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More George Santos Acquaintances Come Forward With Theft Allegations
Santos left a trail of lies and alleged thefts in Brazil and NY, sources say. Now 10 victims are comparing notes in a group chat.
ELMHURST, NY — "Lies have short legs" is a Brazilian saying that means the truth will always win. As newly sworn-in Long Island Rep. George Santos' life story of lies and background fabrications unfolded in the media over the last month, the idiom also became the name of a WhatsApp group text, where 10 former friends, acquaintances and coworkers of Santos bond and process the constant new revelations in the news, and share their own tales of knowing the 34-year-old Republican congressman.
Santos faces multiple criminal investigations in the U.S. and Brazil, and this week, more calls for his finances and campaign disclosures to be looked at by the FEC and House Ethics Committee.
The group members live in Brazil, Florida and New York. They include friends he met while living in New York, roommates who felt scammed by their tenant arrangements with him, and a Brazilian woman who once took Santos in when he needed a place to stay and food to eat, until eventually, she told Patch, "he stole my life."
They knew Santos at different times of his life, and often under different variations of his name. But they all said they’ve been lied to, and most also suspect Santos stole from them. Four people told Patch that when they asked Santos if he had stolen items or money from them, he blamed another friend or relative.
Now, they are comparing notes to work out the complicated timeline of truth themselves, in a fast-moving Portuguese group chat, where they share memories and marvel at the news stories coming out about George Santos, The Politician.
Adriana Damaisceno Parizzi Correia met Santos' mother Fatima Devolder while playing Bingo in 2008 in Niterói, Brazil, near Rio de Janeiro. Devolder's son, whom she called Anthony, joined his mother and sister in 2010 in Brazil, after being raised by his paternal aunt in New York for most of his childhood, Correia told Patch from Brazil, speaking through her daughter Bruna Parizzi as a translator.
Correia felt sympathetic toward Devolder — "she didn't have any money" — so she offered Santos a place to stay, fed him and even gave him money so he could return to New York in February 2011. He wasn't working at the time, Parizzi said, adding that she believed he wasn’t interested in finding a job.
Then Devolder told her Santos “was in a little bit of trouble,” but nothing serious, and needed money to leave Brazil for New York in 2011. It wasn't until December 2022 that she learned, while watching television, that Santos and his mother admitted to Brazilian police in November 2010 that he stole checks from an elderly man's checkbook and tried to buy clothes with them.
Correia moved to New York with her family in 2011. Santos traveled with them and moved in with them in Jackson Heights, Queens — "My mom paid for everything," including his flight, Parizzi said.
Then, Correia noticed cash she had in the apartment began to disappear. When she asked Santos about it, he blamed one of his cousins.
In 2014, Correia and her family briefly moved into an apartment
Anthony shared with a boyfriend in Whitestone. Santos told her the
neighborhood was very dangerous, and he should hold her jewelry for her.
"My mom believed him," Parizzi told Patch. "He is like soap — he gets out of everything."
When they moved out and Correia asked for the jewelry back, she also believed him that he would eventually return it. He never did, the two women said.
The New York Times talked to another former friend, who said Santos never repaid a 2014 loan he received to move in with a boyfriend. The case wound up in small claims court a year later. The ex-boyfriend he moved in with told the Times that he believed Santos stole his cell phone and pawned it in 2015.
Between Correia's two experiences in 2011 and 2014, two more people who encountered Santos told Patch their possessions also turned up missing.
Yasser Rabello befriended Santos at a movie theater in 2012. When Rabello needed a place to stay, the "very charismatic" Santos offered him a room to rent in the Jackson Heights apartment.
"He had a way that he was so convincing, he made us believe everything he said," Rabello explained.
Rabello, new to New York,
wanted friends to show him around, and the two were both
Brazilian-American. But Rabello said Santos failed to partition a large
living room in Santos’ two-bedroom apartment as they’d agreed upon.
He arrived at the apartment in December 2012 after paying a security deposit and a month of rent, but didn't see the partition. Santos told him he began work on it, but neighbors complained about the noise.
"I could clearly see [he] didn’t measure or do anything, there was no mark, no dust, nothing left behind," he said.
So Rabello moved into one of the two bedrooms, while Santos slept in the living room. The living conditions became even tighter when a second roommate arrived in January 2013, he said. Morey-Parker slept on a mattress in the living room, Rabello said.
Gregory Morey-Parker, who told Patch last week that he was "confident" Fatima Devolder was not a 9/11 survivor, as Santos later claimed, was the second roommate.
Rabello quickly moved out of the Jackson Heights apartment because of the cramped conditions and other tensions with the family.
"After I moved out I realized I was missing a very expensive Armani dress shirt, as well," Rabello recounted.
He never confronted Santos because he preferred to just cut off contact, he said.
"He didn't ever have a cell phone — he used to call me from all different numbers and finally I blocked him [on Facebook.]"
Rabello told Patch, and Morey-Parker confirmed, that they both believed Santos stole a Burberry shirt from Morey-Parker, a harbinger of a worse theft to come.
Morey-Parker said he later spotted the $500 Burberry
shirt he believed Santos stole from him on Santos' Instagram account,
after he announced his 2020 run for Congress.
In 2014, Morey-Parker told Patch he noticed three checks were stolen out of his E*Trade checkbook, and bounced after being written for $10,000 each. Santos blamed Rabello, and Morey-Parker messaged Rabello to ask if he was the culprit.
"I told him, I am not even living there, it doesn’t make sense," said Rabello, who added he was living in Florida by that time.
"I said it's totally Anthony, we both know he's capable of it."
Morey-Parker told Patch he forgot about the bounced checks, until he read recent headlines about his old roommate. He told Patch he called E*Trade last week and is following up with the company to find documentation of the bounced checks.
Santos and his family were later evicted from that Jackson Heights apartment for not paying rent, court records obtained by the New York Times show.
After Correia began to suspect Santos lied about the cash and the jewelry, she stopped speaking to Santos and his family members. Her family lost track of what happened to him until December 2022, when Santos' face was on every newspaper and news channel, after revelations broke that he fabricated most of the resume and biography.
The mother and daughter, along with Morey-Parker and Rabello, talked to Globo TV in Brazil about their experiences with Santos on Monday. Globo TV was a company Santos told friends he worked for, Rabello said, after he left Dish Network.
Patch’s repeated requests for comment to both Santos and his attorney have not been returned.
Parizzi said she can't believe Santos is now a sworn-in American congressman.
"It's a shame that he is a representative. He is someone who does not represent America — We know that American people are not like him."
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