The man who says he received forged checks from Congressman-elect George Santos when he was working as a store clerk in Brazil is speaking to reporters and accusing the Republican politician of being a “professional liar”.
Mr Santos was supposed to be sworn in this week as he begins a two-year term in the House of Representatives; that ceremony, like all other House business, has been delayed as the chamber’s GOP caucus remains unable to coalesce around a choice for speaker of the House.
But that’s the least of his problems: Mr Santos stands at the centre of a whirlwind of criticism from all sides after he admitted to fabricating virtually every aspect of his public background while he ran for Congress. He has now copped to lying about his work for two major firms, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as well as his educational history and religious background. He even faces scorn for apparently lying about having relatives flee from the Holocaust.
And back in Brazil, where Mr Santos held dual citizenship, he also stands accused by Brazilian authorities of paying for items at stores using forged and stolen checks.
Now, the clerk who says he was forced to pay back some of the money Mr Santos should have paid his store is speaking with CNN in his first-ever interview.
He offered advice to voters of New York’s 3rd Congressional District who may feel responsible for sending an admitted liar and potential con man to Congress.
“Don’t feel guilty, he does that really well. He’s a professional liar,” Bruno Simões told the news channel.
“Even though he confessed to his crime, he never looked me up to pay his debt. At the time I had to take the debt, which was quite high,” he explained further.
CNN and other news outlets have reported that both Mr Santos and his mother have admitted to Brazilian police that he took a checkbook belonging to her friend that was in her possession, and that he used the checks to make several purchases. And a 2010 document stemming from the case signed by Mr Santos himself seems to acknowledge that he confessed to the crime, stating that Mr Santos “acknowledged having been responsible for forging the signatures on the checks, also confirming that he had destroyed the remaining checks”.
But Mr Santos has been out of the country for years, and according to multiple news outlets the prosecution of the congressman-elect was halted as authorities were unable to find him.
That changed with his election to Congress; law enforcement officials now say that the case has been resumed.
Mr Santos has denied being involved in the case in a recent statement, but has refused comment on all of the scandals enveloping his short career since arriving in Washington.
“I am not a criminal here – not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world. Absolutely not. That didn’t happen,” he previously insisted to The New York Post.
News reports indicate that the freshman congressman now faces both state and federal investigations over potentially criminal activity; he also faces calls for his ouster or resignation by Democrats and even some critics on the right.
