By Steve Neavling
FBI agents who searched U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s house in June 2022 found piles and piles of cash, along with 13 gold bars.
The money was found in closets, stuffed in designer bags and even a pair of Timberland boots, Agent Aristotelis Kougemitros testified at Menendez’s public corruption trial last week, according to NJ Advance Media.
“I was directed that if I seized the cash, that I needed to count it in place,” Special Agent Aristotelis Kougemitros told the jury.
“So I called in reinforcements.”
The FBI sent two cash-counting machines to help agents process the money.
The tally: $486,461 in bills.
Menendez, 70, is charged with being at the control of an international bribery scheme involving more than $100,000 in gold bullion, a luxury car and an Egyptian halal meat monopoly.
According to Menendez, the cash was “for emergencies.” He said he didn’t trust banks because of “intergenerational trauma” related to his family history “facing confiscation in Cuba.”
“Now this may seem old fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings account based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years,” he said after his indictment.
Prosecutors say the cash was tied to a bribery scandal involving Qatar and Egypt.
The trial began last week and is expected to continue for a couple more weeks.
