The Brazilian man who accuses US Congressman George Santos of being the head of a credit and debit card cloning gang is currently on the run from the Justice of Espírito Santo on charges of alleged torture.
Former flight attendant Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha was highlighted by the US press in recent weeks for having denounced the Republican congressman, an American born to Brazilian parents, the target of multiple investigations in the US and Brazil.
Arrested in the act of manipulating a card cloning device in Seattle, in 2017, Trelha was indicted and deported to Brazil in the same year. Five years later, in February 2022, he had an arrest warrant issued after being denounced for the alleged torture of a 2-year-old child, the son of his girlfriend with whom he lived.
The former flight attendant's father, Dimorvan de Mello Trelha, told Folha that he believed his son had already fled to France months before a court official knocked on his door with an arrest warrant issued by Polinter (Interstate Police Station) of Espirito Santo. Dimorvan stated that he was unaware of the crime.
In 2017, Trelha rented a room in George Santos' apartment in Florida. That same year, the future congressman even traveled to Seattle to testify in his favor before a judge, on which occasion, as has already been disclosed, he lied about being an executive at Goldman Sachs. At that time, Santos described Trelha, who was in prison, as a friend of his family.
The American News website Politico obtained a recording of Santos' testimony during the bail hearing for Trelha, which was set at US$250,000. The former flight attendant was unable to pay this amount and, after seven months of detention, he was deported.
On June 12, 2019, the 2-year-old boy was admitted to the emergency area of the Unimed hospital in São Gonçalo (RJ). According to the child's family lawyer, Felipi Martins, in a statement to Folha, the hospital did not have the pediatric resources to care for the boy, who had bruises and fractures in three points of the skull, the result of one or multiple beatings.
Also according to the lawyer, the boy was transferred to the Unimed unit in Niterói for skull surgery.
Martins was in charge of the investigation that resulted in the accusation of torture and, subsequently, the arrest warrants for Trelha and the boy's mother. Because he is a minor, the case continues to be heard in camera.
Folha had access to the files. Martins has now been declared assistant to the prosecution, a function that consists of assisting the Prosecution Service in public criminal actions. The first hearing in the trial of Trelha and the child's mother was scheduled for April 24 at the 2nd Criminal Court of Vitória.
According to Martins, Trelha has a violent past. The lawyer introduced an ex-girlfriend of the accused to the reporting team, who did not want to reveal her identity for fear of Trelha's temper. She says she had been a victim of embezzlement and harassment when the relationship ended.
Folha tried to contact Trelha's lawyer for over a month. On Wednesday (22), the reporting team got a cell phone number that was supposed to be Trelha's, registered as being from the Netherlands and provided by people close to him. As a response, an indication that the number had been canceled.
On an Instagram account, attributed to Trelha by acquaintances, images of European countries can be seen. It is not possible to affirm, however, in which country he is at the moment.
Similarities
In addition to the bank fraud episode in 2017, Trelha shares another predilection with Santos, manufacturing lies about his own past.
According to Martins, he pretended to be a pilot when he was, in fact, a flight attendant. Dimorvan, his father, confirms that Trelha completed only the first stage of a course and had a license to fly only a single engine — he never worked as a commercial pilot.
Dimorvan says he is perplexed to learn that his son would have presented himself to the American Federal Court as an informant against George Santos and provided a contact number to the authorities in New York. "Instead of keeping his head down, he goes on to add more fuel to the problem. It sounds totally insane," he said.
The father, a retired Methodist theologian, says he received a brief text message from his son about a month ago – it was the last contact between them. Dimorvan believes he is in France. "I'm not turning my back on my son," he says, saying he can offer him prayers. "I tried to give him the best education, but if he hasn't learned his lesson by now, close to 40 years old, he will never learn."
Omission
Earlier this month, Politico published a statement by Trelha to the US Justice, supposedly made "under oath", according to the website, through a law firm in Long Island, neighboring New York, which elected George Santos to the Congress last December.
The office is owned by Grant Lally, publisher of the North Shore Leader, a local newspaper that claims to have been the first to expose inconsistencies in Santos' resume. Lally is a Republican who, in the past, ran for the same district that elected Santos.
"I appear here today to declare that the person responsible for the crime of credit card fraud, when I was arrested, was George Santos/Anthony Devolder," said Trelha.
The status of fugitive from justice was not mentioned by the website or by the lawyer Mark Demetroupoulos, who forwarded the document to the Department of Justice and to the FBI (both investigating Santos) as well as to the US Secret Service.
In the statement that was written in English and translated into Portuguese for Trelha to sign, the fugitive defendant says that Santos kept card cloning paraphernalia and split the profits with him in half, but ended up stealing all his money.
On the 10th of this month, Santos told the NBC network that he was not "a leader of anything", he collaborated as an informant for the American Justice in Seattle, and that he had already contacted the FBI after the publication of the article by Politico.
It is noteworthy that lawyer Mark Demetropoulos, from New York, sought out a fugitive accused of a violent crime and offered him as a credible witness to American justice, omitting the entire Brazilian judicial process.
Demetropoulos sounded nervous when answering the call from Folha and said that he could not speak on the subject. When the reporter asked if he would like to know what facts had been uncovered about Trelha in Brazil, he hung up the phone.
Santos told the reporter by telephone that he had had three or four interactions with Trelha when he sublet an apartment to him in Orlando. He also stated that he never heard from him again after his deportation in 2017.
The congressman repeated that he never committed the crime of bank fraud and cooperated with US investigators at the time. He says he is preparing to take legal action against lawyer Mark Demetroupoulos and the Politico website.
After this story's publication, Thursday (23) morning Santos called our newsroom and sent the following message:
"I sublet my apartment in Orlando months after the death of my mother, in 2016, to a group of six Brazilians that included Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha and moved back to New York City. I have had very few interactions with him."
"In 2017, when one of the Brazilians was my guest in New York, I learned of Trelha's arrest in Seattle, but understood it was due to the fact he had been caught working without documents. Only after arriving in Seattle, I found out the real motive for his arrest and cooperated with the police as an informant."
Who's who in the Trelha case
George Santos - New Yorker, born to Brazilian parents, was elected in November 2022 as the first gay Republican congressman in the state. He is currently being investigated for spreading a series of lies during the campaign. In 2017, he rented a room in his apartment to Trelha.
Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha - Former flight attendant, he was arrested and deported from the US to Brazil for the crime of bank fraud, in 2017. He recently accused Santos of being the head of a card cloning gang. He is currently on the run from the Justice of Espírito Santo, accused of allegedly torturing a 2-year-old child in 2019.
Felipi Martins - Lawyer from Niterói (RJ), hired by the boy's family to investigate the violence suffered by him after the boy was admitted to a hospital in São Gonçalo (RJ). He provided information to the Justice that led to the arrest warrant for both Trelha and the child's mother.
Dimorvan de Mello Trelha - Gustavo's father, is a Methodist theologian and retired professor. He says that he was only informed of the alleged child beating when a court official knocked on his door with an arrest warrant for Gustavo. He believes that his son is somewhere in Europe.
Translated by Cassy Dias