The curtain rises on another chapter of legal troubles for corrupt Democrat Senator Bob Menendez (NJ) as jury selection commences Monday in a Manhattan federal court.
The 70-year-old Democratic Senator stands accused of receiving bribes in the form of gold and substantial sums of money, in exchange for wielding his political influence to benefit three New Jersey businessmen.
Menendez, along with two of the businessmen implicated, real estate mogul Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, maintain their innocence in the face of the charges. A third businessman entangled in the accusations has entered a guilty plea and is slated to appear as a witness against his former co-defendants.
In a related case, Nadine Menendez, the senator’s wife, faces similar charges; however, her trial has been deferred to July due to health issues, according to ABC News.
This recent trial is a complex matter that includes multiple gold bars, cash-filled envelopes, a Mercedes, among other items, which, according to prosecutors, were received by Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez. They allegedly accepted these gifts in return for supporting a halal meat monopoly, favoring individuals from Egypt and Qatar, and attempting to interfere with a legal case in New Jersey.
In September 2023, Sen. Bob Menendez, the senior U.S. Senator from New Jersey and the former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were indicted on bribery and corruption charges.
In October 2023, Bob Menendez was charged with acting as a foreign agent in a superseding indictment.
In January 2024, Bob Menendez (NJ) was hit with a second superseding indictment for praising Qatar in exchange for luxury watches.
“Menendez provided Daibes with these statements so that Daibes could share them with the Qatari Investor and a Qatari government official associated with the Qatari Investment Company,” the indictment said, according to NBC News.
In March 2024, Bob Menendez (NJ) and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were charged with obstruction of justice in a new 18-count indictment unsealed. The new charges are related to a bribery scheme that involves Egypt and Qatar.
Bob Menendez and his wife are under investigation for their involvement in a bribery scheme from 2018 to 2022. The couple, who began dating in February 2018 and married in October 2020, are alleged to have accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
The bribes came from Wael Hana, an Egyptian native with connections to Egyptian officials, Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and long-time donor to Senator Menendez, and Jose Uribe, involved in the New Jersey insurance and trucking business.
The range of bribes included gold, cash, a luxury convertible, and significant payments towards Nadine Menendez’s home mortgage.
In June 2022, a significant development occurred when the FBI executed a raid at the Menendez residence in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey,. This operation uncovered many elements of the bribery scheme.
According to the DOJ, over $480,000 in cash, much of it concealed in envelopes and hidden in various parts of the house, including clothing and closets, was discovered. A safe in the house contained additional cash and valuables. Over $70,000 in cash was found in Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box during a separate search.
Some of the envelopes recovered bore the fingerprints and/or DNA of Fred Daibes or his driver, further linking them to the scheme. Other envelopes with Senator Menendez’s name were found in jackets hanging in his closet.
One of the most significant discoveries was over one hundred thousand dollars’ worth of gold bars located within the home. According to reports, 13 gold bars were found.
According to a report by NBC News, the serial numbers on the gold bars correspond with those reported stolen from Fred Daibes during an armed robbery in Edgewater, New Jersey, nearly a decade ago.
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For instance, one particular gold bar, produced by Swiss Bank Corporation and carrying the serial number 590005, was identified among the items seized from Menendez’s home during this year’s FBI raid.
This same gold bar had been listed as stolen and later returned to Daibes in 2013. The evidence logs from the earlier incident, bearing Daibes’ signature and initials, meticulously cataloged each gold bar, including their individual serial numbers, thereby linking them to the current investigation.
“At least four gold bars found in the FBI search of Sen. Bob Menendez’s home had been directly linked to a New Jersey businessman now accused of bribing Menendez, the state’s senior senator, Bergen County prosecutor’s records from a 2013 robbery case show,” according to the news outlet.
Today’s trial marks Menendez’s second brush with corruption charges in the last decade; his first trial in 2017 ended with a hung jury.
