A former Brazilian retailer clerk who was allegedly ripped off by Rep.-elect George Santos (RN.Y.) sympathized with those that voted for the incoming congressman in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, calling Santos a “skilled liar.”
“I used to be very pissed off,” Bruno Simões instructed CNN of assembly Santos virtually 15 years in the past. “Being cheated on is a horrible feeling.”
Santos allegedly visited the shop the place Simões labored in 2008 and paid for greater than $1,300 value of merchandise with two stolen checks, in accordance with CNN.
When the checks had been revealed to be fraudulent, Simões mentioned the shop proprietor demanded that he pay him again in full, although his boss would ultimately waive a part of the bills.
“Not like being mugged by somebody with a gun who robs you, you may get offended, however being cheated, being cheated, somebody appearing in unhealthy religion to rob you, for me it is a good worse feeling,” Simões mentioned.
Santos confessed to utilizing the solid checks in a social media message to Simões in 2009 and in a press release to Brazilian police in 2010, in accordance with CNN. Regardless of acknowledging that he “tousled,” Simões mentioned Santos by no means paid him.
The investigation into the incident has remained on maintain for greater than a decade as police had been beforehand unable to find Santos. Nonetheless, Brazilian authorities just lately mentioned they’d reopened the case, as Santos’s location turned recognized amid scrutiny over his background.
After a New York Occasions report raised questions on his resume, Santos admitted final week to mendacity about his academic {and professional} background. Regardless of earlier claims of him, Santos by no means attended Baruch School and didn’t work for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup.
Santos has additionally come underneath fireplace for claiming to be a “proud American Jew,” after clarifying that he religiously identifies as Catholic.
The incoming Lengthy Island congressman is at present additionally going through investigations from the Nassau County District Legal professional and the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Jap District of New York.
Simões instructed CNN it was a “combination of shock and a comic book scene” to search out out that Santos had been elected to america Congress.
“I noticed his photograph and I remembered very clearly the images I had seen of him when he was 19 years outdated. I mentioned: ‘How is it attainable for a legal, an embezzler, to be elected deputy?’ For me that was superb,” he mentioned.
The previous retailer clerk added that plainly Santos “has not realized and continues to be investing on this race of fraud, falsification of data and lies.”
“Some folks make errors and remorse it, and others appear by no means to remorse it and find yourself residing their total lives as a fraud,” Simões mentioned. “I believe that is the case with George.”
Nonetheless, Santos has just lately denied wrongdoing within the Brazilian case.
“I’m not a legal right here, neither right here nor in Brazil nor in any jurisdiction on this planet,” he instructed the New York Publish in an interview final week. “Completely not. That did not occur.”