US Republican lawmaker George Santos arrested on federal criminal charges

By Betul Yuruk

NEW YORK (AA) - New York congressman George Santos, who lied about his background during his 2022 election campaign, turned himself in at a court Wednesday after federal criminal charges were filed against him.

The 13-count indictment was unsealed with 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.

Santos, 34, is expected to appear in federal court in New York’s Eastern District later Wednesday.

After the freshman Republican congressman admitted he had lied about parts of his resume, dozens of Republican leaders urged Santos to step down.

Although his campaign biography said he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, those companies said they did not have any record of him working there.

His resume said he graduated from Baruch College in 2010 but officials there were not able to confirm a record of him attending the school.

He later admitted he “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and confessed he never graduated from any college.