Amish farmer alleges George Santos wrote him bad check in exchange for puppies

A bit greater than 5 years in the past, an Amish dairy farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, welcomed a nervous, fidgeting man onto his property to debate the sale of puppies that the farmer breeds as a facet enterprise.

“He says, ‘We’re going to take that pet and that pet,’” stated the farmer, who spoke to CNN on the situation of anonymity. “And his assistant grabs the 2 puppies, takes them out the door, and he pulls out a examine. I used to be like, ‘Oh no, is that this man going to pay me with a examine?’ I used to be very suspicious.”

His intuition was proper. The examine bounced. The title on it: George Santos, higher recognized at present as a not too long ago elected and more and more scandal-plagued Republican congressman from New York.

Not lengthy after his interplay with the Amish farmer, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after a number of unhealthy checks have been written in his title to canine breeders within the area, based on a former lawyer pal who helped him navigate the case. The case was confirmed as “theft by deception” by the York County District Lawyer’s Workplace, which informed CNN it was later dismissed.

The fees centered on a sequence of 9 checks totaling greater than $15,000 that went to the canine breeders, based on Tiffany Bogosian, a childhood pal of Santos and personal-injury lawyer who stated she assisted Santos in February 2020 after he was served with an extradition warrant.

Bogosian stated she despatched an e-mail to a Pennsylvania state trooper, a replica of which she offered to CNN, on Santos’ behalf, outlining his rivalry that one in all his 4 checkbooks had gone lacking earlier than the unhealthy checks had been written. Talking concerning the episode extra not too long ago, Bogosian stated she now not believes Santos’ story

Within the farmer’s account, Santos was accompanied by an unnamed lady, described as an assistant, and requested to buy a pair of German shepherds. A deal was struck, in precept, contained in the farmer’s milk home. The assistant rapidly grabbed the canine and left for the automobile.

By then, the farmer informed CNN, he started to comprehend he was “caught,” hoodwinked by a stranger he thought he’d by no means see or hear of once more.

“I informed him I don’t take checks. All I can take is money. And he stated, ‘You count on me to hold that a lot money to purchase a bunch of puppies on a visit like this? I shouldn’t have money. The one factor I can provide you is a examine,’” the farmer recounted. “I assumed to myself, it appears to be like like I’m finished!”

As he anticipated, the examine bounced – leaving the farmer on the hook for a financial institution payment. He was by no means repaid.

Neither Santos nor his attorneys responded to requests for touch upon the small print of the allegations.

Days after the change, Santos participated in an adoption occasion at a pet provide retailer in Staten Island, New York, based on the enterprise’ former proprietor, Daniel Avissato.

Avissato informed CNN that he wrote a examine to Santos’ charity supporting pets after the occasion, however when he seen the financial institution transaction on-line noticed that the group’s title had been crossed and changed with the title Anthony Devolder, a model of Santos’ full title he typically used as a pseudonym.