Former US Representative
Santos, 36, was sentenced Friday in Central Islip, New York, by US District Judge
The former lawmaker, who wiped away tears as he was sentenced, was in Congress for less than a year. He was
As part of his plea agreement, Santos confessed to taking part in a wide range of conduct, including filing bogus reports with the Federal Election Commission, embezzling campaign funds, charging credit cards without authorization and fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits.
Prosecutor Ryan Harris said the government investigation concluded Santos had engaged in five separate frauds at the same time, and that some of the victims he stole money from were handicapped or elderly.
‘Fraudster’
“He rose to one of the highest offices in the land on a wave of lies,” Harris told the judge. “His campaign for Congress didn’t turn him into a fraudster. It simply revealed him for what he already was.”
The prosecutor also said Santos had remained unrepentant and had refused to take responsibility for his crimes in comments he’d posted on social media.
“Where is your remorse?” Seybert told the former lawmaker at Friday’s hearing. “Mr Santos, words have consequences. You got elected by your words, which were lies. Truth be damned.”
Santos’ lawyers sought a mandatory minimum term of 24 months, arguing that his crimes were non-violent. They also asked that he be placed in a federal prison in the northeast US, where he could get mental health treatment.
Before he was sentenced, Santos asked the judge for mercy. “I offer my deepest apologies,” he said. “I ask the court to let me prove that I can still contribute positively to the community I have wronged.”
In his own three-page letter to the judge, Santos argued that others had received lesser prison terms for their crimes, including former Illinois Congressman
‘Anvil on My Head’
“Saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head,” Santos wrote in an April 19 letter. “If I were the criminal mastermind they portray, I would be the clumsiest in modern memory: leaving a trail of screen shots pointing directly back to myself.”
At the time he pleaded guilty, the former congressman, who lied about working at Goldman Sachs and
But prosecutors said Santos has failed to make any payments by a court-ordered deadline, even though he’s earned more $400,000 selling personalized videos on Cameo. On Friday, the judge ordered Santos to pay more than $373,000 in restitution to his victims “due immediately.”
Santos’ brief political career began to unwind following revelations that he’d lied about his resume and much of his life story when making his pitch to voters in New York’s 3rd congressional district, a string of bedroom communities in Queens and Nassau County on Long Island that’s among the wealthiest districts in the US.
In a 2023 indictment, prosecutors said he solicited contributions to a shell company that operated as an illegal super-PAC, and stole the personal and financial information of contributors to his campaign. The US also said he claimed unemployment benefits he was not entitled to and failed to properly disclose sources of income.
The case is US v. Devolder Santos,
(Updates with statement from Santos. An earlier version corrected a reference to case of former Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.)
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