According to the report, in 2021 Santos filed a late tax return reporting a negative $70,481 in total income — and claimed he suffered more than $90,000 in business losses and received $20,304 in unemployment benefits. While he claimed the losses were primarily due to payments to a business owned by one of his campaign consultants, those payments were actually made in 2022, not 2021. Investigators say Santos also failed to disclose his unemployment income and income from Harbor City . Capital, a now-defunct Florida-based investment firm that the SEC has described as a “fraud.” Santos is also accused of failing to report unearned income from other assets in his taxes, including more than $20,000 in stock transactions. Despite claiming in his taxes that he had a negative salary in 2021, in credit card applications, Santos claimed to have an income of $9,000 a month.
Willful failure to report income on a tax return can result in criminal charges.
