Rep. George Santos fraud case clear-cut, ‘easy to prove’, say former prosecutors, legal experts

Federal prosecutors are presenting a straightforward fraud case against Rep. George Santos, and that doesn’t leave the lying Long Island lawmaker much wiggle room, legal experts and former public corruption prosecutors tell the Daily News.

The case against Santos (R-N.Y.) doesn’t delve into the intricacies of campaign finance law, but rather focuses on wire fraud, COVID unemployment fraud and false financial disclosures to Congress — “the bread-and-butter route” to a conviction, campaign finance lawyer Brett Kappel said Wednesday.

“This is a very straightforward, easy-to-prove case .... Mr. Santos is in serious, serious, serious criminal exposure,” Kappel said.

The wire fraud charges involve a pair of $25,000 donations to what the donors believed was a Santos super PAC, meant to pay for television spots for his 2022 campaign. Except there was no super PAC, and the money paid for Santos’ luxury clothing and credit card bills, prosecutors allege.

Nathan Reilly, a former head of the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office public integrity section, said prosecutors did well not to bog down the wire fraud charges with election law technicalities.

“This is a much, to my mind, cleaner case,” Reilly said. “You sort of don’t need to go too far down the rabbit hole of federal election law, in part, because you’ve got a very clear [case], just straight wire fraud.”

“You just have to show that solicitations were made saying the money was going to go for purpose A, and instead it was spent for purpose B. So a very straightforward, easy case to prove,” Kappel explained.

“Any scheme where there are lies to get money to enrich yourself in some way is likely going to be something that can be prosecuted using the wire fraud statute,” said attorney James Gatta, who once ran the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office public integrity section and later, its criminal division.

He described the fraud charges as “easy for juries to understand.”

“It’s a very straightforward way for federal prosecutors to charge defendants with lying to enrich themselves,” he said. “There are more specific elements that need to be checked off when charging various federal election crimes.”

The unemployment fraud charge is similarly clear-cut, legal experts said. Santos is accused of applying for, and receiving, COVID relief money even though he was still collecting a $120,000 salary.

The indictment doesn’t go into the mysterious $700,000 that Santos is reported to have loaned to his campaign, though prosecutors may address additional allegations in a superseding indictment, or describe them in motions.

Santos faces a 13-count indictment, including seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

The first-term Republican rode a falsified résumé to victory in 2022, fibbing about his education, religion, family history, professional experience and property ownership.