Defendant’s guilty plea deals blow to Sen. Menendez

He was accused of paying off Sen. Robert Menendez with a luxury $60,000 Mercedez-Benz convertible in return for the senator’s considerable political muscle to help him out of a legal jam.

Hudson County businessman Jose Uribe yesterday in an unannounced appearance pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to seven counts that included conspiracy to commit bribery, wire fraud, tax evasion and other related charges, while agreeing to testify against Menendez.

Uribe could go to prison for 95 years on all counts but likely would be sentenced to far less than that, given his decision to cooperate with prosecutors.He was allowed to remain free on a $1 million bond, which was set when he was arrested.

The plea and cooperation agreement, meanwhile, dealt a stunning blow to the senator’s defense. The New Jersey Democrat and his wife, Nadine, along with two others charged in the case, have all entered not-guilty charges and are challenging the government’s claims of any wrongdoing.

Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, declined comment.

Menendez’s attorney and a spokesman for his office did not immediately respond to questions regarding the Uribe plea.

A lawyer for Uribe declined comment.

The plea deal specifically noted not only Uribe’s cooperation, but his willingness to testify at trial.

He also agreed to forfeit $246,000, representing proceeds prosecutors said were traceable to his crimes.

The case against Menendez came to light in September when he was indicted with Uribe and the others amid explosive allegations detailing tens of thousands in payoffs that included the Mercedes, gold bars and envelopes stuffed with cash.

According to prosecutors, those bribes had been paid to buy the influence of the once-powerful senator in matters that included the awarding of a lucrative contract with Egypt for a close friend and associate, but also, they said, as payment for providing U.S. government information to Egypt.

Uribe was a relatively minor player in the wide-ranging case, court records show.

The indictment charged Menendez with attempting to interfere in a state criminal insurance fraud prosecution involving Uribe, who had insurance and trucking interests in New Jersey. It claimed Menendez contacted a senior official in the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General on Uribe’s behalf “to resolve these matters favorably.”

In return, prosecutors said, Uribe and another man charged in the case, Wael Hana, arranged to buy Nadine Menendez a new Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible worth more than $60,000.

Only a few days after Menendez’s first call to an unnamed official in Attorney General’s office, prosecutors said the senator’s wife texted Hana, “All is GREAT! I’m so excited to get a car next week!”

Hana has pleaded not guilty.

After the purchase was complete, Nadine allegedly texted her husband: “Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” and followed it up with a picture of the car.

That same day, Uribe sent her a text inquiring if she was “happy” with the Mercedes. She allegedly responded: “I will never forget this.”

In his plea yesterday before Sidney H. Stein of Federal District Court, Uribe admitted making payments for the car on behalf of Menendez and his wife from one of his corporate bank accounts, in return for the senator’s influence. He also acknowledged having his attorney make false and misleading statements to the U.S. Attorney’s office, claiming the payments for the car were nothing more than loans.

The trial of Menendez, who is up for reelection in November, is set to being in May. He has not said whether he will run again, but is already being challenged in the Democratic primary by Rep. Andy Kim, D-3rd Dist., and Tammy Murphy, the wife of Gov. Phil Murphy, along with other Democrats running in the primary, labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina and activist Lawrence Hamm.

Attorneys for Menendez, seeking a dismissal of the indictment, have pushed back against the charges, arguing that the government’s accusations that he sold his office and even sold out his nation, “are outrageously false, and indeed distort reality.”

They say every official act the senator took “represented his good-faith policy judgments based solely on appropriate considerations,” and that the actions by Menendez cited by prosecutors as evidence of wrongdoing were part of his legislative activities as a member of Congress.

Prosecutors have rejected the argument.

The allegations involving Hana charged that Menendez improperly pressured an individual at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the purpose of protecting a business monopoly granted to Hana. His New Jersey company had been authorized by the Egyptian government to verify that halal meat exported for sale to the country’s 90 million Muslims had been prepared according to Islamic law. That monopoly, charged prosecutors, was used in part to fund the bribes being paid to Menendez through his wife.

The indictment also charged that Menendez promised to “use his influence and power” to recommend that President Joe Biden nominate an individual as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey “who Menendez believed could be influenced” with respect to an unrelated federal criminal prosecution of Fred Daibes, a well-known developer and friend of the senator. Daibes had been charged in an insider loan scam at Mariner’s Bank, the financial institution that he founded and where he served as chairman of the board of directors.

Daibes has entered a plea of not guilty.

Even more explosive, however, were charges in a superseding indictment that Menendez conspired to act as an agent of Egypt while serving as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and used his influence to benefit the government of Qatar in connection with a favor for Daibes, who was seeking investment money for one of his real estate projects.