Here’s What George Santos Was Charged With

Federal prosecutors have charged Representative George Santos of New York with 13 counts of money laundering, stealing public money, wire fraud and making false statements to Congress.

Prosecutors said the charges resulted from “fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations” designed to enrich Mr. Santos, mislead donors and win a seat in Congress as a Republican from Queens.

Here is an overview of the charges contained in the indictment, which was unsealed on Wednesday.

• The bulk of the charges relate to what prosecutors said was a scheme by Mr. Santos to solicit donations from political donors and then pocket tens of thousands of dollars for personal expenses, including luxury goods and to pay off debts.

• As part of that arrangement, prosecutors accused Mr. Santos of committing five counts of wire fraud by falsely telling potential donors that contributions would be used for his congressional campaign. They said he used a limited liability company he controlled to collect two $25,000 contributions and employed another person to help. Mr. Santos then transferred the money to his personal bank accounts.

• He is charged with three counts of money laundering in connection to the donor solicitation scheme.

• Prosecutors charged the congressman with two more counts of wire fraud and one count of stealing public money in connection with what they said was a scheme to obtain unemployment benefits from New York beginning in June 2020. Even though he was earning $120,000 a year through his employment at a Florida-based investment company, they said he told the state he was unemployed and collected more than $24,000 in benefits.

• Prosecutors also charged Mr. Santos with two counts of making false statements to the House of Representatives on personal financial disclosure reports. In one case, they said he misstated his sources of income and in another that he overstated it.