Rep. George Santos’ former roommate claimed the troubled congressman tried to raise money for a dubious GoFundMe website by using a last name that sounded Jewish.
Santos used many aliases when Gregory Morey-Parker and Santos were roommates, according to Anderson Cooper of CNN on Tuesday.
Morey-Parker claimed that while Santos’ full name is George Anthony Devolder Santos, he prefers to go by Anthony Devolder.
However, according to the former roommate, Santos also went by the name Anthony Zabrovsky, which he reserved for a GoFundMe project called Friends of Pets United.
Ashkenazi Jews frequently have the name Zabrovsky or a variation of it.
For CNN, Morey-Parker said: “Oh well, the Jews will donate more if you’re a Jew, he would remark. So that’s what he called his GoFundMe under.”
Santos’ assertion that he is Jewish is only one of many lies that have gotten him into trouble recently.
In a document sent to pro-Israel organizations during his 2022 campaign, Santos identified himself as a “proud American Jew” and claimed that his grandparents had survived the Holocaust.
The Holocaust-ancestry claim was refuted in meetings with multiple genealogists, according to CNN’s report from the end of December. The Republican Jewish Coalition also claimed the same month that Santos had “personally” misled its members about being Jewish.
Santos later admitted to being Catholic and just making the “Jew-ish” allegation to the New York Post.
A military veteran accused Santos of stealing $3,000 worth of GoFundMe contributions intended for his terminal dog, prompting reports of his dubious efforts to increase his fundraising.
Rich Osthoff told the neighborhood news source Patch that his dog Sapphire had a stomach tumor and was in the final stages of life. Santos promised to support him and set up a GoFundMe page for him in May 2016.
However, Osthoff informed Patch that Santos abandoned him once the funds were raised and canceled the fundraising page. In response to Osthoff’s charge, Santos disagreed. He texted the word “fake” to the news source Semafor. I have no idea who this is.
Although Santos claimed to have created Friends of Pets United in 2013, The New York Times noted last month that there didn’t seem to be any records of the organization having been registered as a recognized charity.
Santos has acknowledged making up parts of his life story, such as his college degree and specifics of his career experience. He’s resisted calling it quits.
