Menendez co-defendant Daibes pleads guilty to separate bank fraud charges

Fred Daibes, the man convicted of bribing Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) with gold bars and cash, pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark on Thursday to a separate count of bank fraud.

The judge said that Daibes, a New Jersey developer, faces between 18 and 37 months in prison under the plea deal for the fraud charge. Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 23.

Daibes and Sen. Menendez were convicted in July as part of a wide-ranging bribery scheme, a bribery case that was prosecuted in New York’s Southern District. 

One part of the bribery scheme was an attempt by Daibes to pay Menendez cash and gold bars, prosecutors said, and in exchange Menendez tried to use his power to interfere with the New Jersey U.S. Attorney in order to get Daibes lenient treatment in the bank fraud case he was facing.

Daibes was originally offered probation in the New Jersey bank fraud case that had 16 separate criminal counts. But after the separate “gold bar” bribery indictment was announced in New York, New Jersey Judge Susan Wigenton threw out the original Daibes bank fraud plea deal — as well as the DOJ’s proposed sentence of probation — in Oct. 2023.

Justice Department officials say the Senator’s attempts to improperly impact the outcome of that bank fraud case played no role in the decision by federal prosecutors to offer Daibes probation for bank fraud.  

Menendez and Daibes are scheduled to be sentenced in New York on Oct. 29 for their bribery convictions.