Jose Uribe leaves federal court after a hearing on bribery allegations on September 27, 2023 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
A co-defendant in the criminal corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez pleaded guilty Friday in New York federal court and agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of the New Jersey Democrat.
Menendez’s co-defendant, Joe Uribe, pleaded guilty to seven counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud and obstruction of justice.
The other defendants in the case – Menendez, the senator’s wife Nadine, and two other New Jersey businessmen – are scheduled to stand trial in Manhattan federal court beginning May 6.
Uribe, who works in the trucking and insurance industries, was indicted in September along with the other defendants.
The Clifton, New Jersey, resident and two other businessmen were accused of having a “corrupt relationship” with Menendez and Nadine Menendez.
The senator allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, home mortgage payments and other items that were part of the relationship.
Senator Menendez is accused, among other things, of providing confidential U.S. government information that secretly helped the Egyptian government and pressuring a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to establish a business monopoly in Egypt for one of the defendants, Wael Hana, to protect. The senator was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.
U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee to support U.S. District Judge nominee and current Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Jamel Semper at a nominations hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, USA, on October 4, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Prosecutors said Uribe and Hana offered in 2019 to help the Menendezes buy the Mercedes, which was worth more than $60,000.
In turn, Senator Menendez agreed and attempted to interfere in an investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office into the prosecution of a Uribe associate for insurance fraud and a related investigation of a Uribe associate, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
According to prosecutors, Uribe paid Nadine Menendez $15,000 in cash for the down payment on the Mercedes in April 2019.
“Thereafter, between 2019 and June 2022, Uribe made monthly payments to Mercedes-Benz for the convertible,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in September.
“Uribe only stopped making these monthly payments after the FBI contacted Menendez, Nadine Menendez and Uribe in connection with this investigation.”
Uribe, who remains free on a $1 million personal recognizance bond, faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison but is likely to receive a much lighter sentence given federal sentencing guidelines and his promise to cooperate.
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2024-03-01 19:05:39
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