Liar George Santos Arrested on Federal Criminal Charges

Serial liar and Republican Congressman George Santos (AKA Anthony Zabrovsky, Anthony Devolder, George Devolder and Kitara Ravache) of New York’s 3th District was indicted by a Federal grand jury Tuesday on multiple federal counts of money laundering, stealing public money, wire fraud and making false statements to Congress in his House financial disclodures. He was arrested Wednesday, and arraigned at the Eastern District Federal Courthouse in Central Islip, NY. Mr. Santos pleaded not guilty, and was  set loose on a helpless public while awaiting trial. His $500,000 bond was secured by three unnamed individuals. His next court date is June 30. George Santos remains in Congress until his inevitable conviction.

The indictment charges that Mr. Santos solicited campaign donations, then used the funds for personal expenses, including luxury designer clothes and paying off his credit cards and and car payments. He also obtained unemployment benefits fraudulently.

Previously, George Santos lied about his: high school, college, ever going to college, volleyball prowess, grad school, religion, race, family history, work history, finances, owning 13 real estate properties, knee replacements, his yacht brokerage, appearing on Hanna Montana, developing carbon capture technology, film acting, losing employees in the Pulse nightclub shooting, getting mugged, being a drag queen, having a brain tumor, running a pet rescue charity, past marital status, getting COVID, and his own mother’s death.

His newest fib: he’s innocent and the trial is a ‘witch hunt.”

More:

“Rep. George Santos charged with 13 counts of fraud, financial crimes,” Devlin Barrett, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Shayna Jacobs, and Perry Stein, Washington Post

“George Santos charged with fraud, including stealing from campaign to buy designer clothes,” Jake Offenhartz and Michael R. Sisak, Associated Press

“Congressman George Santos Charged with Fraud, Money Laundering, Theft of Public Funds, and False Statements,” Press Release, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York

“Read the George Santos Indictment,” New York Times

“George Santos, Facing Felony Charges, Campaigned on Ensuring Criminals Do Time,” Rebecca Cohen, Business Insider

“George Santos Claims Arraignment Conflicts with His Role in N.B.A. Playoffs,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

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Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com. Download a copy here. Note: Politifact hasn’t yet fact-checked George Santo’s statements. Maybe it’s too overwhelming.

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

George Santos (R, NY-3)

Republican Congressman George Santos (AKA Anthony Zabrovsky, Anthony Devolder, George Devolder and Kitara Ravache) of New York’s 3th District is now a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology (because he lied about developing carbon capture technology), and the House Committee on Small Business (because he lied about his business experience). At least he’s not on the Ethics Committee.

If you’re keeping score at home, George Santos lied about his: high school, college, ever going to college, volleyball prowess, grad school, religion, race, family history, work history, finances, owning 13 real estate properties, knee replacements, his yacht brokerage, appearing on Hanna Montana, developing carbon capture technology, film acting, losing employees in the Pulse nightclub shooting, getting mugged, being a drag queen, having a brain tumor, running a pet rescue charity, past marital status, getting COVID, and his own mother’s death. More is sure to come.

But as Jon Stewart observes: “The thing we have to be careful of, and I always caution myself on this and I ran into this trouble with Trump, is we cannot mistake absurdity for lack of danger, because it takes people with no shame to do shameful things.”

How did he get elected in the first place? By telling Democratic and Republican voters in his district what each wanted to hear. As Bill Maher puts it: “He is the first one to realize that since we are all in our hermetically sealed media bubbles, now you can pretend to be everything to voters in both parties.”

The Republican majority is so slim that GOP members are reluctant to pressure Mr. Santos into resigning from the House. His district could easily elect a Democrat to replace him, so he’ll stay until the federal, state, Nassau County, Queens, and/or Brazilian courts catch up with him.

More:

“Rep. George Santos Appears to Have Ripped Off His Former Boss’s Resume in Crafting His Backstory,” Virginia Chamlee, People

“George Santos’ backers include a migrant smuggler, a big Trump donor and the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch,” Clare Hymes and Graham Kates, CBS News

“Another Santos Money Mystery: He Struck a Curious Business Deal With a Veteran GOP Operative,” Noah Lanard and David Corn, Mother Jones

“Campaigns Linked To Santos Left Donors Feeling Ripped Off After Questionable Credit Card Charges,” Hunter Walker and Josh Kovensky, TPM

Update:

“Scientists Welcome ‘Astronaut,’ ‘Nobel Winner’ George Santos To House Science Committee,” Chris D’Angelo, HuffPost

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Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com. Download a copy here. Note: Politifact hasn’t yet fact-checked George Santo’s statements. Maybe it’s too overwhelming.

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

The Honorable George Santos (R, NY-3)

Outside of Hollywood, you’d think doing business with someone who is using an assumed name would raise concerns, but it didn’t. As a result, George Santos, AKA Anthony Zabrovsky, Anthony Devolder, Kitara Ravache, and George Devolder (of dubious investment firm Harbor City Capital) is now the newly-sworn-in Republican Congressman representing New York’s 3th District.

After he was elected, Rep. Devolder Zabrovsky Ravache Santos admitted to embellishing his résumé, but it’s all embellishment, no résumé. He lied about his: high school, college, ever going to college, volleyball prowess, grad school, religion, family history, work history, finances, owning 13 real estate properties, developing carbon capture technology, losing employees in the Pulse nightclub shooting, running a pet rescue charity, past marital status, and his own mother’s death. Other dirty shoes will probably drop.

George Santos makes Herschel Walker look like the very soul of probity. He should be an embarrassment to Congressional Republicans, but they are noted for lack of shame, and their majority is so slim they’re reluctant to pressure Mr. Santos into resigning from the House. His district could easily elect a Democrat to replace him, so he’ll stay until the federal, state, Nassau County, Queens, and/or Brazilian courts catch up with him.

Months before the election, some of George Santos’ falsehoods were uncovered by the local North Shore Leader newspaper, and some lies were known to Republican consultants. These red flags were ignored in the heat of the campaign.

New York Magazine calls George Santos “The Luckiest Liar in Politics.” If you want to congratulate him on his fabrication-based good fortune, send cards to: The Honorable George Santos, 1117 Longworth House Office Building, Washington DC, 20515-3203 or call him at 202-225-3335.

Constituent well-wishers may prefer to contact his District Office in Queens: 242-09 Northern Boulevard, Douglaston, NY 11363 (phone 718-631-0400).

Rep. Santos doesn’t have a public email address, but his Chief of Staff does.

Want George Santos to attend your new waste disposal service’s ribbon-cutting or your nephew’s bar mitzvah? Use this handy contact form.

Update:

George Santos has been appointed to two House committees. He will sit on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology (because he lied about developing carbon capture technology), and the House Committee on Small Business (because he lied about his business experience).

More:

“Keeping track of all of NY Rep.-elect George Santos’ lies, from his education to charity falsehoods,” Bruce Golding, New York Post

“Rep. George Santos Appears to Have Ripped Off His Former Boss’s Resume in Crafting His Backstory,” Virginia Chamlee, People

“George Santos’ backers include a migrant smuggler, a big Trump donor and the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch,” Clare Hymes and Graham Kates, CBS News

“Another Santos Money Mystery: He Struck a Curious Business Deal With a Veteran GOP Operative,” Noah Lanard and David Corn, Mother Jones

“Campaigns Linked To Santos Left Donors Feeling Ripped Off After Questionable Credit Card Charges,” Hunter Walker and Josh Kovensky, TPM

 

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Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com. Download a copy here. Note: Politifact hasn’t yet fact-checked George Santo’s statements. Maybe it’s too overwhelming.

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

The Sins of Hobby Lobby

The 5,000 year old Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, an ancient clay artifact looted from Iraq and owned by Steve Green, the evangelical entrepreneur who heads Hobby Lobby craft stores and the so-called Museum of the Bible, has been returned to the Baghdad museum it was stolen from.

Uber-evangelical Mr. Green runs a $5 billion, 932-store retail chain which claims to be “Honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles.” He was caught buying 11,500 looted artifacts (“Thou Shalt Not Steal”), and smuggling them into the country with forged invoices (“Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness”) because he really, really wanted them for his Museum of the Bible (“Thou Shalt Not Covet”). Money paid for many of Iraq’s looted antiquities was used to fund terrorism (“Thou Shalt Not Kill”).

Hobby Lobby closes on Sundays, so that sabbath-observing thing is covered, anyway.

The British Museum is full of stolen artifacts

The British Museum stores the loot of Empire, and just plain loot. A Vox video.

Related:

The Museum of Stolen Art

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Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Hobby Lobby Breaks a Commandment. Big Time.

The Department of Homeland Security caught Evangelical corporate person Hobby Lobby smuggling ancient ceramics from Iraq. The company will pay a $3 million fine and give up the stolen loot, 5,500 clay tablets and cylinder seals, which will presumably be returned to the Iraqi government as part of its cultural patrimony. Archaeological artifacts are often stolen and smuggled by terrorist groups and provide a major avenue of funding for their activities.

Hobby Lobby is owned by the Green family, currently building a great Ark the Bible Museum in godless Washington, DC. We wonder how many ancient items of dubious provenance are in the museum’s collection.

More:

“Hobby Lobby’s Black-Market Buys Did Real Damage,” Candida Moss and Joel Baden, New York Times

“Christian Retailer Hobby Lobby Stole Middle East History to Make a Bible Museum in Washington, Nina Burleigh, Newsweek

“D.C. Bible Museum Denies Connection to Hobby Lobby’s Smuggled Antiquities,” Julie Strupp, DCist

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Dear Bike Thief

Sign in front of a house near the Potomac Avenue Metro Stop, Washington DC:

“HEY! YOU STOLE MY BIKE! THAT’S HOW I GET TO WORK. IT DID NOT BELONG TO YOU AND YOU TOOK IT FROM MY PORCH. BRING IT BACK AND YOU WILL RESTORE MY FAITH IN HUMANITY. IF YOU NEED A REWARD, WE CAN NEGOTIATE. THANK YOU, OWNER OF THE BIKE YOU STOLE.”

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Cell phone photo: Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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