Disgraced ex-New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez will be incarcerated for his “golden” years.
Tuesday marked the start of the disgraced New Jersey Democrat’s 11-year sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania for a fraudulent scheme that gave him the nickname “Gold Bar Bob.”
After being found guilty of selling his influential Senate position to enrich himself with gold bars, cash, and other bribes, Menendez, 71, arrived at FCI Schuykill, which is two and a half hours away from his Englewood Cliffs home, at approximately nine in the morning.
When the once-dominant politician was sentenced in January, he was permitted to postpone the start of his prison sentence because he said he had to help his wife, Nadine Menendez, who was on trial for similar bribery and corruption accusations.
Additionally, he has attempted to get President Donald Trump to grant him a last-minute pardon or sentence commute; nevertheless, if that does not occur on Tuesday, Menendez will be residing at the Keystone State jail.
Last July, Menendez was found guilty on all 16 counts, despite his insistence on his innocence.
Federal prosecutors contended during the trial that the former senator took bribes from three New Jersey businessmen in the form of gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and other luxuries in exchange for favors that benefited the three of them as well as the governments of Qatar and Egypt.
Before reporting to the federal prison in eastern Pennsylvania, Menendez, 71, spent the final day with his wife, Nadine, who was also found guilty of the bribery scheme and will be imprisoned in September. On Monday, the pair was seen together entering an Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, credit union.
Menendez’s attorneys disclosed in court documents last month that he is anticipated to be held at a facility in eastern Pennsylvania that houses a minimum-security prison camp in addition to a medium-security jail.
He is likely to wind himself at the camp because his crimes are white-collar.
The Federal Correctional Institution, Schuylkill, which is a penitentiary, is located approximately 118 miles west of New York City.
About 1,200 prisoners reside there, including former New York City organized crime leader James Coonan and former gas station owner Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, who was called “Gas-Station Gotti” by the New York Post for his harsh and merciless methods.
A federal appeals court last week denied Menendez’s desperate attempt to remain free on bail while he fights to have his bribery conviction overturned. His bail application was refused by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“I am far from a perfect man,” Menendez told a judge at his sentence in January, pleading for leniency. I’ve made my fair share of poor choices and errors. I’ve accomplished a lot more good than negative.”
At his January sentencing, Menendez’s lawyers described how the son of Cuban immigrants emerged from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream” — rising from mayor of Union City, New Jersey, to decades in Congress — before his conviction “rendered him a national punchline.”
“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as Gold Bar Bob,” defense lawyer Adam Fee told the judge.
When the FBI raided Menendez’s house in 2022, they found roughly $480,000 in cash and gold bars worth about $150,000 stashed in various places in clothes, shoes, bags, and boxes. There was also a fancy Mercedes-Benz convertible at the house.
Menendez was accused by the prosecution of using his position to help Egypt obtain $300 million in U.S. military aid, influence U.S. policy in Egypt and Qatar, and thwart criminal investigations into his associates, Wael Hana, Fred Daibes, and Jose Uribe.
They also cited payments purportedly made through a phony consulting firm. In his testimony, Uribe criticized his fellow defendants.
