Scandal magnet Rep. George Santos was charged with theft in 2017 after a series of bad checks to dog breeders were reportedly written in his name. $15,125 in checks made out for “puppies” were written just before Santos held an adoption event at a pet store for his charity Friends of Pets United that November. Santos—who is under FBI investigation over allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from a U.S. Navy veteran’s fundraiser for his dying dog—claimed his checkbook had been stolen, and the charge was dismissed. The record of the charge was expunged Nov. 24, 2021. The lawyer who helped Santos was an old classmate of his, and he told her one of his four checkbooks was stolen, claiming he didn’t know about the fraud until he was served with a warrant from a Pennsylvania court. The lawyer, Tiffany Bogosian, successfully argued Santos’ case, noting that the signatures on each check were different and didn’t match Santos’ ID. Bogosian says she stopped believing Santos’ story shortly after. “Even at the time I questioned it,” she told Politico. “I did think it was so weird at the time that his checks didn’t have his address or phone number listed on them.”
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