Current:Home > FinanceTestimony at Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial focuses on his wife’s New Jersey home -Ascend Wealth Education
Testimony at Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial focuses on his wife’s New Jersey home
View
Date:2025-04-18 09:22:42
NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey businessman rescued the home of Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife from foreclosure just as the Democrat allegedly helped him secure a lucrative business relationship with Egypt, a lawyer testifying at his bribery trial said Monday.
Attorney John Moldovan told a Manhattan federal court jury that he was working for the businessman, Wael Hana, in July 2019 when he was asked to pay over $20,000 toward the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home’s mortgage.
Moldovan said Hana provided the money that he delivered to a bank to negate the need for a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit.
Menendez, 70, who has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, moved into the home after the couple married a year later. Hana and Menendez’s wife, Nadine, have pleaded not guilty in the case as well, although Nadine Menendez’s trial has been postponed until July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and surgery was required.
In 2022, an FBI raid turned up 13 gold bars and over $480,000 in cash in the home, and a federal agent who led the raid testified extensively about it last week, saying tens of thousands of dollars were found stuffed in four jackets where the senator kept his coats. Other cash was found in bags and in a closet safe.
Prosecutors say the gold bars, cash and a luxury car found in the couple’s garage were bribery proceeds.
Lawyers for Menendez have said that the gold bars belonged to his wife and that the senator hoarded cash at home as a reaction to trauma from his family losing everything, except cash, before they fled Cuba — and before he was born.
Moldovan testified that Hana asked him to establish a legal record that the money to pay off outstanding debt on the mortgage was a loan rather than a gift.
In all, Nadine Menendez owed nearly $271,000 on a $320,750 mortgage, Moldovan said.
Prosecutors say the mortgage payment was made just as Hana was securing a monopoly with Egypt to ensure that any meat exported there from the U.S. was certified by Hana’s company to prove it was processed in a manner that conformed with Islamic dietary requirements.
Prosecutors say while he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez took favorable actions toward Egypt to aid Hana, who had been friends with Nadine Menendez for many years. He had to relinquish the position after his fall arrest.
Among the charges lodged against the senator is that he was acting as a foreign agent of Egypt.
The trial, which began last week, is supposed to last at least another month.
veryGood! (13)
Related
- Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
- Albert Alarr, 'Days of Our Lives' executive producer, ousted after misconduct allegations, reports say
- Pope Francis restates church is for everyone, including LGBTQ+ people
- Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz says conference realignment ignores toll on student-athletes
- Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
- South Korea evacuating World Scout Jamboree site as Typhoon Khanun bears down
- More U.S. school districts are shifting to a 4-day week. Here's why.
- Jada Pinkett Smith Shares Update on Her Hair Journey Amid Alopecia Battle
- Louvre will undergo expansion and restoration project, Macron says
- Bankruptcy becomes official for Yellow freight company; trucking firm going out of business
Ranking
- From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
- Inside Sandra Bullock and Bryan Randall's Private Love Story
- Yellow trucking company that got $700 million pandemic bailout files for bankruptcy
- Half a million without power in US after severe storms slam East Coast, killing 2
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- Heading to the Eras tour? Don't bring these items to the concert
- Federal judge tosses Trump's defamation claim against E. Jean Carroll
- Researchers create plastic alternative that's compostable in home and industrial settings
Recommendation
Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
A lost 140-pound baby walrus is getting round-the-clock cuddles in rare rescue attempt
Vanderpump Rules' Ariana Madix Shakes Off Wardrobe Malfunction Like a Pro
Riley Keough Shares Where She Stands With Grandmother Priscilla Presley After Graceland Settlement
Average rate on 30
Stop calling us about manatees, they're just mating, Florida authorities tell beachgoers
Unlimited vacation can save companies billions. But is it a bad deal for workers?
Man injured by grizzly bear while working in Wyoming forest