He has been renamed the mysterious republican for the shadows that emerge from his alleged past. His birth name is George Santos and his election to Congress in the Democratic stronghold of New York was one of the “coups” with which the Grand Old Party snatched the narrow majority in the House of Representatives from its Democratic rivals. The 34-year-old new deputy built his candidacy on the idea of being the “full embodiment of the American dream” and proposed himself as its institutional guardian.
He is the son of Brazilian immigrants and the first openly gay Republican to win a seat in the House as a challenger. His training entrusted to a public university in the city of New York, the “Baruch college”, where he graduated in 2010, allowed him to launch himself into the magical world of Wall Street, establishing himself as an “expert financier and investor” with a portfolio family estate consisting of 13 properties. He is also the owner of an animal welfare association thanks to which he has saved more than 2,500 dogs and cats.
All this on paper, however, because according to a survey by New York TimesHowever, inconsistencies, lies and mysteries emerge from his curriculum. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the investment banks that appear on his resume deny he worked with them, while Baruch College officials have been unable to identify anyone matching his name and date of birth as a graduate of that year. As well as the American taxman who was unable to find any trace of the charity «Friends of Pets United». His financial disclosure forms suggest a life of some wealth, but his company, the Devolder Organization, which doesn’t have a public website or LinkedIn page, remains shrouded in mystery. And if Santos described a family fortune in real estate – warns the Times –, there would be no records of his properties.
The only certainty regarding the new deputy is his victory in the two New York districts, north of Long Island and north-east of Queens which were previously the prerogative of the dem. A bolt from the blue for the Donkey party given that Santos had been “smashed” in 2020 in the same district against Tom Suozzi, then the Democrat in office, and even in the Mid Term the same challenger seemed destined to capitulate once again. Even more for his connection with Donald Trump. A mystery that adds to the already long list.
His appearance earlier this month at a gala in Manhattan attended by white nationalists and right-wing conspiracy theorists underlined his ties to the former president’s right-wing base. At the same time, new revelations discovered by The Timesincluding the omission of key information about Santos’ personal financial disclosures and criminal check fraud charges in Brazil, “could be grounds for ethical and possibly legal challenges once he takes office,” warns the New York newspaper.
Santos did not respond to repeated requests from NY Times to provide dated documents or resumes that would help substantiate the claims he made during the campaign. He also declined to be interviewed, and neither his attorney nor Big Dog Strategies, a Republican-leaning political advisory group, responded to a detailed list of questions. The lawyer of the newly elected, Joe Murray, instead declared that «it is no surprise that the elected member of the Congress Santos has enemies at the New York Times ready to tarnish his good name with these defamatory accusations.’