Rep. George Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania’s Amish Country in 2017 after a series of bad checks were written in his name to dog breeders, according to the court and a lawyer friend who helped him address the charge.
Just days after $15,125 in checks were made out for “puppies,” according to the memo lines, Santos held an adoption event at a Staten Island pet store with his animal rescue charity Friends of Pets United.
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The charge was dismissed and his record expunged after Santos claimed someone had stolen his checkbook, according to the court and the lawyer.
Politico
Oh, like he stole that old man's checkbook in Brazil?
The recipients attempted to cash the checks at Coatesville Savings Bank and Bank of Bird-in-Hand in Pennsylvania.
Just three days after the $775 check is dated — on Nov. 25, 2017 — Santos’ animal charity Friends of Pets United held a puppy adoption event at the Staten Island pet store Pet Oasis.
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The New York Times reported this week that Santos had an unusual request for the pet store owner Daniel Avissato after an adoption event at Pet Oasis. He asked Avissato to make a check with the proceeds out to his name instead of the name of the charity. Avissato said he refused, but later noticed — when he looked at his bank records — that the check had been changed to the way Santos wanted it.
Jesus. Nothing criminal there, eh?
Later that same year, in December 2017, Michele Vazzo said she met Santos at Pet Oasis when she adopted a puppy at another event. Santos told her the golden retriever was rescued from an Amish puppy mill. There were many dogs at the charity events, and adoption costs ranged from $300 to $400, she recalled.
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Santos told her different stories about where the puppies came from, sometimes saying he found pregnant dogs on the street and other times claiming he rescued them in Puerto Rico or other places, she said.
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The charity was not a registered nonprofit or rescue group
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“In 2017 [Santos] received four check books for the account at his request from the TD BANK branch he banked with in Queens, NY, and of the four one went missing,” [his attorney] wrote to the Pennsylvania trooper.
“He immediately called his bank upon learning 1/4 check books was missing and all checks were canceled at that time, with a stop pay on all checks.”
“As such no checks were ever cashed or presented against his account due to his cancellation of all checks linked to this account. The account was closed on March 3, 2018, for personal reasons unrelated to any alleged fraud on his account (banking preference),” Bogosian wrote.
Obviously, he got the checks to perpetrate the puppy scheme and then closed the account.
She noted to the trooper that the signatures were different on each of the checks and attached Santos’ New York State driver’s license to show his signature on that ID didn’t match any of the ones on the checks. She wrote that Santos was clearly a victim of fraud — but hadn’t realized it until he was served with the warrant because he’d canceled the checks and later closed the account.
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“I did think it was so weird at the time that his checks didn’t have his address or phone number listed on them."
Unbelievable. Literally. Who else would sign each check differently than he? And then...
Santos told [the attorney], because he was involved in politics, he couldn’t have an outstanding charge against him. A week after their meeting, he went to Pennsylvania to address the warrant, and told prosecutors that he “worked for the S.E.C.,” successfully persuading them to drop the charges, she remembered him telling her after he returned.
Amazing.
It's like he's been careening from one con to the next all his life. (So, of COURSE he'd end up in the US Congress.)
Santos has all the hallmarks of a textbook narcissist, including this one: lying about lying.
UPDATE 08:05 am:
Easy to believe Santos is lying here, but not entirely certain Sinema isn't.
