Man convicted in credit card 'skimming' scheme alleges George Santos was the one 'in charge'

10 March 2023

During his two months in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. George Santos (R-New York) has been inundated with bad publicity. Much of it has surrounded all the lies he told during his 2022 campaign, including false claims that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors and that his mother, Fatima Devolder, was in the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (which, according to the New York Times, would have been impossible because records show that Devolder was in Brazil at the time).

But there have been other Santos-related controversies as well. In Brazil, prosecutors are investigating the Queens/Long Island congressman for possible fraud and are looking into allegations that he used a stolen checkbook in Rio de Janeiro in the late 2000s.

Meanwhile, in a separate fraud cause in the United States, a Brazilian man, Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha, is alleging that Santos (who has also gone by Anthony Devolder) coordinated a credit card skimming scheme in Seattle.

According to Politico reporter Jacqueline Sweet, Trelha told federal U.S. officials, in a sworn statement, "I am coming forward today to declare that the person in charge of the crime of credit card fraud when I was arrested was George Santos/Anthony Devolder."

Sweet, in an article published by Politico on March 9, reports, "Trelha decided to contact law enforcement officials after seeing the newly minted congressman on television, he said in the declaration…. He was previously questioned about the Seattle scheme by investigators for the U.S. Secret Service, CBS News has reported. He was never charged, but the investigation remains open. Santos also told an attorney friend he was 'an informant' in the fraud case. Trelha insists he was its mastermind."

Trelha, who served seven months in jail in the U.S. before being deported back to Brazil in early 2018, alleges that Santos trained him to commit credit card fraud. In a statement to the FBI and federal prosecutors dated March 7, 2023, Trelha alleged, "Santos taught me how to skim card information and how to clone cards. He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines."

The statement was submitted via Santos' New York City-based attorney Mark Demetropoulos.

While some Republicans have been calling for Santos to resign from Congress, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) has been reluctant to publicly criticize him. Republicans have only a small single-digit majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and if a special election in Santos' Queens/Long Island district were held, that seat could end up back in Democratic hands.

Read Politico's full report at this link.

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