A person convicted of bank card skimming in 2017 has named Rep. George Santos because the ringleader
A Brazilian man convicted of skimming ATMs has named embattled US Congressman George Santos because the mastermind behind the fraud ring. Santos, then going by the identify Anthony Devolder, was “the individual accountable for the crime of bank card fraud after I was arrested,” Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha claimed in a letter to the FBI, printed by Politico on Friday.
“Santos taught me how one can skim card data and how one can clone playing cards. He gave me all of the supplies and taught me how one can put skimming units and cameras on ATM machines,” Trelha wrote within the sworn assertion despatched on Wednesday. He was given a crash course in ATM-skimming upon renting a room from Santos in 2016 and was flown out to Seattle to work, splitting the earnings 50-50 with Santos, he claimed.
Trelha was quickly caught and obtained a go to from Santos, who allegedly informed him to not implicate him within the scheme and “threatened” his mates again in Florida. Trelha was deported again to Brazil in 2018 after serving a seven-month sentence.
New York Republican Santos vouched for Trelha throughout a 2017 bail listening to, figuring out himself as a “household buddy” who “labored for Goldman Sachs” – a declare since revealed to be false – and volunteering to set his protege up with lodging, in keeping with court docket information seen by Politico.
Nevertheless, Trelha claimed that not solely did Santos fail to safe his launch from jail, however he truly stole the $20,000 Trelha had already collected for bail by promising to rent him the lawyer utilized by Mexican drug lord El Chapo and disappearing with the funds.
Trelha stated he didn’t initially identify Santos as a co-conspirator out of concern that his mates in Florida can be deported. Santos, who informed a buddy he was an “informant” in Trelha’s case, did quit an inventory of names concerned within the ATM skimming ring, in keeping with a former buddy who claims to have spoken to Seattle police detective Lawrence Meyer – though Politico couldn’t attain Meyer for remark.
Whereas Santos has admitted he “embellished” his gleaming resume, fabricating an academic, occupational, and even ethnic historical past supposedly extra befitting a congressman, he maintains his innocence on all felony fees regardless of federal, state, native, and even worldwide investigations open in opposition to him.
He was by no means formally recognized as a suspect within the 2017 fraud investigation, although he was repeatedly interviewed and the case stays open, insider sources informed CBS final month.
You may share this story on social media:
