the complaint. Santos' office in Congress referred queries to the lawmaker's election campaign, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Campaign Legal Center said Santos' campaign finance disclosures also do not square with other disclosures he has made regarding his income and assets. "The overall circumstances instead indicate that unknown individuals or corporations may have illegally funneled money to Santos's campaign," according to the complaint.

☆ 'We were duped': How George Santos raised money from wealthy GOP donors while lying about his resume
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

His name was actually Sam Miele, and he worked for Santos raising money for his campaign, according to one GOP donor who contributed to Santos' campaign. In raising money for his campaign, Santos fed donors the same falsehoods he gave voters, campaign fundraisers and others say. "We were duped," said a Republican political strategist close to GOP donors and the leadership of the Republican Jewish Coalition. The RJC is considered the most prominent group of Jewish Republican donors, making gatherings such as the Hanukkah event key networking platforms for politicians. Vallone gave $17,900 in August between Santos' campaign, his leadership PAC and a joint fundraising committee, according to FEC records.

WASHINGTON — George Santos, the 34-year-old New York Republican who's confessed to lying about part of his background, was sworn into the House early Saturday amid several investigations into his campaign and calls for him to resign. Santos officially took office when the new Congress was convened after Republicans finally elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as House speaker. And despite presenting himself as Jewish during his congressional campaigns, Santos told the Post, "I never claimed to be Jewish." Several House Democrats have criticized Santos, but none more than Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, who's taken to trolling Santos on social media. Former Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who recently retired from Congress, said Sunday that Santos should consider resigning.

Trader Joe's is accused in a lawsuit of misleading and endangering shoppers by selling dark chocolate that contains harmful levels of lead and cadmium. Both suits follow a December study by Consumer Reports that tested popular dark chocolate bars for heavy metal content. Using California’s maximum allowable dose level (MADL) as a benchmark, the publication said just five popular dark chocolate bars contained acceptable levels of lead and/or cadmium, while nearly two dozen did not. Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate 72% Cacao was found to contain high levels of lead, and its The Dark Chocolate Lover's Chocolate 85% Cacao product was high in lead and cadmium, according to Consumer Reports' testing. The NCA also pointed to a 2018 settlement it reached with an advocacy group, As You Sow, that established concentration levels for both lead and cadmium that supersede the California maximum allowable dose levels.

☆ FTX spent nearly $7 million on food and over $15 million on luxury Bahamian hotels in just 9 months, court documents show
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

FTX's Bahamian entity spent nearly $40 million on hotels, food, and travel in just nine months. They show the company spent almost $6 million at a single hotel and $1 million on one caterer. Lawyers pointed out that the crypto exchange's Bahamian company, FTX Digital Markets, generated no customer revenue, but spent lavishly. From January to September 2022, the company spent $15.4 million on luxury hotels and accommodation, the filings say. Almost half of that was spent on catering services, with the largest amount, $1.4 million, spent on catering at the Hyatt.

☆ Trader Joe's is being sued after tests suggested some of its dark chocolate contains potentially unsafe levels of lead and cadmium
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Trader Joe's was hit by two lawsuits over alleged high levels of lead and cadmium in its chocolate. Consumer Reports found that two of its own-brand dark chocolate bars contain potentially unsafe quantities of heavy metals. The lawsuits relate to two of Trader Joe's own-brand products: its 72% cacao dark chocolate and its Dark Chocolate Lover's 85% cacao chocolate. For the Dark Chocolate Lover's 85% cacao chocolate, these levels were 127% for lead and 229% for cadmium. Because dark chocolate contains more cacao than milk chocolate, it generally has higher levels of lead and cadmium as a result.

☆ George Santos arrived in D.C. this week. No one is more riled than N.Y.'s other gay congressman.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Matt-Lavietes-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Matt Lavietes | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

“The House Republican chaos has a silver lining,” Torres tweeted Wednesday, referring to Republicans’ difficulty in electing a House speaker. Does Stefanik have George Santos in mind?” Torres tweeted Tuesday. In another tweet last week, Torres posted a screenshot of an invitation Santos sent to supporters, inviting them to celebrate his swearing into Congress. “He’s a pathological liar who cannot be trusted to serve the very public he defrauded,” Torres told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Monday. “No one has handed me anything on a silver platter,” he previously told NBC News.

☆ Brazil is reviving a 2008 fraud case against Rep.-elect George Santos, who has been caught in a string of lies since his midterm victory
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Brazil is reviving a long-dormant fraud case against George Santos, The New York Times reported. A spokesperson for the Rio de Janeiro prosecutors office told The New York Times that authorities will be reviving a 2008 fraud case, which they dropped more than a decade ago after failing to locate him. Prosecutors in Brazil charged Santos with embezzlement over a decade ago, but the case was archived in 2013 because Santos could not be found to answer a court summons. Santos flipped a Democratic seat in New York to help Republicans clinch a narrow House majority in the November midterms. Santos added that he has never been charged with a crime in Brazil, or anywhere else.

☆ Ex-boyfriend accuses George Santos of stealing his phone, not paying bills, and never going to work: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

His ex-boyfriend told The New York Times that he feels gullible for believing some of the lies. Santos' ex accused Santos of stealing his phone and rarely paying bills, per The Times. Vilarva said that Santos, elected in November to represent a Long Island district, who he found "charming and sweet," rarely contributed to bills. Goldman Sachs, which Santos also listed as a former workplace, told the newspaper it had no record of his employment. After these incidents, Vilarva told the newspaper that he searched Santos' name online and discovered that Brazilian police wanted him.

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Sunday that Rep.-elect George Santos should consider resigning after he admitted that he fabricated and “embellished” several claims about his background involving his education and work history. Santos, who made LGBTQ political history when he won the November race in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, is set to be sworn in Tuesday when the new Congress begins. During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Brady, who is retiring from Congress, said Santos would need to “take some huge steps” to regain public trust. “He certainly is going to have to consider resigning.”However, Brady said, Santos could redeem himself by owning up to his missteps. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the outgoing chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, have ignored questions from reporters about Santos and whether he should be seated.

☆ George Santos Loses Some GOP Support on Long Island
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Jimmy Vielkind | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rep.-elect George Santos (R., N.Y.) has admitted he lied about this educational and work history during his campaign. Long Island Republicans are distancing themselves from embattled Rep.-elect George Santos as questions about his biography and finances pile higher. Mr. Santos, 34 years old, acknowledged in interviews this week that he lied about his educational and work history during his campaign for a congressional district in Nassau County and Queens, N.Y.

☆ Outgoing New York Rep. Kathleen Rice says she warned Democratic leaders that the party would 'lose' Long Island in the midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rep. Kathleen Rice said she warned Democratic leaders of electoral losses on Long Island before the midterms. While former President Donald Trump lost New York State resoundingly in both 2016 and 2020, he won Suffolk each time. I said [to party leaders], 'You guys, don't understand, we're gonna lose Long Island. "When we had elections in November of 2021, every single Democrat on Long Island lost. However, the midterms proved that while the Republican brand on Long Island may have faltered in the 1990s and 2000s, that is certainly not the case today.

Mr. Santos, 34 years old, won a New York seat that had previously been held by a Democrat and is set to be sworn into Congress on Jan. 3. The district attorney of Nassau County, N.Y., said Wednesday her office is investigating Mr. Santos. Mr. Santos has said he was born in Queens, N.Y., to Brazilian parents and has dual U.S.-Brazilian citizenship. He said his father’s parents were Brazilian and his mother’s family was Jewish and had fled persecution in Europe. Mr. Santos has said that his understanding of his maternal grandparents’ history and religion came from family stories.

☆ Federal prosecutors open investigation into Rep.-elect George Santos over congressional campaign
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Michael-Kosnar-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Michael Kosnar | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Federal prosecutors in New York have opened an investigation into Rep.-elect George Santos, a law enforcement source confirmed to NBC News on Thursday. A spokesperson for Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ABC News first reported the federal investigation into Santos. Last week, the New York attorney general’s office said it is “looking into a number of issues” surrounding him. The office, however, did not confirm whether it had opened an official investigation.

[1/2] A Hershey's chocolate bar is shown in this photo illustration in Encinitas, California January 29, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File PhotoCompanies Hershey Co FollowNEW YORK, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Hershey Co (HSY.N) has been sued by a consumer who accused the company of selling dark chocolate that contains harmful levels of lead and cadmium. In a proposed class action filed on Wednesday, Christopher Lazazzaro said he would not have bought or would have paid less for Hershey's Special Dark Mildly Sweet Chocolate, Lily's Extra Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa and Lily's Extreme Dark Chocolate 85% Cocoa had Hershey disclosed their metals content. Some studies suggest that the antioxidants and relatively low levels of sugar in dark chocolate could help prevent cardiovascular disease. Hershey's Special Dark bar and Lily's 70% bar were high in lead, and Lily's 85% bar was high in lead and cadmium, the magazine said.

George Santos, the congressman-elect from New York who's admitted to "embellishing" his résumé, is being investigated by a New York prosecutor. "The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning. He said his work included “specialty consulting” for “high net worth individuals.” Santos' company was dissolved in September, which Santos told Semafor was the result of his accountant's turning in late paperwork. In an interview Monday with the New York Post, Santos acknowledged having fabricated details about his background, saying: “My sins here are embellishing my resume. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish,’” he said.

☆ Republican George Santos Faces Probe Over ‘Fabrications and Inconsistencies’ During Campaign
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Arian Campo-Flores | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rep.-elect George Santos has said he hasn’t committed any crimes and still intends to serve in Congress. A prosecutor in New York is investigating Republican Rep.-elect George Santos after he admitted that he lied about significant parts of the biography he presented to voters. “The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with congressman-elect Santos are nothing short of stunning,” said Anne Donnelly, the district attorney of Nassau County, N.Y. Mr. Santos was elected last month to represent part of Long Island.

☆ Incoming GOP congressman George Santos is under investigation for lying during his campaign, prosecutors said
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Representative-elect George Santos was accused of lying about his background during his campaign. Santos admitted to some of the fabrications but said he still plans to serve in Congress. The Republican district attorney in Nassau County said Wednesday they had opened an investigation. Santos admitted to some of the accusations but has insisted he still plans to serve in Congress. A representative for Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Anne Donnelly, the district attorney for Nassau County, said the allegations that have surfaced in recent days regarding Santos were serious. "The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning," Donnelly, a Republican, said in a statement. But reporting by the New York Times and other media outlets in recent weeks called into question almost every element of Santos' life story. Among other claims, Santos said he had degrees from New York University and Baruch College, despite neither institution having any record of him attending. In recent days, Santos has apologized for "embellishing" his resume, while defending aspects of the way he had represented himself.

☆ Congressman-elect George Santos faces increasing calls to resign
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Congressman-elect George Santos is facing increasing calls to resign following admissions that he fabricated parts of his resumé, including information about his education and employment history. “I’m not saying I’m not guilty of that.”Congressman-elect George Santos speaks during a press conference in Baldwin, N.Y. on Nov. 9, 2022. NBC News attempted to reach George Santos overnight but has not yet received a response. Public employment records only show one employer for Santos’ mother: Imports by Rose, a company based in Queens that shuttered in 1994. When asked about Santos’ claims regarding his mother, Santos’ attorney, Joseph Murray, referred NBC News to Kevin Connors, whom Murray said would be handling Santos’ press inquiries.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly avoided the typical sardine breakfast in Bahamas prison in favor of toast and jam
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Fox Hill prison located in Nassau typically serves grits and sardines for breakfast, and rice and beef for lunch. But for Bankman-Fried, his diet during his stay at Fox Hill included toast and jam for breakfast, and stewed greens and vegetables for lunch and dinners. "By Fox Hill standards, Mr. Bankman-Fried received royal treatment," The New York Times reported. Fox Hill prison is commonly referred to as "Fox Hell" prison by locals on the island. Fox Hill prison warden Doan Cleare told the New York Times that while Bankman-Fried was "well cared for," he didn't receive preferential treatment.

Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang both pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors as part of their plea agreements. Roos said Bankman-Fried carried out a "fraud of epic proportions" that led to the loss of billions of dollars of customer and investor funds. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX but said he does not believe he has criminal liability. A flurry of customer withdrawals in early November amid concerns about commingling of FTX funds with Alameda prompted FTX to declare bankruptcy on Nov. 11. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the capital Nassau on Dec. 12 and arrived in the United States on Wednesday after consenting to extradition.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX execs received billions in hidden loans, ex-Alameda CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives received billions of dollars in secret loans from the crypto mogul’s Alameda Research, the hedge fund’s former chief told a judge when she pleaded guilty to her role in the exchange’s collapse. Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang both pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors as part of their plea agreements. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX but said he does not believe he has criminal liability. A flurry of customer withdrawals in early November amid concerns about commingling of FTX funds with Alameda prompted FTX to declare bankruptcy on Nov. 11. Bankman-Fried was arrested in capital Nassau on Dec. 12 and arrived in the United States on Wednesday after consenting to extradition.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is accused of misappropriating billions of dollars deposited in the crypto currency exchange, will be released on $250 million personal recognizance bond, a federal judge in New York ruled Thursday. Bankman-Fried, wearing a dark blue suit and tan shoes, walked into court with shackles around his ankles. A recognizance bond is a written commitment from the accused to appear in court when ordered. Bankman-Fried’s parents, both Stanford Law professors, were in the courtroom. Sam Bankman-Fried, center, arrives at the Magistrate Court building for a hearing in Nassau, Bahamas, on Dec. 21, 2022.

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