In case you’ve lost track, in addition to the myriad U.S. criminal investigations into Santos, there’s also the fraud case in Brazil over his use of a stolen checkbook to purchase $700 in clothes.
The case went dormant when Brazilian authorities couldn’t find Santos but now – well, you can’t miss him. Not surprisingly, Santos now denies the crime he previously twice admitted.
It’s not clear whether Santos had trouble finding a reputable lawyer to represent him in Brazil or if for some reason he really wanted the guy he chose. But he managed to find someone even more sordid than himself, something that would not seem possible.
As The Daily Beast reported, via Folha de S.Paulo, Santos’ attorney, Jonymar Vasconcelos, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2007 for his paid role in the fatal shooting of a mechanic three years earlier.
The Google-translated version of the Brazilian article states that Vasconcelos has had three other run-ins with the law, including being investigated in another contract killing, for which he was never charged. There was also an arrest for threat and bodily harm, for which he was acquitted, and another threat for which he seems to have been convicted.
Then there’s this:
Folha asked George Santos if he was aware of his defender's past and how he found him, since he is not connected to a law firm nor does he have contacts listed on the internet.
…
In response to the report, Santos first wrote, by message, that he did not understand Portuguese, despite being the son of Brazilians and having lived in Brazil for years.
