Jose Uribe, one of three businessmen charged alongside U.S. Senator Bob Menendez in a wide-ranging federal corruption indictment, entered a plea of guilty today after initially pleading not guilty last October.
Uribe has been charged with bribery, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and tax evasion. According to the original indictment against him, he gave Menendez cash and gifts, including a Mercedes-Benz, in exchange for Menendez’s intervention in the criminal prosecution of one of Uribe’s associates.
An updated list of charges released today also alleges that Uribe lied to federal investigators and attempted to obstruct their investigation.
“Uribe caused his then-counsel to make false and misleading statements to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York that the payments Uribe made for the Mercedes-Benz Convertible were loans, in an effort to interfere with the federal investigation of Menendez, Nadine Menendez, Uribe, and others in the Southern District of New York,” the charges read.
According to the New York Times, Uribe’s sentencing has been set for June 14 – more than a month after Menendez’s trial is set to begin on May 6. Menendez and his three other co-defendants (his wife Nadine and businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes) have all pleaded not guilty.