Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has now been exposed in another scandal.
According to Politico, the new Congressman had his criminal record expunged after a 2017 case involving bad checks he wrote to dog breeders.
It's the second allegation involving bad checks written by Santos. The former Brazilian citizen confessed to passing stolen checks in that country when he lived there in 2008.
Now it appears he was also charged with theft in Pennsylvania after writing bad checks nearly ten years later.
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"Just days after $15,125 in checks were made out for 'puppies,' according to the memo lines, Santos held an adoption event at a Staten Island pet store with his animal rescue charity Friends of Pets United, according to the store’s Instagram account and a person who attended the event," the report said.
Ultimately the charges were dismissed and his record was expunged. He claimed that the checks were actually a theft against him, the court documents say. Someone had stolen his checkbook and tried to buy expensive dogs in Amish Country. According to Santos, the checkbook went missing in 2017 and by 2020 he was blaming someone he knew. He claimed he "canceled the checkbook" with the bank after seeing it was gone.
The report mentioned middle school pal Tiffany Bogosian, who ran into Santos in a Queens Starbucks in 2019 after he lost his congressional campaign the first time. Weeks later she said that he asked her for help after the NYPD served him a warrant to Pennsylvania on the theft charge.
The NYPD told Bogosian that Santos should have filed a police report.
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“In 2017 he received four check books for the account at his request from the TD BANK branch he banked with in Queens, NY, and of the four one went missing,” Bogosian wrote in an email to a Pennsylvania state trooper. “He immediately called his bank upon learning 1/4 check books was missing and all checks were canceled at that time, with a stop pay on all checks.”
“As such no checks were ever cashed or presented against his account due to his cancellation of all checks linked to this account. The account was closed on March 3, 2018, for personal reasons unrelated to any alleged fraud on his account (banking preference),” she also wrote.
The lawyer showed them the strange evolution in handwriting and Pennsylvania ultimately agreed and excused Santos for the crime.
Another story then surfaced, however.
The New York Times reported about a strange moment when Santos spoke to pet store owner Daniel Avissato following an adoption event. He asked if Avissato would help him out by making "a check with the proceeds out to his name instead of the name of the charity."
"Avissato said he refused, but later noticed — when he looked at his bank records — that the check had been changed to the way Santos wanted it," said the Politico recap.
In Dec. 2017, Michele Vazzo recalled meeting Santos at the pet shop when she adopted a puppy.
The golden retriever, he said, was rescued from an Amish puppy mill. The dogs ranged from $300 to $400.
“The fees were always different and he always had a ton of puppies and a ton of people helping him,” Vazzo said.