Records reveal at least four of the gold bars discovered by the FBI during a search of Sen. Bob Menendez's home are tied to a businessman, who stands accused of a bribery scheme allegedly involving the Democrat senior senator from New Jersey, NBC4 in New York is reporting.
The businessman is Fred Daibes who had reported to police in 2013 that he was a victim of an armed robbery and said 22 gold bars and $500,000 were taken from him. Police later arrested four suspects with the stolen items.
In order to regain possession of the items, Daibes signed a form confirming the gold bars belonged to him, Bergen County, New Jersey prosecutor records show.
"Each gold bar has its own serial number," Daibes said to investigators in a 2014 transcript made by prosecutors and police who recovered — and had returned to Daibes — the items. "They're all stamped … you'll never see two stamped the same way."
After the search of Menendez's Clifton, New Jersey, home the FBI announced it found four gold bars with unique serial numbers
Prosecutors, in the current bribery case involving Menendez and Daibes included photos of some of the items found in the Menendez home in the indictment.
The television station noted serial numbers on four gold bars shown in the photos appear to be an exact match to those Daibes certified as stolen and returned to him in the robbery case.
"All of this spells bad news for Sen. Menendez because the chain of custody — it appears — is going to be really easy to prove up," said NBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos.
Prosecutors in September charged Menendez and his wife with bribery over their relationship with New Jersey businessmen.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan accused the defendants of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using Menendez's power and influence to seek to protect and enrich the businessmen, and benefit the government of Egypt, Reuters reported.
The indictment, aside from the image of the gold bars that investigators seized from Menendez's home, showed envelopes stuffed with cash found inside jackets bearing Menendez's name and hanging in his closet. Prosecutors said they found more than $480,000 in cash in his home. Businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Daibes — were also charged in the scheme.
Prosecutors said that in addition to cash and gold, the bribes also included payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a job with minimal requirements and a luxury vehicle.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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