Rising GOP star George Santos further endeared himself to the Republican party after his ex-roommate, a convicted credit card fraudster named Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha, said Santos taught him the ins and outs of financial crime, reports Rolling Stone. According to Trelha, Santos showed him "how to skim card information and how to clone cards," and even provided him with "all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines." He alleges Santos flew him to Seattle to steal people's personal information. "My deal with Santos was 50% for him, 50% for me," Trelha wrote in a March 7 letter obtained by Politico.
Trelha also accused Santos of threatening his friends and stealing his bail money.
From the letter:
I, Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha, do hereby declare under penalty of perjury, as provided under 28 U.S. Code sections 1746 et seq., and the laws of the United States of America, that the foregoing is true and correct.
I am a Brazilian national and was accused of a US federal crime in 2017 of credit card fraud, pled guilty and was deported from the United States.
I saw Congressman George Santos, also known to me as Anthony Devolder, when I saw him recently on television. I know him.
In 2016, I met Santos when I rented a room in his apartment in Florida.
That is when and where I learned from him how to clone ATM and credit cards.
Santos taught me how to skim card information and how to clone cards. He gave me all the material and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines.
Santos had a warehouse located on Kirkman Road in Orlando, Florida.
He had a lot of material – parts, printers, blank ATM and credit cards to be painted and engraved with stolen account and personal information.
Santos gave me at his warehouse, some of the parts to illegally skim credit card information.
Right after he gave me the card skimming and cloning machines, he taught me how to use them.
Then I flew me to Seattle, Washington, where I started working to steal credit card information from ATM terminals.
My deal with Santos was 50% for him and 50% for me.
We used a computer to be able to download the information on the pieces.
We also used an external hard drive to save the filming, because the skimmer took the information from the card, and the camera took the password.
It didn't work out so well, because I was arrested.
Santos came to Seattle and visited me in jail.
He told me in jail not to say anything about him.
Santos threatened my friends in Florida that I must not say that he was my boss.
I no longer have contact with my friends in Florida because they were all afraid of something happening to them.
I am coming forward today to declare that the person in charge of the crime of credit card fraud when I was arrested was George Santos / Anthony Devolder.
Santos did not help me to get out of jail. He also stole the money that I had collected for my bail.
If Santos wants to ensure his reflection, he simply needs to use this letter as a campaign poster.
