Democratic Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey, who once described the leading cryptocurrency as “the perfect choice for criminals”, has been found guilty of accepting bribes.
According to NBC News, the jury agreed on all 16 charges, including bribery, extortion, acting as a foreign agent, obstruction of justice, and various conspiracy counts.
Menendez received cash and gold bars in exchange for acting in the interests of the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
The senator, along with his wife Nadine, denies the charges and has vowed to appeal the decision. Sentencing is scheduled for October 29.
The case has drawn attention from the crypto community, as Menendez was a staunch critic of the industry. He advocated for a program to mitigate the risks of Bitcoin legalization in El Salvador alongside co-authors Jim Risch and Bill Cassidy.
Stacy Herbert, a member of El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office, commented on the situation.
While Senator Bob Menendez was hiding bars of ill-gotten gold he had received as bribes, President Bukele was establishing the most transparent government in the world by posting El Salvador’s public bitcoin address for all the world to audit. pic.twitter.com/XKyw1FzfIT
— Stacy Herbert ??? (@stacyherbert) July 16, 2024
“While Senator Bob Menendez was hiding bars of ill-gotten gold he had received as bribes, President [Nayib] Bukele was establishing the most transparent government in the world by posting El Salvador’s public bitcoin address for all the world to audit,” he wrote.
Herbert added that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Menendez, “should apologize to Bukele and El Salvador.”
In the US Senate, critics of the crypto industry remain. In March, Elizabeth Warren called digital assets a tool for fraudsters. In her view, they aid rogue states, terrorists, and criminal organizations on an unprecedented scale.
In December 2023, five senators supported Warren’s proposed bill to expand KYC requirements. The community criticized it.