Scandal-plagued Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) now faces potential criminal prosecution in two different countries.
The New York Times reports that law enforcement authorities in Brazil intend to reopen a 15-year-old fraud case involving Santos that had been shelved because police had for years been unable to locate him.
After Santos got elected to Congress last year and after the majority of his life story was exposed as a fabrication, he apparently came back under prosecutors’ radars.
“Nathaly Ducoulombier, a spokeswoman for the Rio de Janeiro’s prosecutors office, said that with Mr. Santos’s ‘whereabouts identified,’ a formal request will be made to the U.S. Justice Department to notify him of the charges, a necessary step after which the case will proceed with or without him,” the paper writes.
According to previous Times reporting, Santos is accused of using a stolen checkbook to spend $700 under a false name in a clothing boutique in the city of Niterói.
What’s more, prosecutors in the country have proof of Santos admitting the crime to the checkbook’s owner on a social media app, as he told the owner he knew he “screwed up” and vowed to repay him.
Santos is also being investigated by American prosecutors across multiple jurisdictions for potentially funding his congressional campaign with illegal payments funneled through a limited liability corporation that he personally owned.
Santos has admitted to lying about multiple aspects of his life story, but has denied criminal wrongdoing.
