Santos changes story on personal loan

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Democratic U.S. Reps. Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee on Tuesday for allegedly violating the Ethics in Government Act, saying the Republican must be held accountable for deceiving voters and Congress.

The Ethics in Government Act, officials said, was created to “preserve and promote the integrity of public officials and institutions,” which Torres and Goldman believe Santos has failed to adhere to. The two described financial reports submitted in 2020 and 2022 as “sparse and perplexing” in the complaint.

Torres (NY-15) said during a news conference in Long Island on Tuesday he is calling on the FEC to launch an investigation into potential illegal activity and irregularities with the campaign finances of Santos.

Santos has also been accused of dressing up in drag and for allowing a homeless veteran’s dog to die.

Videos and photos surfaced of Santos allegedly dressed up in drag at a party in Brazil. Some who claimed they knew Santos in Brazil said it was the congressman depicted in videos and photos from the event, though Santos has somewhat denied the claims.

“The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or “performed” as a drag Queen is categorically false,” Santos tweeted last week. “The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results.”

But Santos later appeared to acknowledge that he had dressed in drag in Brazil while maintaining he was not a drag queen.

No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys. I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life,” Santos said.

San is also accused of scamming a homeless, disabled veteran out of thousands of dollars that would have been used to care for the man’s service dog.

Richard Osthoff told Patch that he met Santos, who introduced himself as Anthony De- volder, in 2016 while living in a tent on the side of a New Jersey highway.

Osthoff ’s service dog, Sapphire, was suffering from a life-threatening stomach tumor, treatment for which would cost $3,000, the veteran told Patch.

A veterinary technician told Osthoff to use Friends of Pets United, a pet charity headed up by Santos under the Anthony Devolder alias.

Osthoff said he never saw any of the funds after a GoFundMe was set up and subsequently deleted once it got close to hitting the $3,000 goal.

Sapphire died in January 2017, he said.

Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman 142,017-120,060 in the district’s November election.

After multiple publications, including the New York Times, unearthed falsehoods in his personal and professional background, the newly-elected congressman said he will continue to serve the 3rd District constituents until the same number of people who voted for him call for him to step down.

3rd District residents against Santos have already begun to band together in the form of online petitions. Great Neck’s Jody Kass Finkel launched a change.org petition calling on Santos to step down which has received more than 32,000 signatures as of Wednesday.

The petition calls for the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute Santos for fraud, local Republican leaders to apologize for backing Santos’ congressional run and for national Republican leaders to refuse Santos a seat in Congress.

“In my 30+ years in the nonprofit world lobbying for environmental, health and affordable housing issues in Washington and Albany, I’ve never seen anyone with such an arrogant contempt for the truth or his constituents,” Finkel, a volunteer of the Great Neck Democratic Party and organizer of a petition urging Santos to resign, said in a statement. “While the whole country is aghast at Santos’s lies and utter disregard for decency, the residents of NY-03 have the most to lose.