George Santos Facing Fresh GoFundMe Allegations

New York Republican George Santos, who was found to have fabricated key details of his biography during his campaign trail in 2022, is now facing fresh allegations linked to crowdfunding platform GoFundMe.

Richard Osthoff, a disabled veteran from New Jersey, told Patch in an article published on Tuesday that, in 2016, Santos, who was then running a pet charity, helped him raise thousands of dollars for his dog and then disappeared with the money.

At the time, Osthoff was living in a tent in a chicken coop on the side of Route 9 in Howell with his service dog Sapphire. The pit bull mix needed $3,000 surgery for a life-threatening stomach tumor.

The veteran told Patch that a veterinary technician told him he knew someone running a pet charity—Friends of Pets United—who could help him with the expenses. That man was George Santos, who was then using the name of Anthony Devolder, his two middle names.

According to Osthoff, Santos launched a GoFundMe appeal to help raise money for Sapphire, but once the campaign reached $3,000, the newly elected Long Island congressman disappeared and stopped answering the veteran's texts and calls.

Osthoff said that Santos asked him to bring Sapphire for surgery at a veterinarian in New York, who eventually said they could not operate on the dog. After that didn't work, Santos became elusive, according to Osthoff, and eventually told him that he was going to allocate the funds raised to other dogs. Sapphire died in January 2017.

Another fresh allegation against the New York Republican was made on Tuesday by his former roommate Gregory Morey-Parker, who told CNN's Anderson Cooper that Santos used the fake Jewish name of Anthony Zebrosky to raise money for his fake pet charity GoFundMe page because he thought "Jews will give more if you're a Jew."

Morey-Parker said that he knew Santos by two names, Anthony Devolder—the one mentioned by Osthoff—and Anthony Zebrosky. The man, who told CNN he lived with Santos for only a few months, also accused the newly elected congressman of stealing a scarf from him, which he then wore to the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.

The allegations from Osthoff and Morey-Parker are the latest in a series of revelations made by reporters, friends and colleagues about the New York Republican, exposing a web of lies spun by Santos during his campaign.

After a New York Times investigation revealed his résumé to be filled with discrepancies, falsehoods and misleading statements, Santos admitted to "résumé embellishments" and apologized to anyone who might have been "disappointed" by his behavior.

However, despite confessing that, among other falsehoods, he didn't graduate from Baruch College in 2010 or work for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs as he had stated, he said that "a lot of people overstate their résumés," adding that he was "not a fraud."

Several Republicans—including Anthony D'Esposito, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams—have called for Santos to resign following the discovery of his fictional résumé, but the congressman has so far refused to quit.

"I was elected to serve the people of [the New York third district] not the party and politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living," he tweeted on January 11.

"I will NOT resign!"

Santos is under investigation in New York and in Brazil, where he's accused of having stolen a check book in 2008.