It was round 2012, and the person was George Santos, the son of Brazilian immigrants, who gained an important election to Congress greater than a decade later.
However Santos, 34, informed a unique story about his life through the course of his marketing campaign. At about the identical time that Dish’s community information present he labored there, he was pushing Citigroup’s standing as step one in his profitable profession on Wall Road. . It included a stint at Goldman Sachs.
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Neither firm may discover information of Santos’ employment, The New York Occasions reported Monday.
Santos declined to immediately tackle a Occasions report that exposed felony prices in Brazil and located potential leaks in his monetary disclosures. “I am making an attempt to do this,” and did not present a resume to assist show his previous work.
On Thursday, with many wanting solutions, Santos informed his story and promised to reply his voter questions subsequent week. refused.
Nevertheless, interviews with former mates and colleagues, in addition to extra information reviewed by The Occasions, present a whole image of Santos’ life.
Former mates remembered an bold younger man with good style. He lavishly described the properties he owned in Brazil, New York and Nantucket, Massachusetts, and appeared disconnected from the rented condo in Queens the place he lived. He was a home employee.
John Rijo, who mentioned he labored on the Dish Community Middle in Faculty Level for about 10 years, mentioned Santos acquired calls in English and Portuguese. In line with the corporate, Santos carried out “buyer care” there from October 2011 to July 2012.
In line with Rijo, an agent’s hourly wage was not more than $15 an hour, and he thought overseas language experience price an additional greenback or two. Santos’ employment at Dish was additionally reported by native information website Patch.
On the similar time, mates recall Santos lived frugally in Queens, typically hiring further roommates to assist pay the hire.
Gregory Molly Parker was, merely, a type of roommates. From early on, he mentioned, there was a mismatch between the best way Santos talked about himself and the life he led. Even that appeared incompatible with the traditional life the household led, Molly Parker mentioned.
“You are sitting right here bragging about all the cash you make,” mentioned Molly Parker. “So why is your mother a housekeeper?”
Peter Hamilton met Santos in early 2014, he mentioned. He recalled that Santos, who claims to be an NYU graduate, didn’t acknowledge the identify of the enterprise college he mentioned he attended. I discovered it. “He appears to know what and the right way to say to individuals,” Hamilton mentioned in an interview.
When Santos lent him the cash in September 2014, saying he wanted to borrow hundreds of {dollars} to maneuver in together with his boyfriend, he did not hesitate, court docket paperwork present. Hamilton mentioned Santos stopped responding to emails and telephone calls not lengthy afterward.
Hamilton filed a lawsuit in small claims court docket in Queens in 2015 looking for compensation. In October of that yr, Santos replied that the cash had been paid again and was a favor, not a mortgage. The choose, nonetheless, agreed with Hamilton and sentenced him to $5,000 plus curiosity.
In an interview, Hamilton hoped to be repaid however was involved about previous money owed. It appears to be deceiving the general public,” he added.
Courtroom information present Santos’ monetary woes did not finish together with his money owed to mates. A number of months after he befriended Hamilton, Santos and his household have been embroiled in an eviction controversy in Jackson Heights, Queens.
In June 2014, their landlord accused Santos, his mom and sister of paying three months of unpaid hire. The events reached an settlement, however the household was evicted in August after the owner mentioned he did not pay on time, based on court docket information.
The subsequent yr, one other Queens landlord filed an eviction lawsuit, saying Santos owed her $2,250 in hire. In 2017, he confronted one other eviction lawsuit. This time, it was from a landlord within the Sunnyside space who mentioned Santos owed him a number of months’ hire and bounce test charges, he was in the end ordered to pay greater than his $12,000. rice area.
The next yr, in December 2018, Uncover Financial institution gained a default judgment in opposition to Santos for $1,927.45 in bank card debt, court docket information present. His final fee for that yr he made in February for simply $34.
In 2019, as Santos was getting ready to launch his first marketing campaign for Congress, court docket information present that Santos was again in a Queens court docket for a divorce case, one other matter.
Santos was married in Manhattan in 2012, based on metropolis worker information obtained by the nonprofit Reclaim the Data. His ex-wife filed for divorce in June 2019, which Santos didn’t contest.
The standing of their marriage is unknown.The divorce case was sealed, and makes an attempt to contact Santos’ ex-wife in New Jersey have been unsuccessful.However the divorce was concluded that fall, court docket information say. In November, Santos introduced his candidacy for New York’s third congressional district in northeast Queens and northern Lengthy Island.
Early in that first marketing campaign, Santos listed his tackle as an condo within the Elmhurst part of Queens. That his residence, which was exterior the district during which he was operating as a delegate, was positioned on the official candidate checklist and federal marketing campaign finance paperwork compiled by the New York Metropolis Board of Elections in 2020. .
Santos later moved right into a tenement home within the Whitestone space and is presently registered to vote however doesn’t presently dwell there.
Residence proprietor Nancy Potos mentioned Santos and his now-husband moved there in July 2020. The couple rented a two-bedroom, two-story condo for $2,600 a month, with Pothos residing downstairs.
Santos refers to her husband by solely his first identify, Matt, and it’s unknown after they acquired married. Brazilian journal Piauí interviewed his Santos in November 2020 and named him Matheus Gerard.
Each Matt and the condo made headlines after Santos claimed the couple’s house was vandalized in January 2021. An Instagram picture Santos posted of himself on the occasion adopted coronavirus-related restrictions. Nonetheless, it was linked to a Occasions article about friends forgetting their masks.
On Twitter, Santos claimed that stones and eggs have been thrown at his home and that he spent 4 and a half hours submitting a report with the police and insurance coverage firm. The Occasions was unable to verify that declare, and Santos’ attorneys didn’t present extra data.
Pothos, 72, mentioned he doesn’t bear in mind such an occasion. New York Police mentioned that when he was requested if there had been stories of violence, vandalism, or disputes at his Whitestone tackle in early January, there had been stories of an incident there in October 2021. It was the one incident reported on the tackle that yr.
Santos informed Newsday in March 2022 that he left his Whitestone house, allegedly because of vandalism, though he refused to share his new tackle. However Pothos mentioned Santos hadn’t moved out till August, and claimed he must spend $17,000 to restore the intense injury left behind.
It stays unclear the place Santos presently lives. In October, he took to Twitter to recommend that he was nonetheless residing in an condo in Pothos, citing a housebreaking “two blocks from my home in Whitestone.”
Santos additionally informed Newsday that he plans to ultimately transfer to Oyster Bay, New York. As a substitute, he appears to have settled in a home in Huntington, a city simply exterior the boundaries of his district.
On Wednesday, three neighbors mentioned they noticed Santos or his husband on the Huntington house. A person who lived throughout the road mentioned Santos moved out in August.
Neither Santos nor his husband have been listed on the property information of the house, and the house proprietor didn’t reply to telephone calls or social media messages looking for extra data.
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