NEW JERSEY SEN. BOB MENENDEZ INDICTED ON FEDERAL CORRUPTION CHARGES

09:22, 02 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The Justice Department formally handed down an indictment for New
Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez on Wednesday, alleging that the Democrat used
his Senate office to promote the interests of friend and Democratic
donor Dr. Salomon Melgen, CBS News reports.

Menendez, 61, of Union City, New Jersey, and Melgen, 61, of West Palm
Beach, Florida, were indicted in the District of New Jersey for one
count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, eight
counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud. Menendez
was also charged with one count of making false statements. The case
is being handled by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section.

“Between January 2006 and January 2013, Menendez accepted close to $1
million worth of lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen
in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to influence the
outcome of ongoing contractual and Medicare billing disputes worth tens
of millions of dollars to Melgen and to support the visa applications
of several of Melgen’s girlfriends,” the Justice Department explained
in a statement.”

Those gifts included “flights on Melgen’s private jet, a first-class
commercial flight and a flight on a chartered jet; numerous vacations
at Melgen’s Caribbean villa in the Dominican Republic and at a hotel
room in Paris; and $40,000 in contributions to his legal defense
fund and over $750,000 in campaign contributions,” according to the
statement. “Menendez never disclosed any of the reportable gifts that
he received from Melgen on his financial disclosure forms.”

Investigators have been looking into the relationship between
the two men for several years, but the senator has maintained his
innocence throughout, previously deriding the investigation as a
politically-motivated “smear campaign.”