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George Santos invented much of his resume

Photo: Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty Images

George Santos has been kicked out of the US Congress for numerous alleged crimes. Now the former Republican representative earns his money, among other things, with personal video messages.

Host Jimmy Kimmel tested for and on his TV show whether Santos would accept any message, no matter how absurd, for money. The ex-MP apparently can't laugh about it. And is now suing Kimmel. The presenter violated Santos' copyrights by deceiving him and causing him to produce video messages to make Santos a laughing stock, according to a lawsuit filed in New York against Kimmel, ABC and Walt Disney.

According to the lawsuit, Kimmel sent at least 14 made-up requests using a false name on the app Cameo and showed videos of Santos' messages on his show:

  • The 35-year-old former politician congratulated, among other things, a woman on the successful cloning of her schnauzer Adolf.

  • He congratulated the alleged winner of a beef eating contest for consuming a record of almost 2.7 kilograms of ground beef in less than 30 minutes.

  • At the request of her supposed husband, Santos asked a woman to give him another chance after he accidentally burned down a shed while trying to scare away a bear.

Kimmel's requests were funny, admitted Santos' lawyer Robert Fantone. "But what he did was a clear violation of copyright law," he wrote in an email. Kimmel capitalized on his client's gregarious personality, breached contracts and unlawfully enriched himself. Santos is demanding $750,000 (around €695,000) from the defendants. According to reports, they initially did not respond.

Impostures and fraud charges

Santos may be the most spectacular case of imposture in US politics. Elected to Congress in the 2022 midterms, Santos claimed a degree from an elite university and a successful collegiate volleyball career and falsely claimed to have worked for the investment bank Goldman Sachs and the banking group Citigroup.

In May 2023, Santos was indicted by the federal judiciary on charges including fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to the House of Representatives. In October, the charges included identity theft

expanded

.

Santos is said to have misused campaign funds. He pleaded not guilty in court.

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