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Jose Uribe, 56, of Clifton, agreed to “cooperate fully” with a federal investigation of the powerful lawmaker from Hudson County, and others, as part of a deal that he cut with the government.
In exchange, federal prosecutors will ask the judge to go easy on him.
Uribe pleaded guilty in the Southern U.S. District Court of New York in Manhattan on Friday, March 1, to wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion, among other counts.
US District Judge Sidney Stein accepted the plea and scheduled sentencing for June 14. That could be postponed, however, depending on how long an ongoing grand jury investigation lasts and how many dimes Uribe drops.
Among other charges, a federal indictment returned last year accuses Menendez’s wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, of collecting $15,000 in cash toward a down payment on the car from the former insurance agent in a parking lot in April 2019.
“Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” she allegedly texted her husband.
The ragtop replaced a vehicle that authorities said Nadine Menendez was driving when she struck and killed a pedestrian, Richard Koop, in Bogota in December 2018 while she and the senator were still dating.
Uribe – who formerly owned the Hudson-based Inter-America Insurance Agency -- told Stein on Friday that he made payments for the new $60,000 C-Class “in a manner to conceal my involvement.”
Nadine Menendez later arranged a meeting with him, Uribe said, to get their stories straight should anyone ask him about the payments. Uribe, in turn, agreed to lie not only to investigators but also to his own attorney, he told the judge.
“I knew that giving a car in return for influencing a United States senator to stop a criminal investigation was wrong,” Uribe said, “and I deeply regret my actions.”
All told, the Menendezes collected no less than $566,000, along with 13 gold bars worth more than $150,000, among other presents, from Uribe, North Jersey developer Fred Daibes and fellow businessman Wael Hana, a federal grand jury indictment alleges.
For Uribe, the quid pro quo was Menendez’s promise to “pressure” the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to deep-six what was an ongoing investigation of two of his pals, the government says.
The Menendezes, Dabies and Hana are all fighting the charges. A May 6 trial date remains on the docket in Stein's courtroom.
The case includes charges that Menendez, 70, did favors for the Egyptian government and a Qatari real estate firm while chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez surrendered the position while at the same time maintaining his innocence and refusing resignation demands by members of his own party.
Speaking from the Senate chamber floor earlier this year, he called the indictment part of a government plan to keep a “sensational story in the press.”
His lawyers also contend that a federal lawmaker allegedly trying to influence a state official is essentially a case of apples and oranges.
Menendez is up for reelection this fall but faces a stiff primary challenge from both U.S. Rep Andy Kim and New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy.
As part of Uribe’s plea deal, he must forfeit $246,000 of what the government said were ill-gotten gains. Exactly what type of incarceration, if any, he’ll face will depend on his level of cooperation and where that falls in federal sentencing guidelines.
Uribe already had a state insurance fraud conviction on his record, from 2011, for which he was sentenced to probation and a revocation of his insurance license. What effect that might have on Stein's decision remains an open question.
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