After being ousted from the House of Representatives last week, ex-congressperson George Santos has officially joined Cameo, the platform famous for custom messages from celebrities and influencers.
Though Santos has not yet posted anything to his Cameo profile, it advertises a selection of personally recorded pep talks, “gossip,” roasts, and advice messages from Santos himself. These video messages, all promised to be delivered within 24 hours of an order, were initially priced at $75, but the cost has since increased to $200.
A former Santos staffer confirmed to WIRED today that the profile was real, and it is now linked on the former representative’s personal X account. Cameo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After winning his Long Island congressional election last year, Santos encountered problems when the North Shore Leader and The New York Times reported that he had allegedly lied about his finances and much of his personal background, including where he went to college and the claim that he had worked for Goldman Sachs. More absurd lies were uncovered, involving claims that his mother had died as a result of 9/11 (she didn’t) and that Santos was the star of Baruch College’s volleyball team (he wasn’t, and he didn’t attend Baruch).
In May, Santos was charged on multiple federal counts of money laundering, identity theft, and theft of public funds. He is set to face trial next September.
Despite these charges, Santos wasn’t expelled until after the House Ethics Committee finished its own investigation in November and claimed that he had misused thousands of dollars in campaign donations. The report said that Santos spent $50,000 in campaign funds to pay off personal debts and made other unlawful purchases, like subscribing to creators on OnlyFans. Representative Max Miller (R-Ohio) has also accused Santos of defrauding him and his mother by charging their personal credit cards.
Santos isn’t the first politician to join the ranks of Chuck Norris, Tay Zonday, and Brian Baumgartner (of The Office fame) on Cameo: Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and political consultant Roger Stone have their own profiles, both touting nearly five star ratings.
The Biden campaign also experimented with Cameo in the past. In 2020, the campaign partnered with the platform to allow participating celebrities, like Andy Cohen, Mandy Moore, and Melissa Etheridge, to earmark portions of their earnings as donations, according to The Verge.
Until Santos goes to trial, it’s impossible to know whether his donors will ever claw back the money allegedly stolen from them. But unlike Santos’ reported donor fraud, Cameo has a money-back guarantee for scams.
