Ex-US Senator Bob Menendez faces 11 years behind bars for gold bar bribery

Former United States Senator Bob Menendez was sentenced on Wednesday to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes, including gold bars, in return for political favours for Egyptian and New Jersey businessmen.

US Distrcit Judge Sidney Stein delivered the sentence during a hearing in Manhattan federal court, following Menendez's conviction on all 16 felony counts last July, which included bribery, fraud, and acting as a foreign agent — a first for a US senator.

At 71, Menendez, who represented New Jersey for over 18 years and chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, resigned in August.

The judge ordered Menendez to begin his prison term on June 6, allowing him to attend his wife Nadine Menendez's corruption trial starting in March.

"You were successful, powerful. You stood at the apex of our political system," Stein said at the sentencing. "I don't know what led you to commit these crimes."

In a tearful address to the court before being sentenced, Menendez said he was "chastened" by the verdict, and asked that his decades as a federal and local elected official weigh in favor of leniency.

"Other than family, I have lost everything I have cared about," Menendez said. "For someone who spent his entire life in public service, every day I'm awake is a punishment."

Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney's Office sought a 15-year sentence for Menendez.

They say he shepherded military aid to Egypt, provided assistance to Qatar, and interfered in local prosecutions of allied businessmen in exchange for bribes including gold, cash and a luxury brand car.

"There are not many offenses involving an abuse of power on the scale of Menendez's," prosecutor Paul Monteleoni told the court.

Earlier on Wednesday, Stein sentenced two New Jersey businessmen who were also convicted at Menendez's trial.

Fred Daibes received seven years in prison, while Wael Hana got just over eight years.

Menendez's lawyers had said the former senator should spend no more than 2-1/4 years behind bars, citing his age, public service, charitable works, devotion to family, and financial and professional ruin.

But after learning Daibes' and Hana's sentences, Menendez's defense lawyer Adam Fee revised his recommendation, and asked that his client receive no more than eight years in prison.

Nadine Menendez was to be tried with her husband on corruption charges, but her trial was postponed after her lawyers said she needed treatment for breast cancer. Her trial is now scheduled for March 18, and she has pleaded not guilty.