♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, famous fakeouts. from silicon valley to the halls of congress, new york republican george santos, the latest caught in the crosshairs, facing multiple investigations. >> did you ever think that the person who allegedly scammed you could end up in the halls of congress? >> the real people he's allegedly wronged. >> i think he needs to lie more than he needs to breathe. >> now a cultural obsession, joining the notorious list that includes anna delvey and elizabeth holmes. >> con artists, you get to see them climb the latter of ac, success, then see exactly how they fall from grace. >> why we can't look away. imagine dragons.

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♪ good evening and thank you for joining us. i'm trevor ault. we begin wednesday the meteoric rise of freshman congressman george santos and his quick turn to infamy. the new york republican admitting to falsehoods about his education and work history, facing a house ethics probe and several other investigations. but why do we find the stories of these famous fakeouts so compelling? here's abc's rachel scott. >> how would you describe george santos? >> a compulsive liar. compulsive isn't even the word. it's -- i think he needs to lie more than he needs to breathe. >> reporter: for navy veteran richard osthoff, honor and commitment means something. they're the values he swore to. did you ever think that the

person who allegedly scammed you could end up in the halls of congress? >> no. that hurts more than anything, i think. i served my country honorably. i raised my hand. i gave an oath. everything about him is fake, phony, horrible, destructive, hurtful. he doesn't represent the values of our country. >> reporter: in 2016, he says george santos promised to help him and his dying support dog. but richard says fake. a con carried out by a man who's now an elected member of congress. george santos is just the latest example of a liar who has captivated the nation. from politics to the business world to society elites, the american landscape is littered with people who have made headlines for the lies they've told. there's rachel dolejang, the

naacp president who passed herself off as black for years, before being outed as white by her own parents. she's defiant in interviews. >> i definitely am not white. nothing about being white describes who i am. >> reporter: dolezal goes by a ncaaen name and says she still considers herself black. there was also the 2017 fyre festival. it was supposed to be a luxury live music event. the brainchild of con artist billy mcfarlane, who ultimately went to jail for wire fraud. some festival attendees staying in fema tents and eating plain cheese sandwiches. sometimes these folks get away with it, for a while, at least. but when they're caught, we watch with fascination. their lies become our entertainment. sometimes featured on late-night comedy shows. >> you lied about being jewish. >> no, i said i was jew-ish.

which is honestly icon-ic. >> what have you been doing with your time? >> so much. i gave the state of the union address, shot down those spy balloons, and performed at the super bowl halftime show. >> reporter: what actually drives people to lie? and why is america so obsessed with people who do? psychologist maria conakova has been searching for that answer for years. she hasn't diagnosed these famous fakers personally but says she's all too familiar with people like them. >> i think "fake it till you make it" is one of those sayings that seems innocuous enough but can also be remarkably dangerous when taken to an extreme. and con artists, they take that to theexeme. >> america is obsessed with conartists because you get to see them climb the ladder of success and see exactly how they fall from grace. >> reporter: republican representative george santos ran on that promise, that anyone can succeed in our country.

>> as your congressman, i pledge to protect the american dream for all. >> reporter: a young gay brazilian american republican seen by some as what could be the future of the party. but it turned out his resume was littered with false claims. from the schools he said he attended, the prestigious horace mann high school, new york university. he said he was a toll volleyball player at barouk college. he never even went. to his work history -- citigroup, goldman sacks, which he testified to under oath, none true. he falsely linked himself to various tragedies and identities. >> i've seen how socialism destroys people's lives because my grandparents survived the holocaust. i'm a jew, trust me. >> reporter: he later attempted to clarify to fox news his connection to judaism. >> my heritage is jewish, i've always identified as jewish, i was raised a practicing catholic, i've always joked with

friends, even in the campaign, "guys, i'm yjew-ish." >> reporter: he said his mom died of complications of 9/11, when she wasn't even in the u.s. during the attacks. >> how do you know your constituents can trust you even though you misrepresented your biography to them? >> reporter: his personal finances under federal investigation after questions were raised. in 2020 he had a salary of $55,000. but last year, he valued his assets between $2.6 million and $11.25 million. as his falsehoods have been exposed, santos in interview after interview remains defiant. >> my question is, do you have no shame? >> i'm not a fraud, i'm not a fake. i didn't materialize from thin air. i worked damn hard to get where i got my entire life. >> reporter: his excuse? he felt he needed to lie to get elected. >> i would have never gotten the

nomination from nassau county gop if i had not concluded college. that was really the main driver. so i made that bad decision. >> reporter: it's not just his constituents congressman santos has lied to. >> it's painful to rehash it all over again, but -- somebody had to say something. >> reporter: richard says he never thought he'd fall victim to a con artist. he spent eight years in the navy working on fighter planes. it was his dream job. >> i lived to put that uniform on in the morning and go to work and work on my airplanes. that was all i wanted to do. >> reporter: when his struggles with depression began to affect his work, he was honorably discharged. he says the loss of purpose sent him spiraling. but a little red pitbull named sapphire would change his life. >> she would know when i was going through a mood swing. whenever i'd start getting really manic or depressed, she would just be all over me. i couldn't ignore her.

>> reporter: he fell on hard times and ended up homeless. to make matters worse, he noticed a mass growing rapidly on sapphire's belly. a veterinarian had bad news. >> he wanted the money up front for the surgery. $3,000 to do it. like, how am i going to come up with this money now? >> reporter: a vet tech told him about a man who ran a charity called "friends of pets united." >> she said, i'll take your picture, take sapphire's picture, i'll talk to anthony this guy i know, and he'll set up a gofundme. >> did you ever meet anthony? >> not face-to-face. >> never met face-to-face. how would you communicate? >> mostly text message. i spoke to him on the phone one time. he seemed really, really, really flirtatious and overly nice. like a con man would. >> reporter: he says the online fund-raiser was a success. but richard says the money that could have saved sapphire never came through.

>> $3,000 was raised. >> did you ever see a penny? >> not at all, no, none. all i saw was heartbreak and frustration. that was all he gave me. >> reporter: sapphire died three months after the money failed to materialize. richard says when he raised his concerns with anthony, anthony became defensive, saying in one message, "i'm a well-known and public person, i have done rescues for many years and have a very reputable name for myself." >> we learned that the friends of pets united never filed any documents to be a charity under the irs rules. >> i only learned that in january. >> reporter: it was also january when richard was watching the news and learned that anthony's full name was george anthony devalder santos. a source close to the gofundme situation confirmed to abc nes that it was george santos who ran the account to help sapphire. abc news asked george santos if he remembered richard.

>> let me show you this video. we have a reporter from our team that asked george santos about you, asked him about this gofundme. watch this video. >> do you remember the gentleman who claims that you took money? >> he never met me and i never met him. >> for him not to be embarrassed by it, to be laughing and smiling and joking around like it's all just nothing, just being so nonchalant about it, it's disgusting. it's so strainge and surreal. who is george santos? nobody knows. >> our thanks to rachel. for more on other famous fakeouts, including anna delvey and elizabeth holmes, plus a photo of santos lime you've never seen before, "impact on nightline" now streaming on hulu. imagine dragons. a rare behind-the-scenes visit with one of the world's biggest bands. ♪ i'm sorry for everything oh everything i've done ♪

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managed to stay together, bonding during the best and worst of times. here's abc's ashan singh. ♪ >> reporter: imagine dragons are used to playing for tens of thousands of fans. but today they have an audience of one. ♪ over and over again ♪ >> reporter: we're front row for a private impromptu jam session around lead singer dan reynolds' grand piano. ♪ i shot shot shot a hole through every single thing that i love ♪ >> reporter: since they first hit the charts with "it's time in" in 2012 -- ♪ i get a little bit bigger than it ♪ >> reporter: imagine dragons' potent lyrics and forceful melodies have made them rock superstars. ♪ never changing who i am ♪ >> reporter: hits like the fiery ballad "believer."

♪ you make me a you make me a believer ♪ ♪ thunder feel the thunder lightning and the thunder ♪ >> reporter: the electropop-infused "thunder." ♪ lightning and the thunder ♪ >> reporter: they racked up a slew of awards, including a grammy for "radioactive" in 2014. their 20 steal "evolve" went double platinum selling over 1.7 million tickets on tour around the world. do you ever pinch yourself that you're here in this way now? >> i can speak for myself. it's kind of a strange adjustment to make. in the last two or three years i've really -- i don't know, i've finally kind of got it. >> reporter: dan started out the band in an unlikely place for a rock star, mormon college campus byu. they later moved to vegas to raise their profile. >> i remember us sitting in, like, a tiny home that we rented

out together in las vegas. we had a white board that we purchased. we were writing down band goals. this was over a decade ago. and one of the first goals was to be a global band. >> reporter: the current lineup of imagine dragons consisting of drummer daniel plattsman, bassist ben mckee. they've been together over a decade and don't take it for granted. how have you managed to maintain your relationships as a band? also sticking on it this long? >> having the foundation of respect has kept us together. >> we've been through loss, we've been through death in families together, we've been through illness, babies, relationships, end of relationships. you can either see all that and hate each other through it or see it and say, damn, we really love each other. >> reporter: being mainstays in the ever-changing landscape of pop music, the band has built a brand on consistency and turning a blind eye to trends.

is it harder to make successful pop music in today's era where there are 15-minute careers that are born off apps like tiktok? >> music's a language. it's constantly evolving. and that world has absolutely changed from ten years ago to now. i think it's a really dangerous strategy if you try to change your process and your target to whatever's trending right now, because whatever's trending right now isn't going to be trending very soon. ♪ i'm far from getting through t still i found you next to me ♪ >> reporter: worldwide, the dragons have a rabid following, recently headlining the lollapa with over 60,000 attendees. what was that like in india? >> wild, the biggest culture shock i've had in quite a while. >> it's amazing to go to a place you've never been after being a band for a decade then finding fans there that are passionate, know all the words to all the

songs. >> it was incredible. yeah. there were -- flesh going back as far as is eye can see, everyone freaking out. ♪ a believer ♪ >> reporter: these guys aren't letting their epic success go to their heads. >> we'll be on the road for a long time, like, oh, we're exhausted, poor us. then we'll go to a pediatric cancer charity event and you see these kids fighting the ultimate fight. suddenly your problems are nothing. >> reporter: since 2013, they've been determined to give back, launching the tyler robinson foundation named after a terminally ill 16-year-old fan. their annual "love loud" festival supports lgbtq+ youth. it hits close to home. >> this is life-changing for a lot of the people here, and you are awesome for doing it. >> that was just so cool to see, especially happening in utah at that time. how that is festival done? >> it's about raising conversation, about how homes

and families, especially in communities of high orthodox faith, can love, celebrate, their lgbtq youth. a lot of these communities, we find the suicide rate is higher, drug use is higher for these kids who are not accepted in their homes. this is going to be the first year we're taking it to austin, taking it to d.c. >> reporter: imagine dragons have seen every mountaintop, but what keeps them so cool is that they remain unbothered by the light. >> we wanted to see the world, we wanted to take our music to the world. our aspirations were there. we did dream big. we always wrote big. that's the kind of music we like. >> billions of streams, hundreds of millions of fans. do accolades matter to you guys? >> i don't quite connect with the numbers and accolades personally too much. maybe if i look at it too hard or care about it too much, it will disappear, i don't know, like a rainbow, like a pot of gold or something. it messes with what your creative art should be in a way i don't like. i don't know, i guess -- thanks

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♪ finally tonight, the death of actor robert blake. from fame to scandal. he appeared in the "our gang" comedies as a child and starred in "in cold blood" as an adult. in the 1970s, he won an emmy for his work in the television series "beretta." all those career achievements

were eclipsed when he was charged with the fatal shooting of his wife in 2001. he was later acquitted but his career never recovered. blake died from heart disease, surrounded by family at his home in los angeles. he was 89. that's "nightline." you can watch all our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here at the same time tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america. you didn't choose your hairline. hot flashes, the flu, or that thing