Last month we learned that George Santos allegedly stole money from a GoFundMe campaign set up for a dog with a tumor. At the time, Santos was going by the name Anthony Devolder and had offered to run the campaign as part of his Friends of Pets United charity. The fundraiser did happen but as soon as it reached its goal of $3,000, the dog’s owner, a homeless veteran, found Santos/Devolder hard to contact. Eight months later, the owner had to euthanize the dog. He never received any of the money that Santos had raised.

Politico reported last week that the FBI was looking into the scheme:

FBI agents are investigating Rep. George Santos’ role in an alleged GoFundMe scheme involving a disabled U.S. Navy veteran’s dying service dog.

Two agents contacted former service member Richard Osthoff Wednesday on behalf of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, he told POLITICO.

Osthoff gave the agents text messages from 2016 with Santos, who he says used his plight to raise $3,000 for life-saving surgery for the pit bull mix, Sapphire — then ghosted with the funds, as first reported by Patch.

“I’m glad to get the ball rolling with the big-wigs,” Osthoff said in an interview Wednesday. “I was worried that what happened to me was too long ago to be prosecuted.”

Anyone who would do this once would probably do it more than once. Today the NY Times has a story about Friends of Pets United. There’s no proof that Santos was keeping the money he raised for animals but there’s some suspicious behavior.

Money had come in from raffles and sales of gift baskets; a few pets had found new homes. All in all, the adoption charity event at a Pet Oasis store on Staten Island had been a success.

But then the charity’s leader made an odd request: He insisted that the store owner give him the proceeds in a check made out to his name, Anthony Devolder.

The owner refused and made the check payable to the charity, Friends of Pets United. Days later, when he looked at his bank records, he noticed that the check had been altered: The charity’s name had been blotted out. “When it cashed, it was crossed out, and it had Anthony Devolder written on it,” the owner, Daniel Avissato, said.

As part of his campaign bio, Santos claimed he founded the charity and helped rescue more than 2,500 animals between 2013 and 2018. But there are no records that such a charity was every registered. The charity itself seems to have existed mostly on Facebook and the page has since been deleted. As I pointed out here, there are still some tweets from 2016 where people highlighted giving money to GoFundMe campaigns created by Anthony Devolder for specific animals, but the campaigns are all gone now too. But people who remember Santos/Devolder say they never got the money he promised them.

Regina Spadavecchia, who runs the Adore-a-Bullie Paws and Claws rescue in the Bronx, said that Mr. Santos boasted of his fund-raising prowess, saying he was a financial money manager with connections…

Ms. Spadavecchia accepted his claims and, with at least a dozen dogs in her care, was eager for the help. In March 2017, Mr. Santos posted on Facebook that he was raising money for Adore-a-Bullie, through a $5 raffle for a dinner cruise and Broadway tickets.

But Mr. Santos never fully followed through on his promises, Ms. Spadavecchia said, sending her around $400 instead of the thousands of dollars he had suggested. She decided to cut ties with him.

Santos/Devolder also offered to help raise funds to refurbish a barn on a farm that was going to be used to care for abused animals. He set up another GoFundMe which raised just over $2,000 and once again, as soon as the money was raised he became difficult to reach.

“It was excuse after excuse after excuse,” Ms. Dos Santos said, adding that she never received the money.

The Times asked GoFundMe for information on how many fundraisers Santos/Devolder ran on their site but they refused to share it. I’m sure they don’t want the bad publicity but helping to cover for Santos doesn’t look very good either.

Normally I’d say something judicious about not jumping to conclusions but at this point I think Santos has used up whatever benefit of the doubt he was ever owed. Legally of course he’s still innocent until proven guilty but it’s clear to many of us that he’s a proven pathological liar whether he ever spends a day in prison for it or not. Hopefully the GOP can find a way to get rid of him.

If you’re interested in an exhaustive list of all of the lies Santos has told about himself (so far), New York Magazine published one earlier today.