Several gold bars were found at Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) residence during an FBI raid in June 2022 tied to a bribery investigation of the New Jersey Democrat.
The serial numbers of four of the gold bars found confirmed they were previously stolen in 2013 from the businessman accused of bribing the senator, NBC News reported Monday.
Robbers reportedly made off with $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars from the home of Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and long-time Menendez donor, during the heist.
“Each gold bar has its own serial number,” Daibes told investigators in 2014 when questioned about the stolen gold. “They’re all stamped…you’ll never see two stamped the same way.”
Menendez and his wife Nadine were indicted on bribery charges by the Southern District of New York in September.
Menendez was then charged with acting as a foreign agent in a superseding indictment in October.
The indictment claims Menendez and Nadine were involved in a “corrupt bribery agreement” from 2018 to 2022 involving Daibes, Egyptian native Wael Hana, who has connections to Egyptian officials, and Jose Uribe, involved in the New Jersey insurance and trucking business.
Prosecutors alleged the Menendezes accepted “cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle,” and other bribes in exchange for Menendez using his senatorial influence to benefit the businessmen.
They also alleged Daibes in March 2022 gave Nadine two gold bars of a kilogram each — when gold went for $60,000 per kilogram.
Menendez allegedly helped Daibes by recommending Joe Biden pick Philip Sellinger, who the senator believed would go easy on the case, for the post of New Jersey US attorney.
All told, 13 gold bars and $566,000 in cash, some stuffed into the pockets of the senator’s jackets, were found by the FBI during its raid.
Menendez faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
Menendez was tried previously for bribery in 2017, facing over a dozen criminal charges stemming from allegations he accepted over $700,000 in campaign-linked cash and thousands of dollars in free hotel rooms and air travel.
The judge later declared a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a verdict for more than a week.
Members of Congress, including Democrats, have called on Menendez to resign in the wake of the charges.
Meanwhile, House Republicans are too busy expelling former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress amid a pending fraud investigation.
