Former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who falsified most of his resume while running for a House seat in 2022, was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison for wire fraud and identity theft.
He pleaded guilty in August 2024 to making fraudulent campaign donations in the names of 11 family members and reporting to the Federal Election Commission that he had loaned his campaign $500,000 when he only had $8,000 in his bank accounts.
Santos, who sobbed at Judge Joanna Seybert's sentence, has until July 25 to report to prison for the start of his sentence.
He also has to pay $373,000 in restitution and will have two years of probation after his time is served.
“I offer my deepest apologies,” Santos said. “I cannot rewrite the past, but I can control the road ahead.”
He admitted that he had “betrayed the confidence entrusted to me by constituents, donors, colleagues, and this court.”
Santos committed the fraud in order to qualify for aid from the national party, which helped him get elected to the swing seat.
In addition to the fraud, Santos's campaign also stole the identities and financial information of many of his donors and repeatedly charged their credit cards for more donations without authorization.
Judge Seybert did not buy his apology for one second. “Where’s the remorse? Where do I see it?” she asked.
She also called him “an arrogant fraudster talking out of both sides of his mouth."
“Mr. Santos, words have consequences,” she said. “You got elected with your words, most of which were lies.”
United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York John J. Durham said after the sentence: “From the moment he declared his candidacy for Congress, Santos leveraged his campaign for his own enrichment and financial benefit."
“Today, George Santos was finally held accountable for the mountain of lies, theft, and fraud he perpetrated," Durham stated. "For the defendant, it was judgment day, and for his many victims including campaign donors, political parties, government agencies, elected bodies, his own family members, and his constituents, it is justice.
“To Mr. Santos and other dishonest individuals of that ilk, who lie, steal identities and commit frauds to get elected to public office, this prosecution speaks to the truth that my Office is committed to aggressively rooting out public corruption and that public officials who criminally abuse our electoral process will end up in a federal prison," he added.
