Yesterday there was a report by Patch about what may be the lowest of lows for George Santos. It’s the story of Richard Osthoff, a disabled veteran who was living on the street in New Jersey with his service dog Sapphire. The dog had been given to him by a veteran’s charity group. In 2016, Osthoff discovered that Sapphire had a growing tumor which would cost $3,000 to remove surgically. Osthoff didn’t have the money but was given a tip that there was a charity that could help.

His name was Anthony Devolder, and his pet charity was called Friends of Pets United, the vet tech told him.

Anthony Devolder is one of the names that Long Island Rep. George Santos used for years before entering politics in 2020…

After Santos set up the GoFundMe page in early May 2016, he became hard to contact, Osthoff said.

“I only talked to him two or three times on the phone,” Osthoff said, guessing that over half of the donations came from people he knew. On June 30, 2016, he posted on Facebook: “We made the goal, and then some.”

And that’s when things changed. Santos told Osthoff that he would need to bring Sapphire to a veterinarian in Queens. He did that but when he arrived the office told him they couldn’t operate. And after that he only had one more conversation with Santos/Devolder by text.

On Nov. 13, 2016, in texts Osthoff showed Patch, he urged Santos to let him take Sapphire to another vet, saying “My dog is going to die because of god knows what.”

Santos replied, “Remember it is our credibility that got GoFundme […] to contribute. We are audited like every 501c3 and we are with the highest standards of integrity.”

I know whenever I think of George Santos I think of the highest standards of integrity. Of course this was another lie. Santos’ charity was not registered as a nonprofit so he wasn’t being audited by anyone.

Osthoff had Sapphire euthanized in January 2017, 8 months after the GoFundMe had raised money for her surgery. Osthoff raised the money for the euthanasia by panhandling. As for Santos, he disappeared and the money with him. The GoFundMe page is long gone and doesn’t appear in the Internet Archive but Patch published some of the text exchanges between Osthoff and Santos. Last night Santos denied the allegations in a brief text:

George Santos claims he has no knowledge of a purported scheme in which he allegedly used a fake animal charity to scam a disabled veteran by raising money for their sick dog’s cancer treatment and then disappearing with the funds.

“Fake,” Santos texted Semafor. “No clue who this is.”

Again, the actual GoFundMe page is gone but Semafor dug up this April 2016 text which mentions that Anthony Devolder was the person running the GoFundMe for Sapphire:

Click here to support sapphire The Veteran rescue! by Anthony Devolder https://t.co/TdGoeL0am0

— MamaBarz (@Bellemoi156) April 30, 2016

I did my own search and turned up another tweet for a now defunct GoFundMe page Santos/Devolder set up for another animal just a few months later.

I gave to Help Cleo by Anthony Devolder. Now it's your turn. https://t.co/JdPIOXeb26

— Ebe Becker🏡🏢 (@eberealestate) August 6, 2016

So it looks to me like this did happen and, shocker!, Santos is lying about having been involved. Will stealing money raised for a homeless veteran and his dying dog be the last straw for Santos? It’s hard to think of how someone could go much lower than that. I guess we’ll see. Here’s a video that recently turned up of Santos introducing himself as Anthony Devolder.

In 2019, George Santos introduced himself as Anthony Devolder, the founder of “United for Trump,” during a Q & A session at a “Walk Away LGBT” event in NYC.

Santos said trans people could benefit from a trans conservative activist educating them. pic.twitter.com/b2RkA3YPnI

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) January 13, 2023