Sen. Bob Menendez grills Treasury official on curbing illicit finance a month before bribery trial

• Sen. Bob Menendez questioned a Treasury Department official on curbing illegal finance a month before he is set to go on trial for bribery charges.
• "I'm concerned about the exploitation of our litigation finance industry by foreign actors," Menendez said to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo at a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
• Menendez is scheduled to go on trial in May for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and other luxury goods in return for helping three businessmen with their projects.

Sen. Bob Menendez questioned a Treasury Department official Tuesday on curbing illegal finance as he prepares to stand trial in a month with his wife and two other men on federal bribery charges.

"I'm concerned about the exploitation of our litigation finance industry by foreign actors," the New Jersey Democrat told Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo at a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

Menendez cited a Bloomberg Law report that showed Russian billionaires with ties to President Vladimir Putin funded bankruptcy lawsuits in New York despite being sanctioned following the invasion of Ukraine.

Menendez also slammed the Biden administration for not stopping Iran under current sanctions from selling its oil to entities in countries including China.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that you can convert those dollars into cryptocurrency and other forms in order to ultimately have access to them," Menendez said.

Adeyemo said it is almost impossible for Iran to get access to the money from oil it sells using the traditional financial system.

However, he said Congress needs to act so bad actors cannot circumvent sanctions by using cryptocurrencies.

"We fear that without