Sen. Bob Menendez’s co-defendant Jose Uribe pleads guilty in bribery case, says he’ll cooperate
A New Jersey businessman accused of bribing Sen. Bob Menendez pleaded guilty Friday to a superseding indictment alleging he helped the Democrat and his wife purchase a Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for the powerful lawmaker protecting one of the businessman’s colleagues from a state investigation over 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 faces up to 95 years in prison if given the maximum sentence on all counts, but his actual penalty will be greatly reduced from that figure.
Uribe’s attorney Daniel Fetterman and a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.
Robert Luskin, an attorney for Menendez, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In court, Uribe confessed to making payments for the Mercedes “in a manner to conceal my involvement because I knew it was wrong. I knew that giving a car in return for influencing a United States senator to stop a criminal investigation was wrong, and I deeply regret my actions.”
He faces up to 95 years in prison upon conviction, but may have his eventual sentence reduced in exchange for testifying against the other defendants, according to his plea agreement.
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 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.
With Post wires
