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FROM CNN this morning: “Nadine Menendez, wife of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, got a diamond engagement ring as part of extensive bribes the couple received in exchange for the senator’s influence, according to a new filing from prosecutors.
“The ring was purchased for Nadine Menendez as part of a $150,000 bribe for her husband’s intervention in a criminal insurance fraud prosecution, prosecutors said in the Monday filing. Part of the money was used to purchase a Mercedes-Benz convertible for Nadine Menendez, and one of the co-defendants in the case, businessman Wael Hana, purchased the ring for her but kept some of the money for himself, prosecutors allege.
“Prosecutors claim Hana facilitated an agreement to provide bribes to the couple in exchange for the senator’s influence on matters benefiting himself, the Egyptian government and others.”
More on the case from The New York Times:
“A luxury Mercedes-Benz, gold bars, exercise equipment and stacks of cash featured prominently in a federal indictment that charged Senator Robert Menendez with accepting a sordid array of bribes.
“Now, prosecutors say a diamond engagement ring for the senator’s future wife, Nadine Menendez, was also part of the elaborate bribery scheme — and a source of infighting between co-defendants who are expected to stand trial together in May.
“Wael Hana, a longtime friend of Ms. Menendez’s who is also charged in the alleged conspiracy, attempted to cheat her out of the full value of the ring, according to court documents filed late Monday by prosecutors in Manhattan.
“In doing so, Mr. Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman who founded a halal meat company that prosecutors say was used to funnel bribes to the Menendezes, threatened to derail plans for the senator to assist the government of Egypt — part of the complicated plot he is accused of.”
“[Hana] was about to ruin things with Bob,” a confidential source, who was in touch with Egyptian officials, said, according to the government’s filing. “Bob who is starting to listen to us.”
The statewide staple of Democratic Party politics in New Jersey going back to 2006, powerful chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez of New Jersey and his wife Nadine absorbed indictments last September in New York on federal bribery conspiracy charges related to an allegedly corrupt relationship with three businessmen to benefit Egypt, according to CNBC. (And Qatar).
The couple pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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