U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez Of New Jersey Indicted On Corruption Charges

Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez was indicted Wednesday on federal corruption charges that accuse him of using the power of his office to try to help a doctor who is a prolific donor.

Menendez was accused of accepting lavish gifts and contributions from the Florida eye doctor in exchange for various matters, including a Medicare billing dispute.

A federal grand jury handed up an indictment charging the senator from New Jersey and a Florida eye doctor with offenses that include conspiracy to commit bribery. Menendez was named in 14 counts of the 22-count indictment, while Salomon Melgen was named in 13 counts, according to the indictment.

Menendez, 61, of Union City, New Jersey, and Melgen, 61, of West Palm Beach, Florida, were indicted on one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, eight counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud. Menendez was also charged with one count of making false statements.

At a news conference Wednesday evening, Menendez denied wrongdoing and said he was confident he would be vindicated.

“This is not how my career is going to end,’’ he said. “I have always conducted myself in accordance with the law.”

Related: Menendez: ‘I‘m Angry, Ready to Fight, And Not Going Anywhere’

Menendez is accused of accepting almost $1 million in lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen between January 2006 and January 2013, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

In exchange, he used the power of his Senate office to try to influence the outcome of the doctor’s more than $8.9 million Medicare billing dispute, and to support visa applications of three of the doctor’s girlfriends, according to the news release and the indictment.

He is also accused of trying to “pressure executive agencies in connection” with a conflict between the Dominican Republic’s government and Melgen, who bought a company that had a contract to X-ray shipping containers at Dominican ports.

“Throughout these efforts, Menendez allegedly engaged in advocacy for Melgen all the way up to the highest levels of the U.S. government, including meeting with a U.S. cabinet secretary, contacting a U.S. Ambassador, meeting with the heads of executive agencies and other senior executive officials and soliciting other U.S. Senators, all in order to assist Melgen’s personal and pecuniary interests,’’ the news release said.

“The job of an elected official is to serve the people,” Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Newark Office, Richard M. Frankel, said in a prepared statement. “The citizens of New Jersey have the right to demand honest, unbiased service and representation from their elected officials at all levels of government. The charges and activity alleged in this indictment are another example of the FBI’s commitment to aggressively and tenaciously pursue public corruption in the state of New Jersey.”

In a conspiracy that dates back to at least January 2006, the two defendants conspired to use Menendez’s position as a senator to “benefit and enrich themselves through bribery,’’ the indictment said.

According to the indictment, Melgen gave Menendez things of value that included:

• domestic and international flights on private jets;
• first-class domestic airfare
• use of a Caribbean villa in Casa de Campo, a luxury golf and sporting resort on the coast of the Dominican Republic; Melgen owns a vacation villa there, which is serviced by his private staff
• a stay at a luxury hotel in Paris. In April 2010, Menendez stayed in an executive suite at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome for three nights. That stay was valued at more than $4,900, and he accepted American Express Membership Rewards points from Melgen to pay for it.
• expensive meals
• golf outings
• $40,000 in contributions to a legal defense fund established to pay for litigation arising from a recall effort
• more than $750,000 in contributions to “entities supporting Menendez’s reelection effort.”

Menendez did not disclose the gifts on the required annual Financial Disclosure Reports between 2007 and 2012, and he withheld information from his Senate staff to hide “the extent of his official action on Melgen’s behalf,” the indictment said.

According to the indictment, Menendez used the power of his office to:

• influence immigration visa proceedings of three of Melgen’s girlfriends
• pressure the U.S. State Department to influence the Dominican Republic’s government to “abide by Melgen’s multi-million dollar foreign contract to provide exclusive cargo screening services in Dominican ports.
• stop U.S. Customs and Border Protection “from donating shipping container monitoring and surveillance equipment to the Dominican Republic.” That donation would have threatened Melgen’s cargo screening contract.
• influence the outcome of an administrative action seeking more than $8.9 million in Medicare over-billing owed by Melgen. That Medicare dispute involved a drug called Lucentis, which is injectable and stored in single use vials. The vials contain “overfill” in case of spills, but guidelines say each vial should only be used on one eye of a single patient to prevent the risk of infection. Melgen used that overfill from single-dose vials to treat up to three patients, but through his company, sought reimbursement for the cost of a single vial for every dose he administered.

During a phone call with an official from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in July 2009, Menedez said the guidelines for Lucentis were vague and a Florida doctor was being treated unfairly, the indictment said. The official said the case should be allowed to take its course and said the doctor had due process and appellate rights, according to the indictment. Menendez told that official not to tell him about the doctor’s “appellate rights and abruptly ended the call,” the indictment said.

Menendez is the senior senator from New Jersey. He was first appointed in January 2006 and served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

He started in politics in 1974 when he was elected to the Union City Board of Education and later served as Union City mayor. In 1988, he was was elected to the state Legislature and represented New Jersey’s 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2006.

Related: Robert Menendez: N.J. Senator No Stranger To Controversy

In January 2006, he was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jon Corzine when Corzine became governor, and was elected to a full six-year term in November. He easily won re-election in 2012.

New Jersey’s junior senator, Democratic U.S. Senator Cory A. Booker, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon:

“Senator Menendez has never wavered in his commitment to the people of New Jersey. He’s been an invaluable resource and a mentor to me since I arrived in the Senate. Our system of justice is designed to be fair and impartial, and it presumes innocence before guilt. I won’t waver in my commitment to stand alongside my senior Senator to serve our great state. Our nation and state face critical issues and I will continue to partner with Senator Menendez to take on the challenges before us.”

Reports first emerged in 2013 that a federal grand jury in Miami was investigating Menendez for allegedly advocating for the business interests of the ophthalmologist, Melgen, and pushing U.S. government officials to enforce a port security contract that could benefit Melgen.

In 2012, Melgen’s business had donated over $700,000 to Majority PAC, a political action committee supporting Democratic candidates, according to The Associated Press.

The PAC spent more than $582,000 on Menendez’s behalf, according to the report. Menendez has argued that the Melgan was merely a long-time friend who he has long supported.

A copy of the indictment is available on the Justice Department’s website.