George Santos faces new criminal charges, adding to list of financial crimes

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George Santos faces new criminal charges, adding to list of financial crimes

A new indictment made public Tuesday accusing Rep. George Santos of stealing the identity of family members and using donations' credit cards to spend thousands of dollars, escalating the legal danger facing the freshman Congressman five months after he was charged with a host of other financial crimes. Sign up for fact checker, our weekly review of what's true, false, or in-between in politics. On Monday, Santos faces another charge of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of access device fraud.

The charges were filed just days after Nancy Marks, the treasurer of the Santos campaign,pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy and involved Santos in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors.

Santos, who is expected to appear in federal court on the additional charges, told reporters at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday evening that he does not intend to resign his seat in Congress. He declined to comment further.

In May, Santos was charged with 13 counts related to stealing his donations from his investors for his personal benefit and wrongfully claiming unemployment benefits. Seven counts of wire fraud were arraigned, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. He pleaded not guilty to charges of causing injury to a child.

and making charges on his own donors' credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign. Santos falsely inflated the campaign's reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.