Former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison, Wednesday, after being found guilty of 16 federal charges including bribery, extortion, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent for Egypt.
Prosecutors found that Menendez accepted bribes from three New Jersey businessmen totaling $150,000 in gold bars and cash, per Fox News.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York also accused Menendez of providing sensitive “non-public U.S. government information to Egyptian officials and otherwise took steps to secretly aid the Government of Egypt.”
The former senator is also accused of accepting “race car tickets and other gifts” from Qatar in exchange for favors, per CNN.
While issuing Menendez’s 11-year sentence, Judge Sidney Stein said, “You stood at the apex of our political system,” adding, “somewhere along the way, you lost your way,” per ABC.
New Jersey residents Wael Hana, an Egyptian American businessman, and Fred Daibes, a real estate developer, received 8-and 7-year sentences, respectively, for their involvement in the scheme.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine, is set to go on trial March 18. The New York Times reported Nadine Menendez was “often the go-between for the men, shuttling messages and accepting bribes meant for the senator.”
The Times added, the FBI found the bribes in the Menendezes EngleWood Cliffs, New Jersey, home, which included “gold bars, nearly half a million dollars in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.”
Ahead of the sentencing, the prosecutor wrote, “Menendez, who swore an oath to represent the United States and the state of New Jersey, instead put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes.”