Indicted New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, accused of agreeing to interfere in a criminal investigation in exchange for a new Mercedes-Benz, allegedly accepted the bribe after his future wife killed a man during a traffic accident that also left his car. . beaten to drive.
Nadine Arslanian Menendez, 56, was the veteran Democrat’s on-again, off-again lover when she collided with Richard Koop, 49, while crossing a street in Bogotá, New Jersey, around 7:30 p.m. on December 12, 2018. according to reports on Wednesday.
Local police officers briefly questioned Arslanian and then released her when they thought she was “not to blame,” The New York Times reported.
Menendez’s future wife told police she didn’t see Koop, but that he was driving his black Mercedes fast enough that the collision threw his mangled body onto the sidewalk, just steps from his own home.
Koop died almost instantly, the Times said. When his ex-wife went to identify his body, she could barely recognize him.
Arslanian’s luxurious trip was destroyed. She broke her windshield and the front of her was severely damaged because she crashed into a parked car after hitting the man, according to a Bogotá police report.
Nadine Arslanian Menéndez was Menéndez’s on-again, off-again lover in 2018, when he killed a pedestrian in a traffic accident. Bogotá Police DepartmentPolice said Arslanian was not at fault for the accident, which left a Bogotá man dead. Bogotá Police DepartmentThe impact of the crash left the windshield of the Mercedes shattered. Rosemarie Arnold Law Office
In walked her boyfriend, the Garden State’s top Democratic senator, with whom she was indicted last month for allegedly trading favors to help three New Jersey businessmen and the government of Egypt.
The feds allege that Menendez, 69, who married Arslanian in October 2020, agreed to call a top prosecutor in the New Jersey attorney general’s office and ask him to go easy on an associate of businessman José Uribe.
In exchange, Uribe, a former insurance agent from Menendez’s hometown of Union City, allegedly agreed to finance a new Benz, the indictment states.
“Everything is great! I’m very excited to get a car next week. !!” Arslanian texted Wael Hana, an equally shady Egyptian-American businessman from North Jersey who was also close to Uribe, a few days after Menendez’s alleged call.
In April 2019, he was signing the paperwork for a new $60,000 Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
Arslanian and Menendez, both defendants, allegedly got a businessman friend to finance a new Mercedes in exchange for Menendez pressuring state prosecutors to go easy on a friend of the businessman. Getty ImagesLast month, federal prosecutors accused the Democratic senator of accepting hundreds of thousands of bribes, including the new Mercedes.AP
“Congratulations mon amour de la vie,” Arslanian texted Menendez, according to the indictment. “We are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes.”
Both Uribe, 56, and Hana, 40, were indicted along with Menendez and his wife last month, as was Fred Daibes, a 66-year-old well-known real estate developer and top fundraiser for the often embattled senator.
Federal prosecutors have said Menendez accepted hundreds of thousands in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, the Mercedes and even exercise machines over a four-year period beginning in 2018.
Both Menendez and his wife pleaded not guilty to the charges.
New Jersey businessman José Uribe, 56, in a Manhattan court after being formally charged with bribery along with Menendez and his wife. Getty ImagesWael Hana (left) was also charged alongside the happy couple. New York Post
The car (and the accident that apparently required it) were briefly mentioned in the September indictment. But this is the first time details about the accident have emerged.
Koop had spent the night at nearby bars, the Times said, and an Uber had just dropped him off across the street from his apartment when Arslanian hit him.
Surveillance video from a nearby business showed Koop flying out of Arslanian’s car after she hit him and then hit the brakes, the outlet said.
It does not appear that officers knew that Arslanian was connected to one of the state’s most powerful politicians, the Times said.
But the police did not give him any fines or citations afterwards.
Some of the bribes Menendez allegedly received were in the form of gold bars. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed bribery charges against Menendez and his henchmen.AP
“It is determined that at that time Ms. Arslanian was not at fault for the car accident and that Mr. Koop was walking recklessly,” a Bogotá police sergeant wrote in his report the next day.
In an interview with the Times, his lawyer, David Schertler, called the car accident a “tragic accident” and said it had nothing to do with the bribery charges.
“My understanding is that this person ran in front of his car and it was not his fault,” Schertler said.
The victim’s family remains concerned about the “very scant and one-sided investigation,” according to her sister, Rosemarie Koop-Angelicola.
“Definitely a lack of legal enthusiasm to take on this case, a clear lack of media coverage and a lack of communication from Bergen County authorities,” he told the Times. “We felt like the whole thing had been swept under the rug very quietly.”
Koop, a divorced father who was an avid fisherman and trainer, had alcohol and marijuana in his system when he died, according to his autopsy.
But Arslanian wasn’t even tested, Koop-Angelicola told the Times.
“The dead man was tested for drugs and alcohol, but the driver was not,” Koop-Angelicola said. “Things like that just aren’t fair in our minds.”
Representatives from the Bogotá Police Department and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office did not respond to the outlet’s requests for comment.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn