Ex-Senator Menendez Gets 11 Years for Gold Bar Bribe Scheme (2)

Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison for acting as a foreign agent of Egypt and accepting gold bars and other bribes in what prosecutors said was perhaps the worst corruption case ever involving a US senator.

US District Judge Sidney Stein imposed the sentence on Menendez, 71, saying the New Jersey Democrat was motivated by greed and hubris after a half-century as an elected official. Menendez was convicted after a nine-week trial where prosecutors said he sold his influence to two corrupt businessmen, who received prison terms of seven and eight years earlier Wednesday.

Former Senator Robert Menendez arrives at federal court in New York, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.

Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg

The sentence completes the downfall of a gifted politician who rose from a family of Cuban immigrants to become the most powerful Hispanic lawmaker in Congress. Menendez, who overcame previous corruption charges when a 2017 case ended in a mistrial, was forced to resign after New York jurors convicted him in July. He was the first lawmaker ever convicted of acting as a foreign agent.

“You were successful, powerful and you stood at the apex of our political system,” Stein said. “Somewhere along the way you became, I’m sorry to say, a corrupt politician.”

Menendez made an impassioned plea for mercy to Stein, citing his Senate actions to help constituents and pass legislation. “I have lost everything I care about,” Menendez told the judge.

‘Chastened Man’

Menendez, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, fought back tears as he urged the judge to consider his life of public service.

“You have before you a chastened man — chastened by the charges I’ve been accused of,” Menendez said. “I’ve been chastened by a trial that has ripped apart my life.”

The senator took bribes of 13 gold bars, nearly $500,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz, prosecutors said. They said Menendez illegally helped Egypt secure US military aid and sensitive information; protected an Egyptian monopoly that Hana secured to inspect meat bound for Egypt; influenced a US indictment in New Jersey of Daibes; and swayed New Jersey criminal probes of people close to another businessman who admitted bribing the senator with a Mercedes.

Outside the courthouse, Menendez said: “I am innocent, and I look forward to filing appeals on a whole host of issues.”

He seemed to reach out to President Donald Trump, saying: “This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system.”

Menendez is planning to ask Trump for a pardon, according to a person familiar with the matter. Former President Joe Biden declined a pardon request before leaving office.

Menendez was convicted with two New Jersey businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana. Earlier Wednesday, Stein sentenced Daibes, a prominent New Jersey developer, to seven years in prison and a $1.75 million fine. Hana, who ran a halal meat inspection firm, got eight years and a a $1.25 million fine.

After Daibes and Hana were sentenced, Menendez’s lawyer said that eight years would be sufficient time for his client, a substantial concession from his earlier request for a two-year term. Still, he emphasized that the former senator’s life shouldn’t be defined by the bribery charges.

‘Gold Bar Bob’

“For nearly 50 years, he’s been a tireless servant of his community, his state and his country,” the lawyer, Adam Fee, told Stein. “Despite his decades of service, he is now known more as ‘Gold Bar Bob.’”

“He does not deserve to die in jail,” Fee said. “He is a good and honorable man who made mistakes that he will regret and pay for the rest of his life.”

Stein will preside over a separate trial in March of Menendez’s wife, Nadine, after rejecting her requests to delay the case as she battles breast cancer. Prosecutors say she was a go-between who collected bribes and set up meetings with the businessmen and Egyptian officials.

Menendez’s lawyers have said his case raises “important, difficult and novel questions” on appeal. They say prosecutors trampled on his rights under the US Constitution’s “Speech or Debate” clause, which protects lawmakers from legal actions arising from statements made during legislative activity. They also argue that prosecutors improperly included 11 exhibits among 3,000 given to jurors during their deliberations.

Forfeit Car, Gold

The judge also ordered Menendez to forfeit proceeds of the crime totaling $922,188. That covers a 2019 Mercedes-Benz convertible; $566,221 in cash seized from his house and his wife’s safe deposit box; 11 one-ounce and two one-kilogram gold bars; and an elliptical machine.

Before his sentencing, Daibes told the judge he was numb, and later “borderline suicidal,” when the jury came in with a guilty verdict. “Not a day went by that I didn’t wonder how did this happen to me?”

Daibes broke down in tears when asking the judge for a sentence of home confinement, for the sake of his autistic, 30-year-old son.

“I am going to ask you for mercy, not for me but for my son,” he told the judge.

Hana told the judge that the prosecution was a “misunderstanding.”

“I am an innocent man,” Hana said. “I never bribed Senator Menendez or asked his office for influence.”

(Updates with Menendez comments starting in 11th paragraph.)

To contact the reporters on this story:
David Voreacos in New York at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net;
Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net;
Jazper Lu in New York at jlu669@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Anthony Aarons, Steve Stroth

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