Additional claims that Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) fabricated information about his personal background have emerged, adding to mounting questions about his résumé and personal history.
Santos claimed earlier this year that his maternal grandparents changed their last name from Zabrovsky to conceal their Jewish heritage. Records show that the newly elected representative used the alias “Anthony Zabrovsky” for a pet charity on GoFundMe, the web page for which no longer exists.
In a Fox News interview in February, Santos spoke about his grandparents and why they needed to change their last name for “survival.”
“We don’t carry the Ukrainian last name,” Santos said. “For a lot of people who are descendants of World War II refugees or survivors of the Holocaust, a lot of names and paperwork were changed in the name of survival. So I don’t carry the family last name that would’ve been Zabrovsky. I carry my mother’s maiden name which is the Dutch side of the family.”
News outlets have questioned Santos’s claims about his family in recent weeks, citing genealogy records that show his grandparents were born in Brazil before the Nazis rose to power. Santos claimed that they emigrated to Brazil during World War II.
Author and professional genealogist Megan Smolenyak, who researched Santos’s family history for CNN, told the outlet that “there’s no sign of Jewish and/or Ukrainian heritage and no indication of name changes along the way.”
The news comes as the Republican Jewish Coalition announced this week that Santos is not welcome at organization events due to his misrepresentation of his heritage.
The congressman-elect also admitted in an interview with the New York Post that he embellished parts of his résumé, including working for Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
“I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he said. “We do stupid things in life.”