前参议员梅嫩德斯受贿案判刑11年：收金条现金替埃及等外国政府办事
2025年1月29日，美国纽约南区联邦检察官办公室宣布，前联邦参议员 Robert Menendez 在纽约州纽约县的联邦法院被判处11年监禁，罪名涉及受贿、充当外国代理人及妨害司法。同案商人 Wael Hana 被判97个月监禁并处罚金125万美元，Fred Daibes 被判7年监禁并处罚金175万美元；梅嫩德斯另被没收922,188.10美元。
三人于2024年7月16日经九周陪审团审判被定罪，量刑由联邦地区法官 Sidney H. Stein 作出。梅嫩德斯时年71岁，案发时是新泽西州资深联邦参议员兼参议院外交关系委员会主席。检方指控，2018年至2022年间，他与妻子 Nadine Menendez 收受 Hana、Daibes 与保险业商人 Jose Uribe 价值数十万美元的贿赂，包括金条、现金、一辆豪华敞篷车、房贷还款与一份低工作量乃至无须上班的工作。2022年6月，联邦调查局搜查其新泽西州住所，查获藏在信封、衣物、壁橱与保险箱中的逾48万美元现金，以及价值逾10万美元的金条。
作为交换，梅嫩德斯动用参议员的影响力为行贿者与外国政府办事：向埃及官员提供美国驻开罗大使馆人员构成等敏感非公开信息，替埃及代笔致函同僚呼吁解除对3亿美元援助的冻结，并施压农业部官员为 Hana 的清真认证垄断生意护航；他还试图干预新泽西州总检察长办公室对 Uribe 关联人的刑事调查，并推荐一名自认为可影响的人选出任新泽西区联邦检察官、意图干扰 Daibes 的联邦案件，同时为卡塔尔政府作出有利表态。案发后，他又与妻子串谋妨害司法，把贿款谎称为贷款。
联邦检察官 Danielle R. Sassoon 说：「今天的判决源于联邦政府立法部门最高层级一起恶劣的滥权。Robert Menendez 本应代表美国和新泽西州，却利用职权帮助同谋与一个外国政府，换取现金、金条和豪华汽车等贿赂。」本案由联邦调查局与国税局刑事调查部门侦查，检方公共腐败组承办。Uribe 已认罪、定于2025年4月24日量刑；对 Nadine Menendez 的指控仍在审理中，她被推定无罪，审判定于2025年3月18日开始。
（来源：美国司法部纽约南区联邦检察官办公室）
Former Senator Robert Menendez Sentenced to 11 Years for Bribery, Acting as a Foreign Agent, and Obstruction
On January 29, 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced that former U.S. Senator Robert Menendez had been sentenced in federal court in New York County, New York, to 11 years in prison for bribery, foreign agent, and obstruction of justice offenses. His co-defendants, businessman Wael Hana was sentenced to 97 months in prison and a $1,250,000 fine, and Fred Daibes to seven years in prison and a $1,750,000 fine; Menendez was also ordered to forfeit $922,188.10.
The three were convicted on July 16, 2024, following a nine-week jury trial, and were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein. Menendez, 71, was at the time of the scheme the senior U.S. Senator from New Jersey and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Prosecutors said that between 2018 and 2022, he and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Hana, Daibes, and insurance businessman Jose Uribe — including gold, cash, a luxury convertible, payments toward Nadine Menendez's home mortgage, and compensation for a low-or-no-show job. In June 2022, the FBI searched the couple's New Jersey home and found more than $480,000 in cash, much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe, as well as more than $100,000 worth of gold bars.
In exchange, Menendez used his power and influence as a Senator to benefit the bribers and foreign governments: he provided Egyptian officials with sensitive, non-public information about the staffing of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, ghostwrote a letter on Egypt's behalf urging Senate colleagues to release a hold on $300 million in aid, and pressured a senior Agriculture Department official to protect Hana's halal certification monopoly; he sought to disrupt a New Jersey Attorney General criminal investigation involving an associate of Uribe; and he recommended a U.S. Attorney candidate for New Jersey whom he believed he could influence in Daibes's federal case, while also making public statements benefiting the Government of Qatar. After the scheme came under investigation, he and his wife conspired to obstruct justice by falsely characterizing bribe payments as loans.
U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon said: "The sentences imposed today result from an egregious abuse of power at the highest levels of the Legislative Branch of the federal government. Robert Menendez was trusted to represent the United States and the State of New Jersey, but instead he used his position to help his co-conspirators and a foreign government, in exchange for bribes like cash, gold, and a luxury car." The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by the Office's Public Corruption Unit. Uribe has pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24, 2025; charges remain pending against Nadine Menendez, who is presumed innocent and is scheduled to go to trial on March 18, 2025.
来源：美国司法部纽约南区联邦检察官办公室
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于曼哈顿的 Daniel Patrick Moynihan 联邦法院大楼，纽约南区联邦地区法院所在地。（Ken Lund 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: The Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan, home of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. (Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
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