'He never ever actually went to work': George Santos' ex-boyfriend recalls relationship riddled with lies

Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) has become embroiled in scandal, as a series of reports have come out revealing virtually every aspect of his campaign biography was a lie. Santos claimed to have attended colleges he never went to, worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs when he did not, and even that he was descended from Jewish Holocaust refugees when he was not.

On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that these lies extended to his personal life as well — a former boyfriend says that Santos told him all the same lies about himself, and that he packed up and left when he discovered the truth.

"A man who was 18 years old when he began dating and then moved in with George Santos — while the future congressman was married to a woman — says he was lied to, too," said the report. "'He used to say he would get money from Citigroup, he was an investor,' Pedro Vilarva told The New York Times of his 2014 romance with Santos, who was then 26. 'One day it’s one thing, one day it’s another thing. He never ever actually went to work.' Vilarva said Santos once gave him tickets to Hawaii that did not exist — and then he found out he was wanted on theft charges in Brazil."

This was apparently the last straw, because according to Vilarva, “I woke up in the morning, and I packed my stuff all in trash bags, and I called my father and I left.”

Santos' lies have triggered calls from Democratic officials for him to step down and not accept his congressional seat. Republican leaders have largely stayed silent, as House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has a razor-thin margin to give him 218 votes for Speaker, and presently already has too many defectors to win.

One of the largest and most potentially serious obfuscations from Santos is how he made his money; his investment consulting business, Devolder, has no listed clients, and he faced eviction from his New York apartment in 2016 for nonpayment of rent, but in 2022 he had $700,000 to loan his own campaign. Prosecutors have now opened an investigation into the matter.