According to documents published in the court database of the Southern District of New York, the senator accepted bribes in the form of valuable items, money, tickets to a Formula 1 World Championship racing event, and watches valued between $10,000 and $24,000 through a New Jersey businessman interested in securing multimillion-dollar investments from a company associated with the Qatari government. In return, Menendez was to “perform actions beneficial to the government of Qatar.”
Adam Fee, Menendez’s lawyer, stated that Menendez acted “entirely appropriately” in relation to Qatar and Egypt. “These new charges change nothing, and their theories will not withstand scrutiny in court or by a jury,” the attorney’s statement said, as reported by Reuters.
Menendez and his wife, ethnic Armenian Nadine Arslanyan, are accused of receiving gold and Formula 1 tickets in exchange for assisting businessman Fred Daibes in negotiations for multimillion-dollar investments in a New Jersey real estate project. According to the indictment, in June 2021, Menendez introduced Daibes to a member of the Qatari royal family managing an investment company.
Prosecutors allege that Menendez made public statements in favor of Qatar, and in August 2021, he provided Daibes with a preview of a press release praising the country’s government. “You might want to send them a message,” Menendez told Daibes in an encrypted message, according to the indictment.
As per the prosecution, by May 2022, the Qatari company, whose name has not been disclosed, had signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture with Daibes’ company.
According to prosecutors, Menendez was soon rewarded when a Qatari official gifted Nadine Menendez’s relative tickets to the Formula 1 race in Miami in May 2022, and Daibes gave Menendez a gold bar. At the end of the same month, after dinner with his wife and Daibes, the senator Googled “price per kilogram of gold,” prosecutors said.
Charges were also brought against Daibes and Nadine Menendez, but they have pleaded not guilty.
New charges filed in a federal court in Manhattan increase the pressure on the senator, who is resisting calls for his resignation from members of his own party, as reported by Reuters.
In September 2023, the senator, known for his pro-Armenian stance and anti-Azerbaijani and anti-Turkish statements, was charged with being involved in corrupt ties with three New Jersey businessmen and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Menendez received cash, gold bars, expensive cars, and other valuable items. Later, the U.S. Department of Justice brought an additional charge against Menendez, accusing him of working for Egypt. According to prosecutors, Menendez provided sensitive government information and exerted pressure on employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, acting in the interests of Egypt. Specifically, he could influence executive decisions regarding military sales and assistance to Egypt.
Menendez denies his guilt but has agreed to temporarily step down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has been a senator from New Jersey since 2006.
It should be noted that Menendez is the initiator of anti-Azerbaijani hearings in the U.S. Congress. He authored a bill to impose sanctions against Azerbaijan and provide military assistance to Armenia, and was a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues. For defending Armenian interests, he was awarded the Armenian Order of Friendship in 2022.
