A Texas man is accused of scheming to cheat former congressman George Santos out of hundreds of thousands of dollars under the false pretense of getting the criminal corruption charges against the disgraced congressman dropped. The man was arrested on March 6.
According to federal prosecutors, Hector Medina of El Paso solicited a wire transfer from Mr. Santos, who was still in office at the time, under a fake identity. In return, he promised Mr. Santos, who is facing a slew of corruption charges, that he could use his connections to judges to clear the congressman of the charges.
So far, nothing suggests that Mr. Santos, who was expelled from the House in December, took Mr. Medina up on his alleged offer.
Court documents show the allegations against Mr. Medina to be far less complex than the charges against Mr. Santos, who stands accused of defrauding campaign donors, lying to Congress about his wealth, committing unemployment benefits fraud, embezzling campaign contributions to finance personal luxury items, and using some of his campaign donors’ credit cards to make unauthorized payments.
Federal agents said Mr. Medina appeared on the radar in the summer of last year when he started pestering Mr. Santos with text messages and other communication. In the messages, Mr. Medina made multiple claims, such as being able to get charges against Mr. Santos dropped and any evidence against him removed.
According to federal agents, one text message showed Mr. Medina requesting $900,000 via bank transfer from Mr. Santos, in which he further assured Mr. Santos that he was “the real deal.”
According to prosecutors, Mr. Santos was not the only prominent figure targeted by Mr. Medina. Mr. Medina, who also used the alias Michael Soto, had previously approached multiple well-known persons who were subject to similar and other criminal charges.
Authorities said Mr. Medina, who now faces a wire fraud charge, told prosecutors that he was aware that his intention to defraud Mr. Santos and others was wrong but claimed that he needed the money to pay off $100,000 in gambling debts. If convicted of the charge, Mr. Medina could face up to 20 years in prison.
Meanwhile, Mr. Santos is also potentially looking at a long prison sentence if convicted. The criminal charges brought against him in a revised indictment in October, following his initial indictment in May, include multiple fraud charges and carry a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison.
Mr. Santos pleaded not guilty to the charges and is due back in court for a pre-trial conference in August. His former House seat was filled by Democrat Tom Suozzi in a special election called by New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul last month.
Mr. Santos is separately suing several media and entertainment outlets, as well as late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, over alleged copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment in relation to videos of Mr. Santos having been used without his authorization on Kimmel’s show, Newsmax reported.
In the lawsuit, Mr. Santos alleged that Mr. Kimmel deceived him into making videos on Cameo, an app that allows for personalized messages from celebrities. The videos were then allegedly used to ridicule the New York Republican on Mr. Kimmel’s show.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
