Bitcoin Critic Senator Menendez Charged With Corruption, Bribery

U.S. Senator and Bitcoin skeptic Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has been charged with bribery after allegedly accepting swaths of gold, money, and mortgage funds as a part of a “corrupt relationship” with three businessmen in his residence state. 

The fees comply with years of criticism from the politician focusing on cryptocurrencies, which he has accused of enabling a spread of legal actions whereas empowering overseas actors to evade U.S. sanctions. “From not less than 2018 as much as and together with in or about 2022, Menendez and his spouse, Nadine Menendez, agreed to and did settle for a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} of bribes in alternate for utilizing Menendez’s energy and affect,” learn the Friday indictment.

Federal prosecutors allege Menendez helped enrich three businessmen—Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes—whereas additionally benefiting the federal government of Egypt by offering “delicate U.S. authorities data,” amongst different costs.

For instance, prosecutors say Menendez used his affect to dismantle a legal probe in New Jersey in opposition to Uribe, and to guard an Egyptian enterprise monopoly granted to Hana by the Egyptian authorities that was partly chargeable for paying Menendez’s bribes. 

Menendez denied the allegations in a press release. “I stay targeted on persevering with this vital work and won’t be distracted by baseless allegations,” he mentioned. All in all, the senator faces three federal costs: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit trustworthy providers fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion beneath colour of official proper. If convicted, Menendez faces as much as 20 years in jail.In line with the indictment, in June 2022, a search warrant in opposition to Menendez, his residence, and a secure deposit field revealed a few of the proceeds from the alleged bribes: over $500,000 in money, a luxurious automobile, and over $100,000 in gold bars. Prosecutors are searching for the forfeiture of the seized belongings.

Menendez’s use of extra conventional devices to allegedly cover ill-gotten features presents a stark distinction to his historic outlook on Bitcoin. In 2017, the senator despatched a letter to FinCEN stating that the “nameless nature of Bitcoin transactions” makes it “a super selection for criminals.”Menendez is well-known in crypto circles for co-sponsoring the Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador (ACES) Act, which seeks to analyze how El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as authorized tender might create “dangers for cybersecurity, financial stability, and democratic governance in El Salvador.”

Menendez was additionally amongst many politicians to sound the alarm on Fb’s now-defunct stablecoin challenge, Libra, in July 2019. “Libra could possibly be the Wild West of cryptocurrency the place cash launderers, criminals, and international locations searching for to keep away from U.S. sanctions might function,” he mentioned throughout a Senate listening to on the time.