Fred Daibes arrives for trial at Manhattan federal court on June 11, 2024. He was convicted in July of bribing former Sen. Bob Menendez with cash and gold bars to help him dodge a criminal prosecution. (Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images)
Edgewater developer Fred Daibes pleaded guilty Thursday in the bank fraud case he bribed former Sen. Bob Menendez to squash.
Daibes, 67, faces up to 30 months in prison and $1 million in fines for fraudulently obtaining a $1.8 million loan in 2008 from Mariner’s Bank in Edgewater, where he was CEO and board chairman, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of New Jersey.
Daibes pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to making false entries to deceive the bank. U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton set sentencing for Jan. 23.
He was indicted in 2018 and later agreed to a plea deal that would have gotten him probation, instead of prison time. But Wigenton rejected the deal last October, after federal prosecutors in New York City indicted Menendez, Daibes, and three others in the bribery scheme.
In that scheme, prosecutors said Daibes paid Menendez tens of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars, and in exchange, the former senator intervened in an attempt to derail Daibes’ bank fraud case. Testimony about the scheme dominated several days of the 10-week bribery trial in Manhattan where Menendez, Daibes, and a third co-defendant, Wael Hana, were convicted in July.
Philip Sellinger, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, testified that Menendez, his longtime friend, called him in late 2020 to complain about Daibes’ prosecution. Sellinger was just being considered for the post at that time; Menendez, a Democrat and New Jersey’s senior senator, got to recommend candidates for federal posts to the White House. Sellinger testified that Menendez said Daibes was being treated unfairly and urged him to “look at it carefully,” should he get the job.
Sellinger, though, told Menendez he likely would be recused from the case because of a conflict of interest, prompting Menendez to recommend another candidate for the job.
Sellinger later got the job anyway when the White House dropped the other candidate, and his new bosses ordered him off Daibes’ bank fraud case.
Vikas Khanna, Sellinger’s first assistant, took over the case — but he also got a call from Menendez. Khanna testified that Menendez made no direct demand about the Daibes case in that 2022 call but instead praised Daibes’ defense attorney.
Menendez, Daibes and Hana are scheduled for sentencing Oct. 29 in Manhattan for their bribery convictions. Any sentence Wigenton decrees for Daibes’ bank fraud case could run concurrent to whatever sentence federal Judge Sidney H. Stein orders in the bribery case.
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