Rep. George Santos outside his office on Capitol Hill.Photo: Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images
George Santos' ex-roommate says the freshman congressman once spearheaded a credit card-skimming fraud at ATMs that landed the ex-roommate in jail.
Politicoreports that the former roommate — Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha — made the allegations in a sworn declaration submitted to the FBI.
Trelha wasconvicted of the fraudin 2017, Politico reports, and deported to Brazil as a result.
“I am coming forward today to declare that the person in charge of the crime of credit card fraud when I was arrested was George Santos / Anthony Devolder,” Trelha wrote in the declaration.
Elsewhere in the declaration, Trelha wrote: “Santos taught me how to skim card information and how to clone cards. He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines.”
Politico earlier reported that Santos allegedly lied to a Seattle judge at a 2017 bail hearing for Trelha, saying that he worked for Goldman Sachs at the time (a lie he told frequently on the campaign trail, and has since admitted was not true).
Trelha further alleges in the declaration that Santos kept a warehouse full of credit card-skimming equipment—“parts, printers, blank ATM and credit cards to be painted and engraved with stolen account and personal information”—and “taught me how to use them.”
Trelha was arrested when he was caught on security footage removing one of the pieces of equipment from an ATM in Seattle.
While he was the only one charged, he claims in the declaration that Santos and he had a deal—“50% for him and 50% for me”—but that he didn’t tell authorities at the time because he was “threatened” not to.
According to Politico, Trelha further alleges that Santos “stole” money he had collected for his bail, asking another roommate to give him $20,000 in cash after promising Trelha he was going to hire drug kingpin El Chapo’s attorney to help get him out. Instead, Santos allegedly took the money and left, and Trelha never heard from him again.
Santos has been the subject of numerous headlines afterThe New York Timesfound that many of the claims he made on the campaign trail and on his resume were unsubstantiated.
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Santos is currentlyunder federal investigation over questions about his finances, and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office in New York has announced that it, too,is investigating the incoming lawmakerfor fabrications that DA Anne T. Donnelly called “nothing short of stunning.”
Santos recently told colleagues he wouldtemporarily resignfrom his assignments on the Small Business and Science Committees while various investigations into his past play out.
Federal investigators are also reportedly looking into claims that Santos oncescammed a Navy veteran out of $3,000meant for his ailing service dog, CNN andPoliticoreported in February.
source: people.com
