Senator Bob Menendez helped connect a New Jersey businessman to the Qatari royal family, prosecutors say. The Qatari royal family member then negotiated a multimillion-dollar investment in a real estate project. Menendez was previously charged for accepting bribes to help the Egyptian government.
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US Sen. Bob Menendez introduced a member of the Qatari royal family and principal in a company with ties to the government of Qatar to a New Jersey businessman before the company invested millions of dollars in the businessman’s real estate project, a rewritten indictment alleged Tuesday.
The latest version of the indictment against the Democrat in Manhattan federal court did not identify the member of the Qatari royal family, but it said the individual was a principal of the Qatari Investment Co.
The indictment said the Qatari investor then considered and negotiated a multimillion-dollar investment in the real estate project planned by Fred Daibes, one of three businessmen charged in the indictment, along with the senator and his wife, Nadine Arslanian. All of them have pleaded not guilty.
In a statement to Business Insider, Adam Fee, counsel to Menendez, said that the new allegations “stink of desperation” and claimed the government “does not have the proof” to make them.
“At all times, Senator Menendez acted entirely appropriately with respect to Qatar, Egypt, and the many other countries he routinely interacts with,” Fee said. “Those interactions were always based on his professional judgment as to the best interests of the United States because he is, and always has been, a patriot.”
A lawyer for Daibes declined to comment to Business Insider.
No new charges were added to the latest version of an indictment that already charged Menendez in a bribery conspiracy the indictment says enriched the senator and his wife with cash, gold bars, and a luxury car. The allegations involving Qatar occurred from 2021 through 2023, the indictment said.
After his September arrest, the senator resigned as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has resisted calls for him to resign from his Senate seat.
According to the indictment, Menendez accepted cash and gold bars in exchange for seeking to induce the Qatari Investment Co. to invest with Daibes, including by taking actions favorable to the government of Qatar.
The indictment said that while the Qatari Investment Co. was considering its investment in the real estate development owned by Daibes, Menendez made multiple public statements supporting the government of Qatar and then provided them to Daibes so he could share them with the Qatari investor and a Qatari government official.
In an earlier version of the indictment, Menendez, his wife, and one of the businessmen were charged with conspiring to illegally use the senator as an agent of the Egyptian government.
At the time, Menendez was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He later chaired the committee but stepped down following his charges.
Prosecutors previously said that Menendez met with unnamed Egyptian officials in March of 2018 and discussed “foreign military financing to Egypt,” per the indictment.
Menendez’s actions amounted to him acting as a lobbyist for a foreign government, according to the indictment, but he never registered as such in accordance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
However, prosecutors say in the indictment that Menendez was well aware of the act, once insisting that the DOJ investigate a former House lawmaker he believed violated FARA.
Judge Sidney H. Stein, presiding over the case, refused last week to extend a May 5 trial date after defense lawyers requested more time to prepare for a trial they said already includes over 6.7 million documents.
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