Bribery: U.S. Senator Menendez indicted for receiving gifts from Qatar
American Senator Robert Menendez has been charged with using his position to provide help to Qatar months after he was accused of collecting money and gifts from Egypt in exchange for his political influence.
According to the New York Times, Mr Menendez, a Democrat senator from New Jersey, used his political influence to enable a prominent New Jersey developer to secure funding from an investment fund run by a Qatari sheikh.
In exchange for the favour, Mr Menendez reportedly received lucrative bribes, which included cash, gold bars, Formula 1 tickets for a relative and an offer of a designer watch, the federal prosecutors in Manhattan, United States, said.
Also, the prosecutors said that the developer, Fred Daibes, “also expected Menendez in exchange to take action to benefit the government of Qatar, and thereby benefit Daibes, who was seeking millions of dollars in investment from a fund with ties to the government of Qatar.”
During a search warrant execution at the politician’s home in 2022, authorities found two one-kilo gold bars and a stack of thousands of dollars in cash, among other things, in Mr Menendez’s home, which are said to be proceeds from bribes.
The BBC reported that the cash found at the home bore Mr Daibes’ fingerprints and DNA.
Mr Menendez and his wife, also charged in the indictment, pleaded not guilty.
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