42°
Mendendez, 69, who's chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made several moves in exchange for bribes, some of which were passed to his wife, Nadine Arsianian, a sweeping indictment unsealed on Sept. 22 alleges.
A staggering array of charges were brought by the grand jurors in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
A search of Menendez and his wife's Harrison home and safe deposit box in June 2022 produced $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash, according to the indictment.
The government has moved to seize those assets, as well as the home itself and a 2019 Mercedes Benz that investigators said was given to Menendez by one of his co-defendants.
Menendez, who's up for re-election to a fourth term next year, was indicted on federal corruption charges in 2015. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict and the Justice Department dropped the charges in 2018.
“To those who were digging my political grave so that they could jump into my seat, I know who you are, and I won’t forget you,” Menendez vowed in a statement following the mistrial.
This time around, the son of Cuban immigrants is accused, among other criminal acts, of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs while helping his pals.
Menendez in one instance is accused of using his influence to pressure a U.S. Department of Agriculture official into protecting a monopoly created for a company owned by one of those friends, Wael Hana.
Hana's company held exclusive rights granted by the Egyptian government to verify that halal meat exported for sale to its 90 million Muslims was prepared according to Islamic law.
Menendez and his wife also gave the Egyptians sensitive US government information and secretly helped steer military aid to Egypt, the indictment alleges. In return, it says, they got "cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value."
The indictment also accuses Menendez of promising to use his influence to prompt President Biden to nominate a new U.S. Attorney for New Jersey whom he could manipulate.
Menendez wanted to help another friend, developer Fred Daibes, of Edgewater, who ended up pleading guilty in April 2022 to his role in an insider loan scam at Mariner's Bank, which he funded and for which he served as chairman of the board.
Daiies -- whose stamp is all over the development of the Hudson River waterfront between the Lincoln Tunnel and George Washington Bridge-- got a great deal in exchange for his plea to hiding a $1.8 million loan issued to him, observers said.
Nearly 18 months later, Daibes still hasn't been sentenced in that case.
He was named as a defendant, however, in the Menendez indictment.
Menendez, his wife, Daibes and the other defendants are scheduled for first appearances in U.S. District Court in Manhattan at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams held a news conference in Manhattan on Friday to formally announce the indictment.
Emphasizing that the investigation is "very much ongoing," Williams urged anyone with additional information to "come forward quickly" by reaching out to the FBI's tip line: 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Menendez, who grew up in Union City and was once its mayor, has bounced between both chambers on Capitol Hill.
He was still mayor when voters elected him to the General Assembly in Trenton in 1988, then won a Senate seat in a special election in 1991.
Menendez returned to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992, serving six consecutive two-year terms.
Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to take his place in the Senate in 2006 after Corzine was elected governor of New Jersey. Menendez was elected to a full six-year term in November, then was re-elected in 2012 and 2018.
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics "severely admonished" Menendez in April 2018 for quietly collecting gifts in exchange for influence.
*****
Click here to follow Daily Voice North Hunterdon and receive free news updates.
