"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
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The jury in the federal corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and two of his business associates, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, found Menendez guilty on all charges after a grueling nine-week complex trial in Manhattan….
During the trial, prosecutors used cited emails and text messages from Menendez – as well as FBI testimony – to present evidence they argued shows the senator accepted extravagant gifts from foreign governments. The gifts totaled more than $100,000 worth of gold bars, in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stuffed throughout Menendez’s New Jersey home.
Menendez was charged by federal prosecutors with 18 counts since he pleaded innocent last year, all relating to a multiyear alleged bribery scheme involving the Egypt and Qatar governments.
In March, an 18-page indictment was wrapped into Menendez’s existing charges already against him and his co-defendants — including his wife, Nadine — for allegedly acting as a foreign agent and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to benefit the Egyptian government through his power and influence as a senator….
And, what happened to Nadine, I thought I read that she skipped the country?
US senator Bob Menendez faces new corruption charges
involving Qatar
US prosecutors unveiled new criminal charges against Senator Robert Menendez on Tuesday, alleging he took bribes to help a businessman secure investment from a fund with ties to Qatar's government.
Menendez already faces corruption-related charges in the same case, which he has denied, including conspiring to act as an agent of Egypt and taking bribes and influence peddling for Cairo.
Menendez has rejected calls for his resignation, but in September relinquished his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Menendez allegedly received bribes to assist a businessman, Fred Daibes, who was "seeking millions of dollars in investment from a fund with ties to... Qatar by performing acts" beneficial to Doha, according to the indictment.
It said Menendez had introduced Daibes to a member of the Qatari royal family who was also a principal of the unnamed Qatari investment company.
"Menendez made multiple public statements supporting the government of Qatar" while the company was considering investments into a real estate development owned by Daibes, the indictment said.
Daibes is also charged in the case and has pleaded not guilty, with the trial set for May 6.
In the Egypt-related charges, Mendendez has been accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey residents between 2018 and 2022, and of having used his "power and influence to protect, to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt."
Tuesday's superseding indictment said that agents had found over $480,000 in cash stuffed into envelopes "and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe" during a search of Menendez's home.
Some of the cash was found in jackets emblazoned with Menendez's name.
The 70-year-old veteran Democrat, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Cuba, has previously denied that he had committed any crimes.
Pictures released by the feds Thursday show New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife meeting with Egyptian officials — as the pair were hit with fresh charges of illegally acting as foreign agents of the country while allegedly pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold bars and other bribes.
Menendez, 69, his wife Nadine and Egyptian-born business associate Wael Hana were all charged with helping the veteran Democrat — already accused of secretly lobbying his colleagues to unfreeze $300 million in military aid earmarked for Cairo officials — act on behalf of Egypt without disclosing it to the US government.
Menendez’s alleged time as an unregistered agent of Egypt came while he held the powerful post as chair of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee — which was tasked with overseeing US military funding to the country.
The new indictment includes explosive details regarding an alleged May 2019 meeting in which the senator met in his Washington DC office with an Egyptian intelligence official to discuss Congress’s reservations about funding the Egyptian military in light of a 2015 Egyptian airstrike on a tourist group that seriously injured an American citizen.
At the time, some members of Congress were objecting to the US providing Egypt with military aid due to the attack, according to the court papers unsealed in Manhattan federal court.
Shortly after the meeting, which was also attended by Nadine and Hana the senator searched the web for information about the airstrike and the American’s injuries, court papers unsealed in Manhattan federal court say.
A week later, the same Egyptian agent texted Hana that Mendendez “would sit very comfortably” if he helped resolve the matter.
“Consider it done,” Hana replied.
Nadine Mendendez also deleted her texts with Hana about the airstrike episode which included screenshots of the US citizen’s attorney’s claims about the event, court papers say.
The court papers do not further identify the airstrike, but Egyptian officials admitted in September 2015 that the country’s security forces had killed 12 people and injured 10 more after mistakenly attacking a tourist group.
The indictment does not draw a direct line between the May 2019 meeting and alleged efforts that Menendez may have taken to assuage his colleagues’ concerns about the airstrike.
That could explain why it was not mentioned in the previous indictment, which more directly connected the alleged favors Menendez is accused of exchanging for bribes.
The filing unsealed Thursday also accuses Menendez of hypocritically calling out former Florida GOP Congressman David Rivera for violating the same Foreign Agent Registration Act he’s now accused of breaching himself.
In May 2020, Mendendez sent a press release asking the Justice Department to investigate Rivera for working for Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.
Rivera, who represented a Miami-area district in Congress from 2011 to 2013, was later arrested on federal criminal charges of money laundering and representing a foreign government without registering.
Yet Menendez’s finger-pointing came months after the senator had met with the Egyptian official in his office and allegedly began violating the same foreign agent law, the new indictment says.
Menendez, his wife and Hana — the Edgewater, NJ., businessman accused of being a middleman between the Menendez couple and Egyptian officials — have all previously pleaded not guilty, as have two other co-defendants in the case.
In a statement Thursday, Menendez said the latest charge “flies in the face of my long record of standing up for human rights and democracy in Egypt and in challenging leaders of that country, including President El-Sisi on these issues.
“I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country — the United States of America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom,” he said. “Piling new charge upon new charge does not make the allegations true. The facts haven’t changed, only a new charge. It is an attempt to wear someone down and I will not succumb to this tactic. I again ask people who know me and my record to give me the chance to present my defense and show my innocence.”
Hana’s attorney, Larry Lustberg, said in a statement that, “The new allegation that Wael Hana was part of a plot concocted over dinner to enlist Senator Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian Government is as absurd as it is false.
“As with the other charges in this indictment, Mr. Hana will vigorously defend against this baseless allegation.”
If you are really innocent, is it necessary to 'vigorously' defend yourself?
Prosecutors in Spain accuse Shakira of more tax fraud
By Jonna Lorenz
Shakira arrives in the press room at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. earlier this month. On Tuesday, Spanish prosecutors released new charges against her, alleging the Columbian singer failed to pay $6.4 million in taxes in 2018. Photo by Jason Szenes/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Spanish prosecutors released new charges Tuesday against Shakira, alleging the Colombian singer failed to pay $6.4 million in taxes in 2018. The charges come two months before she is to stand trial on earlier tax fraud charges.
The criminal complaint filed by prosecutors in Barcelona says Shakira didn't report all of her income in 2018, when she lived in Barcelona with former soccer star Gerard Piqué and their two children, El Pais reported. The couple ended their 11-year relationship last year.
Prosecutors accused Shakira, who currently lives in Miami, of consciously and voluntarily submitting false personal income tax and wealth tax declarations, El Mundo reported.
The complaint alleges the singer used a series of "simulated contracts" to transfer music rights, diverting a portion of her income to offshore companies.
"Shakira maintained at all times full availability and control over her own music rights," the complaint states.
The Higher Court of Justice of Catalonia announced the investigation in July, saying prosecutors alleged two counts of tax fraud in 2018.
Shakira was indicted last year on separate charges in Spain alleging she didn't pay nearly $14.8 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014.
She faces the possibility of eight years in prison and a fine of nearly $24.5 million if convicted in that case after rejecting a settlement offer. She has maintained her innocence.
"I am confident that I have enough proof to support my case and that justice will prevail in my favor," she told Elle magazine last year.
Ex-top cop helped Bob Menendez’s wife leave deadly car crash
A retired top policeman helped Robert Menendez‘s wife-to-be leave the scene of her fatal car crash without a sobriety test or handing over her phone.
The Post has learned that Michael Mordaga, the former director of Hackensack police and an ex-chief of detectives in the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, was on the scene within minutes when Nadine Arslanian slammed her black Mercedes into Richard Koop in Bogota, NJ, in December 2018.
Mordaga, 66, helped her leave behind the totaled car and take her belongings from it after quizzing the patrolman dealing with the crash on what he planned to do.
Dashcam footage and 911 recordings do not show Arslanian asking after the victim, but they do show her refusing to have her cellphone searched and also suggest she did not call 911 until officers were already on the scene — then told them the wrong location for the crash.
Dashcam showed Arslanian shivering in her fur coat and short dress as she was questioned by a Bogota, NJ, patrolman about Richard Koop’s death.
Bogota Police Department
A witness claimed that she told cops she was going to call someone for help.
At the time, Arslanian was dating both Menendez, whom she married in 2020, and her long-term boyfriend Douglas Anton, an attorney who went on to represent R. Kelly in his sex-trafficking trial.
The fatal collision on December 12, 2018, led to part of the sweeping bribery and corruption charges brought against her and Menendez, which they both deny.
What we know about Bob Menendez's indictment
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is facing federal corruption charges related to an alleged years-long scheme.
Menendez allegedly accepted bribes, including gold bars, in exchange for helping three businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, and the country of Egypt, according to officials.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine, were charged with taking hundreds of thousands in bribes, according to a Manhattan federal indictment.
When the feds raided Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022, they found a 2019 Mercedes C-Class, at least 13 gold bars, and $566,000 in cash “stuffed in envelopes.” Another $70,000 in cash was found in Nadine’s safe deposit box.
The feds say Menendez also received mortgage payments and paid for a low-show or no-show job and home furnishings.
This isn’t the first time the 69-year-old Democrat is facing federal corruption charges. In 2015, Menendez was accused of taking gifts from Florida eye surgeon Salomon Melgen.
The “gifts” included a Paris vacation, flights on a private jet, and vacations at Melgen’s villa in the Dominican Republic.
A month after the crash, Arslanian texted Wael Hana, an Egyptian American businessman also indicted in the bribery scheme, about the loss of her car, and he later provided her with a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible, worth $60,000, prosecutors allege.
I really hope Nadine is investigated as a potential spy for Egypt. It just looks so right.
Arslanian’s role in 49-year-old Koop’s death, however, only emerged Wednesday, in dashcam footage and other records released by the Bogota Police Department to NorthJersey.com.
Nadine Arslanian’s black Mercedes was smashed up after she hit and killed a pedestrian in 2018.
Law Offices Rosemarie Arnold
A broken windshield, maybe a dented hood, how does that justify writing the car off?
Menendez’s future wife told cops she didn’t see Koop, 49.
But she was driving her car fast enough that the collision flung Koop’s body to the curb just steps from his own house on East Main Street in Bogota, then crashed into a parked car.
Sheri Breen, an attorney for Koop’s estate, told NorthJersey.com that other footage from a business had shown that Arslanian “moved her car around his body as he was lying in the road and she did not come to his aid or to even check on him.”
Records also suggest that Arslanian was not the first person to call 911 after the crash, at 7:35 p.m., because the dispatcher told her an officer was already on the scene.
She told the dispatcher she was in “Teaneck,” which borders on Bogota.
Koop was struck in front of 155 E. Main St. in Bogota. That address is next door, just to the west, 311 DeGraw Ave. in Teaneck.
Arslanian, shivering in a fur coat and short dress as she stood in the road, initially agreed to allow cops to search her phone but then said she wanted an attorney because “I don’t want to say anything wrong.”
This was where Koop died after being hit by Arslanian’s Mercedes. When she called 911, an officer was already on the scene.
Google Maps
“Why was the guy standing in the middle of the road?” she asked. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Later she told the patrolman: “He jumped on my windshield.” The footage does not show her asking about the victim’s fate, but she is heard asking to get something that an officer said had gone “in the ambulance.”
Minutes later, the dashcam shows someone off-camera being asked: “You’re retired, you said?” That person, identified by The Post as Mordaga, said “Yes,” and that he was retired from “Hackensack.”
In the footage, his voice could be heard as he said: “I don’t even know her. That’s my buddy’s wife who’s friends with her. He said could you do me a favor and take her up there because her friend just got in a car accident.”
Former French president Sarkozy placed under formal investigation
in Libya funding probe
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was on Friday charged as part of an investigation into possible witness tampering, adding to his long list of legal woes, including over illegal campaign financing.
Following 30 hours of questioning over nearly four days, investigating magistrates decided they had grounds to charge Sarkozy with benefitting from witness tampering and conspiring to pervert the course of justice, a judiciary source told AFP.
The case against Sarkozy, still an influential figure in French conservative politics, is linked to allegations that he took money from late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund one of his election campaigns, for which he is to stand trial in 2025.
A key witness in that case, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, had claimed he delivered three suitcases stuffed with a total of five million euros ($5.3 million at current rates) in cash in 2006 and 2007.
But in 2020 Takieddine suddenly retracted his incriminating statement, raising suspicions that Sarkozy may have put pressure on the witness to change his mind.
The 68-year-old has already been convicted twice for corruption and influence peddling in separate cases involving attempts to influence a judge and campaign financing.
Sarkozy, who ran France from 2007 to 2012, has appealed against both judgements.
On Friday, his lawyers said in a statement sent to AFP that their client would "defend his honour" in the latest case, too.
At least nine other people are under suspicion of participating in the alleged conspiracy, which investigators said may have involved payment to Takieddine.
Some of the suspects are also believed to have attempted to bribe a Lebanese judge to obtain the release of Kadhafi's son held in Lebanon -- in the hope of getting the Libyan leader to help Sarkozy persuade the French judiciary of his innocence.
In a transcript of Sarkozy's statements during questioning, seen by AFP, the former president said there was "no material evidence or any wiretap to incriminate me in this craziness".
Should the case go to trial, it will be the third looming court date for Sarkozy.
In addition the 2025 Libyan financing trial, which relates to Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign, he is scheduled to stand trial next month for alleged violation of campaign financing rules in his 2012 bid for re-election, which he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande.
