George Anthony Devolder Santos is a former American politician who represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for less than a year. Elected as a Republican in November 2022, he entered Congress in January 2023 but was expelled on December 1, 2023, after a House Ethics Committee investigation found substantial evidence that he had violated federal law, House rules and ethical standards. The House’s official historical record identifies his congressional service as January 3 to December 1, 2023.
Santos became nationally known not only because of his brief political career but also because extensive investigations uncovered numerous false claims about his education, employment, finances, family history and personal background. The House Ethics Committee concluded that his campaigns had been built around a backstory that included claims of degrees from Baruch College and New York University, employment at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, substantial family wealth and Jewish ancestry, none of which investigators found to be supported.
His legal problems continued after his expulsion. Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and was sentenced in April 2025 to 87 months in federal prison, with restitution of $373,749.97 and forfeiture of $205,002.97. President Donald Trump commuted his sentence on October 17, 2025, allowing him to leave prison after roughly three months.
George Santos Profile Summary
| Profile | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | George Anthony Devolder Santos |
| Date of Birth | July 22, 1988 |
| Age | 38 in 2026 |
| Birthplace | Queens, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Religion | Catholic |
| Political Party | Republican |
| Former Office | U.S. Representative for New York’s 3rd Congressional District |
| Congressional Service | January 3, 2023 – December 1, 2023 |
| Spouse | Matheus Gerard |
| Height | Approximately 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in), not authoritatively verified |
| Known For | Former congressman, fabricated biographical claims, federal fraud conviction |
| Prison Sentence | 87 months |
| Sentence Commutation | October 17, 2025 |
| 2026 Television Appearance | Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Season 5 |
| Formerly associated with personal/public accounts, current status unclear | |
| Net Worth | Not publicly established |
George Santos Early Life
George Anthony Devolder Santos was born on July 22, 1988. Public records and biographical reporting place his family background in Queens and identify his parents as Brazilian immigrants. His mother was Fatima A. Devolder, who died in December 2016. Santos later built several elements of his public biography around his family’s immigrant experience and alleged Jewish ancestry, claims that became the subject of extensive investigation after his election to Congress.
Santos grew up in New York and eventually entered Republican politics through local party organizations and campaign activity. Before winning elected office, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress in New York’s 3rd Congressional District in 2020. He ran again in 2022 after the district’s political circumstances changed, ultimately defeating Democrat Robert Zimmerman. Official election results recorded Santos with 145,824 votes, or 53.74 percent, to Zimmerman’s 125,404 votes.
His personal biography became a central part of his political campaign. Santos presented himself as a financially successful professional with an impressive educational and Wall Street background. After his election, however, journalists and investigators found that many of these claims were false or unsupported. The House Ethics Committee later concluded that the biography he presented to voters contained extensive fabrications.
George Santos Education
Santos claimed during his political career that he had attended and graduated from Baruch College with a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance and later earned an MBA from New York University. Investigations found no evidence that he graduated from either institution. Santos himself acknowledged in 2022 that he had not graduated from college.
He also claimed to have attended the prestigious Horace Mann School in New York. The school said it had no record of him attending. His campaign biography was subsequently changed, removing or altering elements of the educational story that had previously been presented publicly.
As a result, there is no verified college degree that can be attributed to Santos. His education became one of the most prominent examples of the discrepancies between the biography he presented during his political career and the records later examined by journalists and congressional investigators.
George Santos Career
George Santos entered electoral politics as a Republican candidate for New York’s 3rd Congressional District in 2020. He lost that election to Democratic incumbent Tom Suozzi, but returned for another campaign in 2022. After Suozzi chose not to seek reelection to the seat, Santos won the Republican nomination and defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in the November general election.
Santos took office on January 3, 2023, becoming the first openly gay Republican elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District. His congressional career, however, was quickly overshadowed by questions about his biography and finances. Within weeks of his election, major news organizations had reported discrepancies involving his education, employment history, family background and financial claims.
Among the claims investigated were assertions that Santos had worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Both companies said they had no record of employing him. He had also presented himself as having a degree from Baruch College and an MBA from New York University, neither of which was supported by school records.
His claims about his family’s history also came under scrutiny. Santos had described his grandparents as Jewish Holocaust survivors and said his mother had been working in the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Immigration records examined by The Washington Post indicated that his mother was not in the United States on September 11 and had stated on a 2003 visa application that she had not been in the country since 1999.
The controversy expanded into questions about Santos’s campaign finances. The House Ethics Committee’s investigative subcommittee found substantial evidence that he knowingly caused false or incomplete Federal Election Commission reports to be filed, used campaign funds for personal purposes, engaged in fraudulent conduct involving RedStone Strategies and violated financial disclosure requirements.
The House voted to expel Santos on December 1, 2023, making him only the sixth member in U.S. House history to be expelled by a vote of the chamber. The official House historical record states that the expulsion followed findings concerning false or incomplete FEC reports, personal use of campaign funds, fraudulent conduct and violations of the Ethics in Government Act.
Santos subsequently faced federal criminal proceedings. In August 2024, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. According to the Justice Department, he admitted to filing fraudulent campaign-finance reports, embezzling campaign funds, charging donors’ credit cards without authorization, stealing identities, fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits and lying in reports to the House.
On April 25, 2025, Santos was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison. The court also ordered him to pay nearly $374,000 in restitution and more than $205,000 in forfeiture.
President Donald Trump commuted Santos’s sentence on October 17, 2025. The House’s historical record confirms the commutation, while contemporary reporting stated that Santos was released after serving approximately three months of his sentence.
After his release, Santos began pursuing media opportunities and public appearances. In 2026, he joined the cast of Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. The fifth season premiered on September 24, 2026, with Santos among 15 celebrity recruits undertaking military-style challenges in Malaysia.
George Santos Trending: Why Is George Santos Famous?
George Santos is trending in late September 2026 for two major reasons: his lifetime ban from Kalshi and his appearance on Season 5 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
On August 31, 2026, Kalshi permanently banned Santos from its prediction-market platform and imposed a $71,356 penalty. Kalshi said its compliance investigation found reasonable cause to believe he had engaged in insider trading connected to wagers concerning his attendance at President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address. Santos also faced action from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over the episode.
The Kalshi incident attracted attention because Santos had allegedly placed bets related to whether he would attend the State of the Union while possessing information about his own attendance. Reuters reported that he made statements on social media that benefited his wagers and ultimately earned nearly $18,000 from the trades.
At the same time, Santos is appearing on the fifth season of Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. The season premiered September 24, 2026, with Santos among the celebrity recruits sent to Malaysia to undertake demanding challenges modeled on special-forces selection exercises.
His appearance has generated additional attention because it follows his brief period in federal prison. In interviews before the premiere, Santos discussed the experience and said the Special Forces course was even harder for him than prison. During the premiere, the show’s directing staff also questioned him about his criminal case and the lies surrounding his political career.
George Santos Personal Life
George Santos has been married to Matheus Gerard, whom he has described as his husband. Santos said the couple married in November 2021. Gerard has generally maintained a much lower public profile than Santos and has largely stayed outside the political controversies surrounding his husband.
Santos’s family history became an unusually prominent part of his political story because of claims he made about his ancestry and his mother’s experience during the September 11 attacks. He said his family had Jewish roots and that his grandparents had escaped persecution in Europe, but genealogical reporting found that his maternal grandparents were born in Brazil. Santos later said that he was Catholic and described himself as “Jew-ish” because of what he believed about his maternal family background.
His claims about his mother also became a major source of controversy. Santos repeatedly said she had been working in the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks and later died from cancer connected to the attacks. Immigration records showed that she was not in the United States at the time, contradicting the account he had publicly presented.
George Santos Age, Religion, Nationality, Height and Physical Appearance
George Santos was born on July 22, 1988, making him 38 years old in 2026. The U.S. House Office of the Historian confirms his date of birth and identifies him as a former Republican representative from New York.
Santos was raised Catholic and has publicly identified himself as Catholic. His statements about Jewish ancestry became controversial because he alternated between describing himself as Catholic and making various claims about Jewish heritage. Investigations found that his claims of Jewish ancestry and Holocaust-survivor family history were not supported by the genealogical evidence examined by journalists.
He is American and has Brazilian family roots through his parents. Santos is generally listed at around 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 metres), although this measurement is not strongly documented by an authoritative source. During his congressional career, he was frequently photographed wearing glasses, suits and crewneck sweaters, which became part of his recognizable public appearance.
George Santos Net Worth
George Santos’s exact current net worth is not publicly established. During his congressional campaign, he presented himself as financially successful and claimed to have substantial assets and income. The House Ethics Committee found that several of the financial representations in his campaign biography and congressional disclosures were false or unsupported.
His financial position was also affected by his federal conviction. His 2025 sentence included $373,749.97 in restitution and $205,002.97 in forfeiture. He also faced legal expenses connected to his criminal cases and congressional investigations.
Some online sources have published various estimates of Santos’s wealth, but there is no reliable current figure that can be treated as authoritative. Given his documented financial liabilities and the lack of a verified asset statement, his current net worth is best described as unknown rather than assigning a specific dollar amount.
George Santos Legacy
George Santos’s short congressional career became an unusual case study in the importance of verifying political biographies. Investigations uncovered false or unsupported claims involving his education, employment, finances, family history and personal background. The House Ethics Committee’s findings and his subsequent criminal conviction created a record extending well beyond the less-than-one-year period he spent in Congress.
His expulsion from the House in December 2023 was particularly significant because congressional expulsion is an exceptionally rare disciplinary measure. The official House record states that he was expelled after the chamber acted on findings involving campaign-finance reporting, personal use of campaign funds, fraudulent conduct and ethics-law violations.
By 2026, Santos’s public identity had shifted from former congressman to convicted former politician and media personality. His appearance on Special Forces and his lifetime ban from Kalshi have continued to generate public attention, while his federal conviction and congressional expulsion remain the defining events of his political career.
Conclusion
George Santos is a former Republican U.S. representative whose political career lasted less than a year but produced an unusually extensive public record of controversy, congressional investigation and criminal proceedings. After winning New York’s 3rd Congressional District in 2022, he was expelled from the House in December 2023 following an Ethics Committee investigation into false financial reports, misuse of campaign funds and other violations. He later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and received an 87-month federal sentence, which President Donald Trump commuted in October 2025. In 2026, Santos returned to public attention through his appearance on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test and his lifetime ban from Kalshi following an investigation into prediction-market trading. His story remains closely associated with the consequences of inaccurate political biographies, campaign-finance misconduct and the criminal justice system.
Frequently Asked Questions About George Santos
Who is George Santos?
George Santos is a former Republican U.S. representative from New York who served in Congress from January to December 2023 before being expelled.
How old is George Santos?
George Santos is 38 years old in 2026. He was born on July 22, 1988.
Why was George Santos expelled from Congress?
Santos was expelled after a House Ethics Committee investigation found substantial evidence that he violated federal law, House rules and ethical standards, including filing false or incomplete campaign-finance reports and using campaign funds for personal purposes.
What crimes did George Santos plead guilty to?
He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in August 2024. He also admitted to other fraudulent conduct as part of his plea agreement.
How long was George Santos sentenced to prison?
He was sentenced to 87 months, or seven years and three months, in federal prison in April 2025.
Did Donald Trump commute George Santos’s sentence?
Yes. President Donald Trump commuted Santos’s federal sentence on October 17, 2025, and Santos was subsequently released from prison.
Is George Santos on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test?
Yes. Santos is one of the celebrity recruits on Season 5 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, which premiered on Fox on September 24, 2026.
Why was George Santos banned from Kalshi?
Kalshi permanently banned Santos on August 31, 2026, after its compliance investigation found reasonable cause to believe he engaged in insider trading related to bets concerning his attendance at the 2026 State of the Union address. The company also imposed a $71,356 penalty.
Did George Santos really attend college?
No verified college degree has been established. Santos claimed he graduated from Baruch College and earned an MBA from New York University, but investigations found no evidence supporting those claims. He later acknowledged that he had not graduated from college.
Did George Santos work for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup?
There is no evidence that he worked directly for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup. Both companies said they had no record of his employment, and Santos eventually acknowledged that he had not worked directly for them.
Was George Santos’s mother at the World Trade Center on 9/11?
Immigration records indicate that Santos’s mother was not in the United States on September 11, 2001, contradicting his public claim that she had been working in the World Trade Center that day.
Is George Santos Jewish?
Santos was raised Catholic and has identified himself as Catholic. He also made various claims about Jewish ancestry, including describing himself as “Jew-ish,” but genealogical reporting found that his maternal grandparents were born in Brazil and did not substantiate the Holocaust-survivor family history he had presented.
Who is George Santos’s husband?
George Santos’s husband is Matheus Gerard. Santos has said they married in November 2021.