Menendez amasses $274,000 to fight charges

Union, PACs, longtime donors give to legal fund

By: Ashley Balcerzak
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Senator Bob Menendez raised $274,000 from a maritime union, political action committees and longtime political donors for his new legal defense fund through the end of September [2023] to help him cover legal expenses relating to federal bribery charges he and his wife face that were unsealed on September 22. [2023]
..... A donor to a legal expense fund can give up to $10,000 a year. According to Washington, D.C.-based Roll Call, which viewed a report filed with the Senate Office of public Records, those who gave the maximum to the account Menendez set up in April [2023] include South Jersey power-broker George Norcross III and his two children, Alessandra - chair and founder of PhillyVoice - and Alexander, associate at Mid Penn Bank; William Tambussi of the New Jersey firm Brown & Connery; and brother David and Michael Barry, co-owner of Hoboken-based Ironstate development Company.
..... Also among the 21 donors who wrote $10,000 checks were John Graham, founder and CEO of Fairview Insurance Agency Associates, Incorporated; Michael Perrucci co-founder and partner of Florio Perrucci Steinhardt Cappelli Tipton & Taylor; and James Cecchi, member at Carella, Byrne, Cecchi, Brody & Agnello, P.C.
..... Overall, 35 people and organizations contributed to the legal account.
..... North America's largest union of maritime workers the Intentionality Longshoreman's Association, and Menedez's leadership PAC, the New Millennium PAC, also pitched in $10,000 each VIRE PAC, the leadership PAC of Representative Tony Cardenas, a California Democrat donated $5,000.
..... The fund received four checks after the indictment was unsealed, including $10,000 from Betsy Darivoff, of Short Hills; $5,000 from Javier Ortiz, of Atlanta; and $2,000 from Roberto Arguello, of Coconut Grove, Florida. the legal defense fund returned a $5,000 contribution from Donald Scarinci of Scarinci Hollenbeck LLC, a Little Falls-based business law firm.
..... Scarinci Hollenbeck's name appears at the top of th June 2019 incorporation filing for Nadine Arslanian;s company. Strategic International Business Consultants. Prosecutors allege the company was sued to receive bribe payments including $30,000 from IS EG Halal, Egypt's sole halal certifier for U.S. imports. Prosecutors allege Senator Menendez called a high-level USDA official and urged him to :stop interfering with IS EG Halal's monopoly." The indictment says Menendez texted a relative about the business writing, "every time I'm in a middle person for a deal I am asking to get paid this is my consulting company."
..... The Senate Office of Public Records does not make legal expense fund reports available Online. A request by NorthJersey.com to email or fax a copy was denied.
..... The fund spent $55,209, including $50,000 for legal services at Schertler Onorato Mead & Sears. Attorney Danny Onorato of the firm represents Nadine Menendez, who faces bribery charges alongside her husband.
..... Roll Call first reported the details of Monday's [10/16/2023] filing to the Senate Office of Public Records.
..... The federal indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Menendez and his wife "engaged in a corrupt relationship" with three New Jersey businessmen, also charged, who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Menendez using his "power and influence to protect, to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt." Bribes allegedly included cash, gold bars, payment towards home mortgage, compensation for a low- or no-show job and a Mercedes-Benz. Menendez has also reported spending more than $224,000 on legal expenses through his campaign account between January and September 30, 2[023] as well as paying more than $103,000 to HaystackID, a digital consulting service and computer forensic company that the Trump Organization hired to respond to subpoenas from New York Attorney General Letitia James.
..... Menendez had previously set up a legal expense fund when he was accused of accepting bribes in exchange to promote the interest of his longtime friend, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen.
..... A trial on the corruption charges ended in a mistrial, the judge acquitted Menendez and Melgen on some of the charges and prosecutors dropped the remainder of the charges a week latter.
..... That account has raised more than $5.1 million between early 2014 - when federal authorities began their investigation- and the end of 2018.
..... The previous fund received $205,000 form members of the Barry family and employees of their real estate companies, as well as $54,000 from New Heresy politicians and leaders in the Democratic Party, including now Governor Phil Murphy, George Norcross and his brother, Phil Norcross. this time, Murphy and other top Democrats in the state are calling for Menendez to resign.

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