For that subset of "true crime" fans who have a penchant for fraud stories, October is turning into a plethora of high-profile cases. Donald Trump is facing civil prosecution for his decades of defrauding banks, investors, insurance companies, and tax assessors. Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced CEO of FTX, is standing criminal trial on accusations that all that cryptocurrency trading was just cover for lots and lots of fraud. And Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., got hit with another round of indictments for defrauding campaign donors, including just taking their credit card information and apparently buying nice things for himself with it.
For the accused, things have not been looking great. These new charges against Santos follow a guilty plea from his campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, suggesting she's turning state's witness against him. Bankman-Fried has also lost control of his co-conspirator, former girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who has pled guilty and testified for hours against him at trial on Tuesday. Trump, whose social media presence resembles a coked-up chimpanzee on good day, is doing worse than usual in the face of daily evidence that his "wealth" was composed of lies more than real money. In response to being removed from the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans, Trump screeched repeatedly on Truth Social that Forbes "is controlled by Communist China" and accused them of conspiring with the New York attorney general.
