A New Jersey businessman reveals that he met directly with Senator Bob Menendez to bribe him to suspend criminal investigations
Insurance broker José Uribe explained that, due to the lack of progress achieved through Nadine Menendez, he decided to speak personally with the senator.
El senador demócrata Bob Menéndez, acusado de corrupción y de fungir como agente extranjero. (AFP)
José Uribe, a New Jersey insurance broker who claims to have bribed Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez to stop criminal investigations, testified Monday in a federal district court in Manhattan that he asked the senator directly for help and that he promised to "look into it."
Uribe explained that his request to Menendez occurred during dinner at a New Jersey restaurant on August 7, 2019, after a detective attempted to interview a young woman he considered his daughter as part of an insurance fraud investigation.
The businessman said that during that meal, he asked Menendez to do "anything in his power" to stop the investigation before it reached the young woman. "I asked him to help me get peace for me and my family," Uribe testified, revealing that Menendez seemed to know all the details about the case.
Uribe clarified that during that meeting, they had never discussed convertible that, months earlier, he had given to Menendez's partner, Nadine, as also part of the bribe to stop criminal investigations that threatened both a friend's trucking business and his own insurance company.
It should be noted that, according to the businessman's statements, he initially raised the problem with Wael Hana, a friend of Uribe and Menendez, who said that for between $200,000 and $250,000, he had "a way to make these things go away" by going to Nadine, who in turn would go to Senator Menendez.
Frustrated by the lack of progress, Uribe called Nadine directly and offered to buy her the Mercedes if she intervened with her husband. Additionally, Uribe organized a fundraiser for the senator to stay in "good graces" and began having subsequent meetings with Menendez. However, it wasn't until that dinner that he allegedly asked him for help directly.
On October 29, 2019, Uribe allegedly received a phone call from the senator that prompted him to thank Nadine in a text message: "I just got a call and I am a very happy person. God bless you and him forever." However, prosecutors have not yet asked the businessman about the call or the message.
LATEST
