US prosecutors presented new criminal charges this Tuesday against the powerful Democratic senator of Cuban origin Robert Menendezalleging that he accepted bribes to help a businessman obtain investments from a fund linked to the government of Qatar.
Menéndez already faces corruption-related charges in the same case, which he has denied, including conspiring to act as an agent of Egypt and accept bribes and carry out influence peddling to Cairo.
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The representative for New Jersey has rejected demands for him to resign, but in September he resigned as president of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Menéndez allegedly received bribes to help the businessman Fred Daibeswho “was seeking millions of dollars in investments from a fund linked to… Qatar, carrying out acts”beneficial for Dohaaccording to the accusation.
The senator had introduced Daibes to a member of the Qatari royal family, who was also a director of an unnamed investment company in that country.
“Menéndez made multiple public statements of support for the Qatari government” while the company was studying the possibility of investing in a real estate project owned by Daibes, according to the court document.
Daibes is also charged in the case and has pleaded not guilty, with a trial set for May 6.
In the Egypt-related charges, Menendez has been accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey residents between 2018 and 2022, and using his “power and influence to protect, enrich those businessmen and benefit the government of Egypt”.
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The superseding indictment revealed this Tuesday claims that investigators found more than $480,000 in cash stuffed in envelopes “and hidden in clothes, closets and a safe” in a search of Menéndez’s home.
Some of the money was found in jackets with the senator’s name on them.
The 70-year-old Democratic veteran, whose parents immigrated to USA from Cubahas denied having committed any crime.
