NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced former congressman George Santos has requested a New York choose to delay his sentencing on federal fraud expenses till the summer season so he can repay greater than half 1,000,000 {dollars} in fines by making extra episodes of his not too long ago launched podcast “Pants on Fire.”
However prosecutors, of their response Tuesday, dismissed the New York Republican’s guarantees of a monetary boon as “extremely speculative” and derided this system’s title as a “tone-deaf and unrepentant reference to the crimes he committed.”
Additionally they forged doubt on his declare of getting little greater than $1,000 in liquid belongings as they argued for the sentencing to proceed as scheduled on Feb. 7.
Prosecutors say the 36-year-old Santos has earned greater than $400,000 from appearances on Cameo, the video-sharing web site, and one other $400,000 from a brand new documentary since he was expelled from the U.S. Home in December 2023. Santos was simply the sixth Home member within the chamber’s historical past to be ousted by colleagues.
His earnings, prosecutors mentioned, come on high of the roughly $174,000 taxpayer-funded wage he obtained throughout his 11-month stint on Capitol Hill.
“His letter fails to provide any accounting of his current financial condition; fails to offer any explanation of his dissipation of assets (including personal spending) in the months since his guilty plea,” prosecutors wrote.
Lawyers for Santos didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
Elected in 2022, Santos was a once rising Republican star for flipping a wealthy New York district covering parts of Queens and Long Island.
However his life story unraveled even earlier than taking workplace, together with his claims of a profession at high Wall Avenue corporations and having a university diploma debunked amid questions about how he funded his marketing campaign.
In August, he pleaded responsible to wire fraud and aggravated identification theft, admitting that he duped voters, deceived donors and stole the identities of almost a dozen individuals, together with his circle of relatives members, to make donations to his marketing campaign.
At the time, Santos blamed ambition for clouding his judgment and said he was “flooded with deep regret.” He faces a mandatory minimum two-year sentence for the identity theft charge and a maximum of 22 years in prison.
As part of a deal negotiated with prosecutors, Santos agreed to pay nearly $580,000 in fines, including nearly $375,000 in restitution and $205,000 in forfeiture.
But on Friday, his lawyers asked the judge to postpone the sentencing until August, noting he’s required to pay the forfeiture 30 days before his court date.
They said the weekly podcast he announced shortly after pleading guilty represents a “promising revenue stream,” but, due to “technical and logistical impediments,” wasn’t launched until Dec. 15.
“Mr. Santos now has a viable path to making meaningful progress in satisfying his obligations, requiring only additional time for the quarterly compensation structure to generate sufficient funds,” his lawyers wrote.
Prosecutors however, countered that Santos’ request provides no details about the venture’s predicted financial returns.
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They said his compensation, based on a report from the probation department, will likely consist of 50% of net profits, to be paid within 90 days of the end of each calendar quarter — an arrangement that’s “highly unlikely to net Santos enough money to satisfy his restitution and forfeiture obligations by August.”
Prosecutors also cautioned that granting the delay would “create a perverse incentive structure,” in which defendants who capitalized on their “notoriety and criminality” were rewarded.
“Put differently, allowing Santos to stave off sentencing specifically to monetize his infamy would send a message to the public that crime pays,” they wrote.
