THOMPSON: The bad penny that is George Santos

I wrote about George Santos more than three years ago. But George is like a bad penny…he has a way of showing up again no matter how hard you try to rid yourself of him.

For those unfamiliar with the old English “bad” penny idiom…precious metals like silver were used in ancient coins. A “bad” penny was either counterfeit or one whose edges had been shaved to steal the valuable metal. So, try as you might to pass off a bad penny…often folks would notice…and hand it back.

If ever there was a bad penny…a counterfeit…it is George Santos. If you don’t know much about George Santos…or understandably tried to forget…here’s a quick refresher. 

Santos is a New Yorker…but his boldness is more parody than stereotype of New Yorker brashness. George is a 37-year-old liar. He is not what he would have you believe…someone who on occasion merely…“embellishes.”

An embellishment is saying you were graduated from university with “high honours”…rather than simply…“honours.” But a lie is telling someone you have a degree from Bernard M Baruch College – a prestigious member of the 11 four-year colleges that comprise the City University of New York public education system – without any record that you ever took a single course…or spent so much as a single day there.

But that “embellishment” alone is almost something you could overlook…if integrity wasn’t really your thing. However, George could easily claim supreme boldness…maybe even a “liar of the year” title…something of Trump-like proportions. It turns out almost everything he ever said to voters…everything voters relied on…was and remains…just another lie.

For example, George no doubt thought he would wow voters with his impressive credentials…working in responsible positions with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Those who worked at those two organizations are now leaders…there or elsewhere. 

That is what George knew when he made those calculations. When confronted, he admitted to “making misleading claims.” Again, turns out, he worked for neither Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs. If you’re following George’s performance; misleading claims = lies.

He told voters that he “lost four employees at the Pulse nightclub shooting” in Orlando in 2016. No one who died knew or worked for George it turns out, according to relatives of those murdered.

George claimed he founded and ran a tax-exempt charity called Friends of Pets United in New York and New Jersey. Both the Internal Revenue Service and the attorneys general offices in New York and New Jersey said no records exists of a registered charity with that name…ever.

George swore his “grandparents fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.” Confronted with the truth, he brushed it off as his “embellishment”.

He said to pro-Israel groups when he was raising campaign funds that he was a “proud American Jew.” Again, caught in a lie, he then said he “never claimed to be Jewish,” simply “Jew-ish.” 

He said his grandmother – long since dead – told him she was Jewish…but adds she converted to Catholicism. Too bad that’s not verifiable…lying is not hereditary to the best of my knowledge…so maybe grandma was Jewish rather than Jew-ish.

George claimed to be a real estate magnate…landlord to 13 tenants who, he said, were all overdue in rent payments. Trump-like, George’s reality is a shadow of his fantasy. He never owned any real estate…and actually lived with his sister Tiffany in Huntington, NY.

His only truthful brush with real estate is that between 2016 and 2019, he was evicted three times…the last time he testified in court that he was mugged en route to pay $2,250 in back rent. Ever have one of those days?

George, apparently, finds it easier to “embellish” when folks are…well, dead. George claimed his mother, Fatima Devolder, worked her way up to become “the first female executive at a major financial institution” and was “in her office in the south tower” of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks…surviving but “passing away a few years later.” 

Actually, she passed away quietly in 2016…and according to a Brazilian community newspaper at the time described her as a cook and occasional housekeeper.

Voters – indeed, the entire world – know less about George Santos than he ever told us. He is an ardent Trump supporter…and was at Trump’s Ellipse rally on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s claimed scores of times that Trump won the 2020 election…and it was stolen. 

Mostly we don’t know where George’s money came from. Somehow, he loaned his own campaign $700,000 in 2022. He claimed an income of $750,000 in 2021…listing millions of dollars in assets…including a Rio De Janeiro apartment worth $1 million and a seven-figure savings account. Quite the reversal of fortunes for a evicted tenant a few years ago.

George Santos was investigated by Federal prosecutors, tried and convicted. He was sentenced to 87 months in prison, but after three months, President Donald J. Trump commuted his sentence.

So, when did George “Bad Penny” Santos last turn up?

Well, just before President Trump’s State of the Union address in late-February, Santos said on social media that he would attend. Whether he would be there or not was a focus among online bettors on the prediction market Kalshi.

Santos announced to bettors, “I’m gonna be in the gallery.” 

He was not. And, not even curiously, Santos wagered heavily that he would not be there. It’s called insider trading…and it’s illegal.

Will Santos be prosecuted? Will Santos be convicted and serve time in prison? Will President Trump commute his sentence once more? Who knows? A bad penny has a way of showing up…time and time again.