Co-defendant in Sen. Bob Menendez corruption case pleads guilty

A co-defendant in the criminal corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez has pleaded guilty in New York federal court and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution of the New Jersey Democrat.

Menendez’s co-defendant Joe Uribe pleaded guilty to seven counts including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud, and obstruction of justice.

Uribe, who works in trucking and insurance, was indicted in September in Manhattan federal court with Menendez, Menendez’s wife Nadine, and two other New Jersey businessmen.

Uribe, who lives in Clifton, New Jersey, and the other two men were accused of having a “corrupt relationship” with Menendez.

The senator allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, home mortgage payments, and other things are part of that relationship.

Menendez and the remaining defendants have all pleaded not guilty in the case.

Prosecutors have said that in 2019, Uribe and another defendant in the case, Wael Hana, offered to help buy the Mercedes, which was worth more than $60,000, for the Menendezes.

In exchange for that, Sen. Menendez agreed to and tried to interfere in an investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s criminal insurance fraud prosecution of an associate of Uribe, and a related probe of an employee of Uribe, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Uribe ended up giving Nadine Menendez $15,000 in cash for the downpayment on the Merceds in April 2019, prosecutors have said.

“Thereafter, Uribe made monthly payments to Mercedes-Benz for the convertible between 2019 and June 2022,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in September. “Uribe only stopped making those monthly payments after the FBI approached Menendez, Nadine Menendez and Uribe in connection with this investigation.”

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