NEW JERSEY – A judge sentenced former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison Wednesday after being convicted of a bribery and corruption scheme.
In July, Menendez was found guilty of 16 felony counts – accepting bribes, using the power of his office to protect allies from prosecution, and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt. The following month he resigned from the Senate.
Menendez pleaded with U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein to spare him jail time, listing off accomplishments from his decades in public service.
“You really don’t know the man you are about to sentence,” Menendez said.
Prosecutors argued for a 15-year sentence, while Menendez’s lawyers asked for no more than an eight-year sentence.
Two New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes to the senator, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were also sentenced Wednesday. Daibes, a real estate developer, was sentenced to seven years in prison and a $1.75 million fine. Hana, an entrepreneur, was handed a sentence of eight years in prison and a fine of $1.25 million.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, were indicted for the scheme in 2023 following a lengthy investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office.
According to federal prosecutors, the businessmen paid bribes to Menendez and his wife in exchange for the senator taking actions to benefit them and the governments of Qatar and Egypt. The bribes included gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz and more than $480,000 in cash – which the FBI found stuffed inside boots and the pockets of clothing hung in the couple’s closets when they searched their home. They also seized gold bars worth an estimated $150,000.
In addition, Prosecutors said Menendez had “put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes,” including by serving Egypt’s interests as he worked to protect a meat certification monopoly Hana had established with the Egyptian government.
Nadine Menendez will face trial in March on many of the same charges as her husband.
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