George Santos was charged with theft in canine case

US Rep. George Santos (R-NY) sits within the Home Chamber previous to US President Joe Biden delivering his State of the Union tackle on the US Capitol in Washington, US, February 7, 2023.

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Evelyn Hockstein Reuters

Embattled Rep. George Santos, RN.Y., was charged with theft in a 2017 case in Pennsylvania that was later dropped and expunged from his document, in line with a lawyer who aided Santos’ response to the cost and now regrets serving to him.

“I ought to have let him go to hell,” that legal professional, Tiffany Bogosian, informed CNBC in a telephone interview Thursday.

Bogosian affirmed the accuracy of Politico’s new reporting that Santos was charged with theft by deception after a number of bounced checks have been written in his identify to canine breeders in Pennsylvania.

Santos had claimed that somebody had stolen his checkbook and written checks totaling hundreds of {dollars} — together with a number of that have been made out for “puppies,” in line with Bogosian, who offered screenshots of the checks and corresponding financial institution statements.

Days after these checks have been reduce, Santos held a pet-adoption occasion at a Staten Island pet retailer together with his purported pet charity, Buddies of Pets United, Politico reported, citing the shop’s Instagram account and an individual who attended the occasion.

A spokeswoman for Santos’ congressional workplace referred CNBC to the congressman’s legal professional, who didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Bogosian mentioned Politico’s report was “1,000%” right. The outlet recognized her as a center college classmate of Santos’ who bumped into him in late 2019 in Queens, New York, and was contacted by him weeks later when he claimed to have been served an extradition warrant associated to the Pennsylvania theft cost.

Santos informed her certainly one of his checkbooks had gone lacking in 2017, and that he had canceled it as quickly as he observed it was gone. Bogosian reached out to a Pennsylvania state police trooper to elucidate Santos’ state of affairs as he had described it, arguing that Santos was clearly a sufferer of fraud however hadn’t realized it till he was served the warrant.

Bogosian recalled Santos telling her that, every week after their February 2020 assembly, he had gone to Pennsylvania and informed prosecutors he labored for the Securities and Trade Fee and had efficiently persuaded them to drop the fees.

A spokeswoman for the York County District Court docket in Pennsylvania informed CNBC that the Santos case in query “doesn’t exist throughout the system,” and that she “can’t affirm” if the reportedly expunged case ever did or didn’t exist.

However Bogosian offered CNBC with a screenshot exhibiting a November 2017 cost in Santos’ identify of “THEFT BY DECEP-FALSE IMPRESSION.”

She informed CNBC that she now not believes Santos’ story, in mild of the mountain of scandals, lies and investigations which have dogged him since shortly after he received his race for New York’s third Congressional District. He has vowed to serve out his full two-year time period within the Home.

“I really feel horrible, I ought to have simply let him return to the warrant,” the lawyer mentioned. She vowed to “do every part I can to get him into jail, and if not into jail than out of workplace.”

Learn Politico’s full report right here.

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2023-02-09 23:27:10

www.cnbc.com