Santos Admits Lying, Plans To Take Office Amid Lingering Questions

LONG ISLAND, NY — Incoming Long Island Congressman George Santos admitted to fabricating key elements of his resume and biography in several Monday interviews. The embattled 34-year-old Republican congressman-elect for the 3rd District said he didn't graduate from Baruch College or NYU, as he claimed, or any other college.

Santos also told the New York Post he never "directly worked" for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, jobs listed in his official campaign biography.

Santos told the Post that the controversy won't stop him from taking office.

"I will be effective. I will be good,” he said.

The Monday interviews were Santos' first in-depth responses to the media firestorm kicked off last week by a New York Times report calling much of his backstory into question. Since then, more of Santos' background has been investigated by dozens of outlets, including questions about his claimed Jewish heritage, congressional financial disclosures, a previous marriage and even a claim that his mother survived the attack on the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11.

The Times also reported that Santos was charged with check fraud in Brazil and the case remains open. On Monday, Santos appeared on WABC radio, where he said, "I'm not a criminal."

"Not here, not abroad in any jurisdiction in the world have I ever committed any crimes," he said.

The Monday interviews didn't touch on Santos' personal financial disclosures, and questions raised after the Times and other outlets were unable to find any record of clients of the firm that Santos said in his September 2022 filing was the primary source of his $11 million net worth, the Devolder Organization.

In 2020, Santos' disclosure showed no assets over $5,000 and an income of $55,000.

On Thursday, Patch reported that Santos worked as a bilingual customer service representative at Dish Network in 2011 and 2012.

His official biography depicted him as rising through the ranks on Wall Street. During his campaign, Santos referred to family real estate holdings, another claim he reversed on Monday.

He told the Post, “George Santos does not own any properties."

His 2022 congressional disclosure lists an apartment in Rio de Janeiro worth between $500,000 and $1 million.

Santos also told the Post he owes a former landlord $12,000 in unpaid rent, saying he "forgot" about it.

Santos portrayed the fabrications as "embellishing my resume" and a "poor choice of words," claiming that he did business with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs while working at LinkBridge Investors.

Older versions of Santos' biography on his campaign website from earlier this year stated that he “began working at Citigroup as an associate and quickly advanced to become an associate asset manager in the real asset division of the firm.”

"I want to make sure that if I disappointed anyone by resume embellishments, I'm sorry," he told WABC.

"I will deliver to you on everything I campaigned on because it's still the same guy, still the same message, still the same priorities."

The New York attorney general's office said last week it would look into "issues" surrounding Santos, but didn't specify if there is an active investigation. Omitting or misrepresenting information on a congressional financial disclosure is a federal crime.

Patch's requests for comment from Santos and his attorney were not answered.