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file photo by Boyd Loving
As Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) continues to face the fallout from a corruption indictment, a new Quinnipac University poll indicates that much of the public is against him. The indictment was based on the senator’s allegedly accepting bribes and gifts from Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen. JT Aregood, PolitickerNJRead more
file photo by Boyd Loving
SEPTEMBER 28, 2015, 4:20 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2015, 6:03 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT |
THE RECORD
A federal judge on Monday dismissed four of the bribery counts in a 22-count indictment against Sen. Robert Menendez and Florida eye specialist Salomon Melgen, but most of the charges remain.
U.S. District Judge William H. Walls threw out charges that $40,000 in contributions by Melgen to a legal defense fund Menendez created in 2010 were bribes. But Walls rejected arguments by lawyers for Melgen and Menendez that another $700,000 in contributions Melgen made to political funds were protected by the First Amendment, ruling instead that a jury could decide if they were bribes.
“Defendants are correct that attempts to influence a public official through speech alone are protected,” Walls wrote. “But the Constitution does not protect an attempt to influence a public official’s acts through improper means, such as the bribery scheme alleged in this case. The government has adequately alleged that Melgen made contributions in an effort to control the exercise of Menendez’s official duties.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/judge-tosses-four-bribery-counts-in-menendez-indictment-1.1420602
PATERSON – Appearing today at a firehouse to formally announce the awarding of a $7.5 million federal SAFER grant for the hiring of 49 new firefighters, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) considered a developing US nuclear arms deal with Iran, still maintaining misgivings about the plan as he understands its current contents. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
file photo by Boyd Loving , Ridgewood REORG with Senator Menendez
Roque indicted on fraud and bribery charges
Having won reelection last month, West New York Mayor Felix Roque now faces another challenge: indictment by the state.
According to prosecutors, Roque, a medical doctor, is accused of referring patients to the medical imaging company Diagnostic Imaging Affiliates in exchange for cash bribes and election campaign contributions. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
Roque indicted on fraud and bribery charges | New Jersey News, Politics, Opinion, and Analysis
Carl Hiaasen: It was a bro-mance, not corruption
BY CARL HIAASEN
Miami HeraldApril 20, 2015
Sen. Robert Menendez says he’s angry because federal prosecutors “don’t know the difference between friendship and corruption.”
The New Jersey Democrat is upset about being indicted on fraud and bribery charges for allegedly using his political clout to benefit his longtime pal, Dr. Salomon Melgen of West Palm Beach, Fla.
Melgen was also charged in the bribery case, and has separately been indicted for epic Medicare fraud. Like Menendez, Melgen says he has committed no crimes.
Except for the super-sized favors they did for each other, the friendship between the powerful U.S. senator and the multimillionaire eye surgeon really isn’t so different from any ordinary bro-romance.
If your best buddy needed a few bucks, you’d be there for him, right?
When Menendez last ran for re-election, Melgen donated $700,000 to a political action committee that gave $582,000 to the senator’s campaign – a heartfelt gesture with absolutely no strings attached, according to the doctor and the senator.
And when the government forced Melgen to return almost $9 million that he’d overbilled Medicare for eye procedures, it was nothing but personal devotion that motivated Menendez to start sending emails and making calls, trying to get the money back for his favorite ophthalmologist.
Read more here: https://www.bradenton.com/2015/04/20/5755527/carl-hiaasen-it-was-a-bro-mance.html#storylink=cpy
This Jan. 31, 2010, image released by Miami Dade College shows Dr. Salomon Melgen, posing for a photo at the book signing of “Growing American Roots”, a book by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., at the college in Miami.
APRIL 14, 2015, 8:02 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2015, 6:40 AMBY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT |
THE RECORD
New federal charges of Medicare fraud involving tens of millions of dollars were filed late Tuesday against Salomon Melgen, the Florida eye specialist who was indicted earlier this month with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez for allegedly bribing the senator in exchange for help with financial and personal matters, including a Medicare billing dispute.
The new charges, contained in a 76-count indictment handed up in Florida, accuse Melgen of falsely diagnosing patients with a potentially blinding eye disease and then fraudulently billing Medicare for doses of an expensive drug he did not buy, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern Florida.
Between January 2008 and December 2013, the release said, Melgen billed Medicare for more than $190 million and his company, Vitreo-Retinal Consultants of the Palm Beaches, was reimbursed more than $105 million. Prosecutors said that “a substantial portion of these reimbursed payments were allegedly obtained through fraudulent billing.”
“Patients fearing blindness sought treatment from Dr. Melgen’s office,” said Shimon Richmond, special agent in charge of the Miami office of the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Instead, they allegedly received medically unreasonable and unnecessary tests and procedures for which they and taxpayers paid millions of dollars.”
A call to the phone number listed for the attorney who represented Melgen at his April 2 arraignment in U.S. District Court in Newark was not answered Tuesday night. At the time, Melgen and Menendez pleaded not guilty to corruption charges, brought by a federal grand jury, that included bribery and conspiracy.
Reached late Tuesday, Tricia Enright, a spokeswoman for Menendez, said of Melgen’s new indictment: “The senator knows nothing about this. It has nothing to do with the senator’s case.”
Menendez praised in rabbi’s full-page NY Times ad
By Jesse Byrnes
Self-described “America’s Rabbi” Shmuley Boteach and his group have taken out a full-page advertisement in Saturday’s New York Times praising Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) as “the scourge of tyrants everywhere.”
The ad mentions the senior Hispanic politician’s “audacity to speak truth to power” and willingness “to reach across party lines on issues of conscience,” according to a press release provided Friday afternoon.
Menendez gets praised in the ad on two issues where the ranking Senate Foreign Relations Committee member has been critical of the Obama administration: on moves to normalize relations with Cuba and hopes to secure a deal over Iran’s nuclear program. The administration hopes to strike a preliminary deal on Iran by March 24.
On Iran, the ad says Menendez “stood up for the American and Israeli people against the Administration’s rush to conclude a deal with Iran that would endanger the security of both nations.”
“Senator Menendez is the vital, bi-partisan link against a deal with the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism that would leave Iran with a one-year breakout capability toward a nuclear bomb,” the ad reads.
The rabbi’s ads have previously caused pushback.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/235713-menendez-praised-in-rabbis-full-page-ny-times-ad
Reader quipped, “I’am shocked just shocked that there is corruption going on.”
Seems kind of coincidental- menendez has been screaming about not giving in to Iranian demands regarding their nuke program and going against party dogma- i’m no fan of the guy but the timing is very odd- holder’s last scalp- boxer’s hubby is becoming a billionaire based on insider govt contracts and they’re going after this guy-
One can just picture Mayor A. seething at the choice made from among the all of the available photographs of Senator Menendez.
However uncivil it may sound, most people know that if you lay down with dogs, it’s flea city when you get up.
More significantly for the Mayor, does the Obama administration’s decision to throw Menendez under the bus indicate that the Chicago syndicate no longer has any use for the NNJ syndicate as a whole? Or is Obama’s ire being directed solely and simply toward the ‘top dog’?
I’am shocked just shocked that there is corruption going on.
Yes, this is so out of character for NJ. In all seriousness, this will probably not even make the national news, being that it’s such a regular occurrence.
file photo by Boyd Loving
US Sen. Menendez: ‘I’m not going anywhere’ amid federal investigation
By DAVE PORTER and ERIC TUCKER
NEWARK, N.J. –Amid a federal investigation, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez insists he has always been honest in his more than 20 years in Congress and says he is “not going anywhere” even as a person familiar with the matter says he’s expected to face criminal charges soon.
The New Jersey Democrat has been dogged by questions about his relationship with a Florida doctor and political donor, whose office was raided by authorities two years ago. Now charges are expected to be filed against Menendez in the coming weeks, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is pending.
Attorney General Eric Holder declined to say whether he has authorized criminal charges against the senator.
At a news conference Friday in his home state, Menendez spoke in English and Spanish, chopping his hand down for emphasis.
“Let me be very clear, I have always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with the law,” he said. “Every action that I and my office have taken for the last 23 years that I have been privileged to be in the United States Congress has been based on pursuing the best policies for the people of New Jersey and this entire country.”
He said he couldn’t take questions “because there is an ongoing inquiry.”
https://7online.com/politics/us-sen-menendez-im-not-going-anywhere/547869/
file photo REORG by Boyd Loving
Emails show Bob Menendez as ‘amazing’ help to Xanadu project
February 6, 2015, 11:15 PM Last updated: Saturday, February 7, 2015, 9:35 AM
By JEFF PILLETS and HERB JACKSON
staff writers |
The Record
The developers of the entertainment and retail complex called Xanadu were frantic. It was March 2005, and permits they’d expected months earlier were still tied up with the Army Corps of Engineers.
“The Corps is playing games at the last minute,” executive James Dausch wrote in an email to his lobbyist, Kay LiCausi, a former top aide to then-Rep. Bob Menendez, the third-highest ranking Democrat in the House at that point. “Could you dial up Menendez on an urgent basis and tell these guys to lay off?”
A new trove of documents released this week as part of the trial of former Bergen Democratic leader Joseph Ferriero depicts Menendez jumping into action and winning a lucrative approval for jubilant Xanadu developers, who called the congressman “amazing.”
Xanadu exec says company was asked for Menendez contribution after key federal permit was issued
FEBRUARY 3, 2015, 4:40 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015, 4:47 PM
BY HERB JACKSON AND JEFF PILLETS
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
A top executive from the Virginia company that first proposed the failed Xanadu project in the Meadowlands said the firm was asked to raise $50,000 in 2005 for then-Rep. Bob Menendez after it received a critical permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, court documents show.
Jim Dausch said in testimony in 2008 he believed Menendez’s efforts led the Army Corps’ top manager in the New York area to hand-deliver the permit in March 2005, and within two months Menendez telephoned him — a call he assumed was about the contributions.
Related: Ferriero wants U.S. attorney disqualified from RICO case; prosecutors cite new evidence against ex-Democratic leader
Dausch said he could not remember if the initial request to raise $50,000 came directly from Menendez, or from two others working with the Mills Corp. on the project, Teaneck attorney Bob DeCotiis or lobbyist Kay LiCausi, who is a former member of Menendez’s staff.
“But one way or the other, it was clear that the request was coming from Menendez and, and it was in anticipation, we understood, of a run that he was planning to make for the Senate in 2006,” Dausch said.
