Veteran Says George Santos Used Him And His Dying Dog For A Fundraising Scam

A disabled veteran has accused newly-elected Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) of fundraising for his service canine’s lifesaving surgical procedure after which disappearing with the cash, native information web site Patch reported Tuesday.

Richard Osthoff, a U.S. Navy veteran, advised Patch Santos conned him in 2016 whereas he was dwelling in a tent on the aspect of a freeway in Howell, New Jersey, together with his beloved canine Sapphire. Sapphire was recognized with a life-threatening abdomen tumor, and Osthoff was quoted $3,000 for the surgical procedure to take away it.

Based on Osthoff, a veterinary technician advised him he knew a man who may assist: Anthony Devolder, who ran Mates of Pets United, a pet charity.

Anthony Devolder is likely one of the names that Santos, whose full title is George Anthony Devolder Santos, used amongst an array of aliases, together with George Devolder and Anthony Zabrovsky.

George Santos has resisted calls to resign regardless of revelations he fabricated massive swaths of his resume on the marketing campaign path.

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The lawmaker faces a number of federal and native investigations after revelations that he fabricated a lot of his background, together with his training, work expertise and heritage. He's additionally being investigated for marketing campaign finance violations after allegedly misusing marketing campaign funds, mendacity about how his marketing campaign spent cash and hiding the origin of marketing campaign funds.

In December, The New York Occasions reported that, amongst different discrepancies within the resume Santos pitched to voters, there was little proof that his charity, Mates of Pets United, was a tax-exempt group like he claimed. The Inside Income Service apparently had no information of a registered charity with that title.

Osthoff and one other New Jersey veteran, retired police Sgt. Michael Boll, who was serving to Osthoff because the scenario advanced in 2016, advised Patch that Santos arrange a GoFundMe for Sapphire’s surgical procedure.

They claimed that when it reached $3,000, he closed it and have become more and more tough to contact.

In a July 2016 Fb publish, Osthoff thanked supporters for serving to him attain his fundraising objective. He shared a hyperlink to a since-deleted GoFundMe web page. The preview of the hyperlink exhibits that it was created “by Anthony Devolder.”

However, in keeping with Osthoff, when he tried to schedule Sapphire’s process, Santos then insisted Osthoff take Sapphire to a different vet clinic ― that he purportedly had a relationship with ― which mentioned it couldn’t function on the tumor. Santos then claimed he would take the cash raised for Sapphire and use it for “different canine,” Osthoff mentioned.

In a November 2016 Fb publish, Osthoff advised supporters that he had been “scammed by Anthony Devolder” and that Sapphire was dealing with euthanasia inside months, in keeping with a screenshot revealed by Patch.

Sapphire died the next yr.

Certainly one of Santos’ former roommates, Gregory Morey-Parker, was interviewed a number of occasions on CNN this week about Santos, who he mentioned he lived with for a couple of months in 2020.

Morey-Parker mentioned he knew Santos by two names: Anthony Devolder and Anthony Zabrovsky and he had “by no means recognized him as George Santos.” Based on Morey-Parker, Santos mentioned he used the title Zabrovsky for his pet charity as a result of he believed “the Jews will give extra when you’re a Jew.”

A spokesperson for Santos didn't instantly return a request for remark.