New Republican congressman George Santos made up his life story

Freshly-elected Republican George Santos claimed he had worked for two Wall Street banks, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and attended university. None of that was true.

George Santos described himself as the 'embodiment of the American Dream'. Picture: Wade Vandervort/Getty Images/The Times

A newly elected Republican congressman has admitted fabricating his education and work experience as he faces allegations that he lied on his CV to win his seat.

George Santos, 34, who prised New York’s third congressional district away from the Democrats to help give the Republicans a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, had claimed that he worked for two Wall Street banks and attended university. None of that was true.

Despite this, Santos insists he will take the oath of office to be sworn in to Congress next week.

On paper, Santos was the perfect candidate for Republicans to break into a Democratic stronghold. The self-proclaimed “embodiment of the American dream”, he claimed to be the gay son of Brazilian immigrants and that he was a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor” with a real estate portfolio of 13 properties.

Santos also claimed that he was Jewish and that his grandparents had “survived the Holocaust”.

If his glittering business career and emotive family history were not enough to clinch it for voters in the wealthy Democratic-leaning area of Long Island, Santos claimed he spent his spare time running an animal rescue charity he established called Pets United.

However, Santos’s story quickly began to unravel, forcing him to break his silence in an interview with the New York Post.

He admitted that he “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and that the fabrication had been down to a “poor choice of words”. He also confessed that he did not attend Baruch College, as he had claimed, nor any other university.

“I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he said. “We do stupid things in life.”

His claim that his grandparents were Ukrainian Jews who fled to Brazil to escape the Nazis also fell apart. The Forward, a Jewish news site, found that there were no records of Santos’s grandparents at the International Center on Nazi Persecution.

“I never claimed to be Jewish,” he backtracked to the Post. “I am Catholic. Because I learnt my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish’.” Pets United also appeared to be a figment of his imagination. The authorities have no record of a registered charity in that name.

Santos is also facing allegations that he lied about his sexuality after The Daily Beast reported that he had been married to a woman, whom he divorced in 2019. He now claims to be a happily married gay man. “I dated women in the past. I married a woman,” he told the Post. “People change.”

“I am not a criminal,” Santos insisted, claiming that the controversy should not prevent him from entering Congress. “This will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be good … My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry.”

Democrats demanded that Santos be barred from taking his seat and face an investigation. The Republican Jewish Coalition condemned the congressman-elect in a statement yesterday (Tuesday). “We are very disappointed in congressman-elect Santos. He deceived us.”

The Times