A New Jersey businessman accused of bribing Sen. Bob Menendez pleaded guilty Friday to a superseding indictment alleging he gave the Democrat’s wife cash to help purchase a Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for the powerful lawmaker protecting one of his colleagues from a state investigation for insurance fraud.
Jose Uribe, a former insurance agent in Menendez’s hometown of Union City, copped to seven counts during a Manhattan federal court hearing, including charges of wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion — and agreed to “cooperate fully” with investigators, court filings show.
US District Judge Sidney Stein accepted Uribe’s guilty plea and set a sentencing hearing for June 14.
Uribe’s attorneys, Daniel Fetterman and Fria Kermani, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine, met Uribe in a parking lot in April 2019 and was handed $15,000 in cash, which was later used to make a down payment on the C-class black convertible, according to a September indictment.
Notably, the recent indictment does not mention the cash payment but, rather, a “financing payment” for the Mercedes-Benz from a Bronx bank in May 2019, and a text message chain between Menendez, his wife and Uribe about a meeting in September 2019.
Uribe and New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes made other cash payments amounting to $566,000, handed over 13 gold bars worth more than $150,000 and showered Menendez and his wife with other lavish gifts.
According to Friday’s filing, Uribe did so with the expectation that the senator would “pressure” the New Jersey Attorney General’s office to favorably resolve a criminal prosecution into one of his associates.
But he “caused his then-counsel to make false and misleading statements” to the office of Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams when pressed about the payment — describing the Mercedes-Benz payments as “loans.”
The superseding indictment states Uribe further evaded tax payments between 2016 and 2021 by not reporting personal income on business entities he controlled under alternate names.
It also states Uribe defrauded the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program of $246,000 by submitting fake tax returns, which he must forfeit to the federal government in addition to the other payments made to Menendez.
Bob and Nadine Menendez, as well as their other three co-defendants had previously pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case is currently scheduled to go to trial May 6.
Menendez’s charges also include allegations of using his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — a role noted in Uribe’s recent filings — to benefit the Egyptian government and a Qatari real estate firm.
The Garden State Democrat stepped down from his chair position on the committee following the charges, but has maintained his innocence and refused calls to resign from colleagues on both sides of the aisle.