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The admission is part of an agreement requested by Santos’ attorney in January 2022 and accepted by Brazilian prosecutors that ensures he won’t be prosecuted for the crime, according to the outlet.
It states that the freshman Republican lawmaker, whose 3rd District represents parts of Nassau County and Queens, agrees to confess to the fraud and pay damages to the Rio de Janeiro area clerk, CNN reports.
Santos’ confession comes months after he told the New York Post that he was not wanted in Brazil, saying, “I am not a criminal here - not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world. Absolutely not. That didn’t happen,” he told the outlet.
According to CNN, in 2010 Santos told police he had written bad checks from a stolen checkbook belonging to an elderly man his mother cared for to buy the clothing and shoes.
He had not publicly addressed the settlement as of Friday, March 24.
Santos has come under fire since assuming office after admitting that he lied about much of his background in the lead up to the November 2022 midterm elections, including where he previously worked and went to school.
Appearing on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on the United Kingdom's TalkTV, Monday night, Feb. 20, Santos said he had to lie about his background in order to get his party’s backing.
“I’ve been a terrible liar on those subjects,” Santos told Morgan. “What I tried to convey to the American people is I made mistakes of allowing the pressures of what I thought and needed to be done in order to … this wasn’t about tricking anybody.”
“Yes it was,” Morgan replied. “The whole thing was about tricking people.”
Santos then claimed “it wasn’t about tricking the people; this was about getting accepted by the party here locally.”
Morgan later asked Santos why he thought he would get away with such blatant lies, which included false claims that he graduated from Baruch College and worked as a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor.”
"To run for Congress of the United States and to just tell blatant lies about even your academic record – I’m just struck, not necessarily that a politician would lie, but that you would think no one would find out," Morgan said.
"Well, I’ll humor you this. I ran in 2020 for the same exact seat for Congress and I got away with it then," Santos said.
"So you thought, actually, that they’re not going to find out?" Morgan asked.
"No, I didn’t think so," Santos replied. "But to that effect, it’s embarrassing, it’s humbling to have to admit your faults as a human being."
Santos is facing numerous investigations into his personal and campaign finances, including from the House Ethics Committee, the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, and the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Click here for the full report from CNN.
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