George Santos is a New York congressman who, on May 10, got arrested for 13 charges including wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and false statements to congress. These charges were brought up against him by the Eastern District of New York, but they are not the only organization investigating him. Brazilian law officials, the FBI, the Ethics Committee, and Federal Election Commission are also looking into the crimes he has committed and lies he has told throughout his term.

One of the charges against him was lying to congress, but he has also lied to the press on countless occasions.  Since December of 2022, people have been disproving about every statement he has told the press, even things that were the foundations of his campaign. This includes his education, past jobs, family, and charity.

Santos stated he graduated from Baruch College with a 3.89 GPA at the top 1% of his class and was a ‘star’ volleyball player, he even claimed to get a volleyball scholarship. When interviewed by the New York Times, Baruch said they had no record of Santos graduating or even attending. The congressman also claimed to have graduated from New York University with no student debt and a Master of Business Administration degree. This university also has no record of Santos attending, much less obtaining an M.B.A degree, which takes two years to earn. Throughout the process of investigating, officials have learned that he has no college degree and has lied about attending both prestigious universities.

He has also fabricated all of his credentials on his resume. He said that he was vice president of LinkBridge Investors, but when the founder of LinkBridge was asked about him by the NY Times, he said Santos was just a freelancer.

He also claimed on his resume his past jobs included being a project manager at Goldman Sachs and having a finance career at Citigroup. He boasted making huge improvements in each company and even doubling Goldman Sachs’ revenue in seven months. Both companies have no record of him working for them. When confronted with this information Santos told the New York Post, “I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume.”

Santos’ resume isn’t the only thing he embellished. The congressman has been exploiting his family ties for years and made a statement saying his mother passed away in the 9/11 attack, working in the World Trade Center. As you can imagine, Santos received a lot of sympathy around such a devastating claim. However it has since come to light that his mom was nowhere near the Twin Towers on 9/11 and instead passed away in 2016.

Similarly, he also lied about how his grandmother passed away, claiming she was a victim of the Holocaust. That statement was also found to be inaccurate, with genealogists saying it would have been impossible for his grandmother to have died in that tragic event. Since he was telling everyone that he had Jewish heritage he thought it was okay to make offensive jokes and comments. When confronted by the New York Post that he had no Jewish ancestors he said it was all a big mistake. He hadn’t been saying he was Jewish, he had been claiming he was “Jew-ish.”

One of his campaign topics that got people to vote for him was his foundation for animals called Friends of Pets United. He said he had saved thousands of animals and had many events through this foundation. The truth is, Friends of Pets United only had one event back in 2017. When the workers were interviewed they claimed Santos backed out of the event and refused to pay for anything.

He also lied while raising money for a homeless man’s dog. The dog needed surgery that the man could not afford so Santos started a GoFundMe to raise $3,000. What a considerate thing to do, right? Wrong. He did end up raising $3,000 and told everyone that the dog was okay, but it later came out that he withheld the money from the homeless man and sadly his dog passed away.

Some experts, such as psychologist Dr Drew Curtis, claim that Santos is a pathological liar, given that he has lied an obscene amount in just a few years. The lies have ranged from small to large with him claiming he’s been a broadway producer, journalist, actor in famous shows, and had assassination attempts against him.

He even claimed to be married, but when no one had seen his husband after over a year people got suspicious. When investigated it was revealed that when his now ex-boyfriend had rejected his proposal, Santos decided to lie and throw a fake engagement party and wear a fake wedding band. All of these things have been proven to be false, so this begs the question, has he said anything that is true in his years in the House?

Santos has refused to resign, though he knows he has a lengthy trial ahead of him. Even after the verdict of this trial, he still has many committees investigating him, namely the Ethics and Federal Election Commission. If he is found guilty of the 13 charges brought against him, he will be sentenced to 20 years in jail. Santos has stated in a Intelligencer interview that he “didn’t think he’d be caught.” Now that all the lies have unfolded, the question is, will Santos keep trying to lie?