An Amish dairy farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania allegedly received a bad check from George Santos approximately five years ago, when the New York politician visited his farm to purchase puppies.
"He says, 'We are going to take that puppy and that puppy,'" the farmer, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity. "And his assistant grabs the two puppies, takes them out the door, and he pulls out a check. I was like, 'Oh no, is this guy going to pay me with a check?' I was very suspicious."
The check bounced, proving that his intuition was correct.
Not long after his meeting with the Amish farmer, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after many bogus checks were issued in his name to dog breeders in the region, according to a former attorney who assisted him with the case.
The case was confirmed as "theft by deception" by the York County District Attorney's Office, which stated that it was eventually dismissed.
The charges centered on a series of nine checks totaling more than $15,000 that were issued to dog breeders, according to Tiffany Bogosian, a childhood friend of Santos and personal-injury attorney who claimed she assisted Santos in February 2020 after he was served with an extradition notice.
Bogosian stated she sent an email to a Pennsylvania state trooper, a copy of which she sent to CNN, on behalf of Santos, detailing his claim that one of his four checkbooks had gone missing prior to the bogus checks being signed. Bogosian stated she no longer accepts Santos' story in a recent discussion of the incident.
In the farmer's story, Santos was joined by an unidentified female helper and asked to acquire two German shepherds. In the farmer's milk house, a preliminary agreement was reached. The assistant hurriedly grabbed the dogs and dashed to the car.
As predicted, the check bounced, leaving the farmer on the hook for a bank fee. He was never reimbursed.
Santos took part in an adoption event at a pet store on Staten Island, New York, a few days after the transaction, claims Daniel Avissato, the former proprietor of the company.
Avissato told CNN that he wrote a check to Santos' pet charity after the event, but when he inspected the bank transaction online, he noticed that the organization's name had been struck out and substituted with Anthony Devolder, a variation of Santos' full name that he frequently used as an alias.
