Republican Rep. George Santos pleads innocent after the U.S. Secret Service received a declaration from a Brazilian man who claims that the GOP lawmaker was in charge of a "skimming operation."
The Secret Service is now reviewing the sworn declaration in the case that allegedly led to the Brazilian man's arrest in 2017 for the installation of skimmers at a Seattle bank ATM. The Republican lawmaker was interviewed in 2017 by investigators from the Secret Service.
George Santos' Involvement in Skimming Operation
A former deputy director of the Secret Service, A.T. Smith, said that the Brazilian man's declaration is a "significant" development in the case. The now-law enforcement analyst said that the declaration could be the jumpstart needed for a new inquiry into Santos' alleged criminal activities.
Smith added that the Secret Service would probably want to interview the individual again in a more personal matter and take a sworn statement themselves. In the document, the Brazilian man, identified as Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha, claimed that it was the Republican representative who taught him how to use skimmers in the first place, as per CBS News.
The skimmers are used to steal personal information from the cards that people insert into ATM machines. The Brazilian man said that Santos taught him how to use them at the time that they were roommates near Orlando, Florida.
In his declaration, Trelha wrote that he was a coward for coming forward to declare that the person in charge of the fraud scheme at the time that he was arrested was actually Santos and Anthony Devolder. The latter was a reference to a name that the Republican lawmaker used in the past.
The Brazilian man was arrested by law enforcement personnel at Seattle's Pike Place Market in 2017 and entered a guilty plea later that year to one federal count of felony access device fraud. He was then deported to his native Brazil.
A Slew of Controversies
On the other hand, Santos said that he was innocent of the allegation of being the mastermind behind the fraud scheme. He added that he did not do anything of criminal activity and has no mastermind event, according to CNN.
Trelha said that he and Santos agreed to a 50-50 split of proceeds from their fraud scheme. The Republican lawmaker on Friday said that he has already provided federal authorities with information in relation to the fraud probe in Seattle.
He noted that he cooperated with the Secret Service, the FBI, and everybody that asked for his assistance regarding the controversy. He has worked on distancing himself from the Brazilian man, denying that they were ever roommates and that he only met him a couple of times during his life.
The situation comes as Santos is facing calls to resign over a slew of issues, including lying about his historical background, and is in the middle of a House Ethics Committee investigation. Several constituents, watchdog groups, and Washington D.C. leaders have chastised him for his lies regarding his previous jobs and his religion, said ABC News.
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