Nadine Menendez claimed gold bars belonged to her late mother, say federal prosecutors

Federal prosecutors have alleged that gold bars linked to a search of Sen. Bob Menendez’s residence were payments to Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife in a wide-ranging bribery scheme.

Menendez and his wife, Nadine, have not commented publicly on the origin of the gold bars, though Menendez said in January that “there is no evidence of the giving or receiving of cash and gold bars.”

In court papers filed late Monday, however, prosecutors allege that Nadine Menendez told “a false cover story” to a jeweler, “claiming that the gold had come from her deceased mother.” The prosecutors also wrote that a staffer for Bob Menendez said the senator had explained that “the gold had come from Nadine Menendez’s deceased mother.”

The FBI has said some of the gold bars were bribe payments to Sen. Menendez from New Jersey developer Fred Daibes. In exchange, Daibes allegedly wanted Menendez to pressure the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office to go easy on him in connection with a bank fraud case. At least four gold bars linked to a search of Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs home once belonged to Daibes, according to court records.

In 2013, police recovered numerous gold bars that Daibes had reported stolen from his home, according to Bergen County prosecutors. The FBI said serial numbers on two of the bars Daibes once reported stolen match the numbers on two bars discovered in a search of the senator’s home. Two others matched the numbers on photos of two bars found in the search.

Daibes, the senator, Nadine Menendez and two co-defendants have all pleaded not guilty to bribery-related charges. Prosecutors filed the papers after lawyers for all five defendants filed motions to dismiss the charges and limit the evidence that could be used at trial.