Santos Guilty; Bond Arrested - The Leader Told You So !

By Maureen Daly

Disgraced fraudster ex-Congressman George Santos pled "guilty" in federal Court last Monday, to a litany of felony frauds and crimes first brought public by this newspaper. Santos ran in 2022 for election in NY3 - which included Oyster Bay and North Hempstead.

This newspaper broke the Santos fraud story, by publishing three (3) stories before the 2022 elections, the first newspaper to identify Santos as a "fraudster" a "fabulist" and "a fake."

Santos was elected in the "Zeldin sweep" in November, 2022, but was expelled in December, 2023, by a historic 2/3 vote of the US House of Representatives, as his crimes and frauds were exposed.

Then last Friday, the FBI arrested another local ex-congressional candidate Michelle Bond, who ran in NY-1 (north shore Suffolk), and whom this newspaper exposed as a "crypto-fraud" whose real name is not even "Bond" but "Bogonja."

Bond was financed with some $5 million in stolen crypto currency by her boyfriend Ryan Salome and his partner Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF) of the crypto firm FTX.  Both Salame and SBF are now convicted criminal felons.

This newspaper - working with several other local papers - broke the story about Bond's frauds. Bond played a "James Bond" theme claiming "My name is Bond..." but the Leader denounced her instead as "an impostor" and "a Fem-Bot." - a fake "infiltrator."

According to the FBI, Bond's boyfriend Salame wired millions of stolen FTX dollars to her, which she then re-wired to her campaign.  Illegal "straw donations" - using other people's stolen money.

Santos was facing 23 felony counts of fraudulent federal campaign filings, identity theft, stealing money by unauthorized use of other people's credit cards, unemployment insurance fraud.  He pled guilty to two counts, but admitted to the other 21 counts, on the record before Judge Joanna Seybert, to having committed an elaborate scheme to file fake campaign reports, lie to donors, and take campaign money for his personal use.

Santos faces five (5) to eight (8) years in federal prison, as Judge Seybert explained the impact of the federal sentencing guidelines. He also has to repay $375,000 in stolen money. Sentencing will be in February.

Santos cried like a baby in Court, as he was forced to admit his crimes, but then marched outside to give a brazen "Press Conference" excusing his criminal behavior.

Santos was not charged with many crimes this newspaper has identified - including: Stealing charity money raised for disabled US Navy veteran Richard Osthoff for emergency surgery for his service dog; Stealing money through fake checks to Amish dog breeders in Pennsylvania; Running a credit card/ATM card fraud ring out of his Orlando, Florida apartment; and Running a "Ponzi Scheme" in Melbourne, Florida, stealing $18 million through a scam fund called "Harbor City Capital."

"I feel vindicated that this newspaper - the North Shore Leader - went out on a limb to expose Santos as a fraud - and we were completely alone - that now the entire world sees that what we said was true, and that Santos is now facing justice," stated Leader Publisher Grant Lally.

"Santos is a 20-year crime wave between his childhood home in Brazil and his adult years in America" stated one prominent news reporter from Brazil. 

Let's hope the Court imposes the maximum sentence to keep him in jail - and the rest of us safe.