US Sen. Bob Menendez launched a member of the Qatari royal household and principal in an organization with ties to the federal government of Qatar to a New Jersey businessman earlier than the corporate invested thousands and thousands of {dollars} within the businessman’s actual property challenge, a rewritten indictment alleged Tuesday.
The newest model of the indictment in opposition to the Democrat in Manhattan federal courtroom didn’t determine the member of the Qatari royal household, but it surely stated the person was a principal of the Qatari Funding Co.
The indictment stated the Qatari investor then thought-about and negotiated a multimillion-dollar funding in the actual property challenge deliberate by Fred Daibes, one among three businessmen charged within the indictment, together with the senator and his spouse. All of them have pleaded not responsible.
Legal professionals for Menendez didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Enterprise Insider.
A lawyer for Daibes declined to remark to Enterprise Insider.
No new expenses have been added to the most recent model of an indictment that already charged Menendez in a bribery conspiracy the indictment says enriched the senator and his spouse with money, gold bars, and a luxurious automobile. The allegations involving Qatar occurred from 2021 by means of 2023, the indictment stated.
After his September arrest, the senator resigned as chair of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee. He has resisted requires him to resign from his Senate seat.
In accordance with the indictment, Menendez accepted money and gold bars in trade for looking for to induce the Qatari Funding Co. to take a position with Daibes, together with by taking actions favorable to the federal government of Qatar.
The indictment stated that whereas the Qatari Funding Co. was contemplating its funding in the actual property improvement owned by Daibes, Menendez made a number of public statements supporting the federal government of Qatar after which supplied them to Daibes so he might share them with the Qatari investor and a Qatari authorities official.
In an earlier model of the indictment, Menendez, his spouse, and one of many businessmen have been charged with conspiring to illegally use the senator as an agent of the Egyptian authorities.
On the time, Menendez was the highest Democrat on the Senate Overseas Relations Committee. He later chaired the committee however stepped down following his expenses.
Prosecutors beforehand stated that Menendez met with unnamed Egyptian officers in March of 2018 and mentioned “overseas navy financing to Egypt,” per the indictment.
Menendez’s actions amounted to him appearing as a lobbyist for a overseas authorities, based on the indictment, however he by no means registered as such in accordance with the Overseas Brokers Registration Act.
Nonetheless, prosecutors say within the indictment that Menendez was effectively conscious of the act, as soon as insisting that the DOJ examine a former Home lawmaker he believed violated FARA.
Decide Sidney H. Stein, presiding over the case, refused final week to increase a Might 5 trial date after protection legal professionals requested extra time to organize for a trial they stated already contains over 6.7 million paperwork.
